Nel 091

This portrait of Nel is somewhat similar to the sleeve photo
of my solo CD "Crystal Veil" (Stemra C 12446), released in 2007.
The similarity is the effect of an object (here Nel's shoulder),
seen both minified through the left lens of her Rx -10 glasses
and also reflected in real size by the mirror.

The title track "Crystal Veil" is a song I wrote in honour of
GWG's in general.
The present weblog is the visual equivalent of the song.

I remembered seeing two black and white pictures in a library
book during the 1980's, portraying a young lady in glasses,
looking at a park. The photographer may well have been Ed
van der Elsken. The angle of the camera was the same as here
in this picture of Nel and the photographer's focus was on the
tiny image of the park, seen through the lens of the young
lady's glasses. The young lady was a high myope and this
helped creating a beautiful effect. The park could be seen
both as a very clear miniature through her glasses and also
as a real size blur behind the model's head, just what the
model would have seen the park if she'd put off her glasses.
The glasses indicate that the photos were made around 1965.

For the cover photo on the "Crystal Veil" CD, I decided to use
the same concept. I took the position of the park and a friend
(Conny) was my model, watching me sing and play the song.
It took three nights to find out the best combination of Rx,
distance from model to singer, and distance from the camera
lens to the model's glasses. Eventually we discovered that
the glasses should have Rx -8. the model should sit two
meters from the singer, and the camera lens should be only
20 centimeters from the model's glasses.
Photographer Elke Hesselink (info@elkehesselink.nl) made
the sleeve photo for the CD and she also did the sleeve design.