A Greek model, a bag of high-end beachwear and a Leica SL: In late January 2020, fashion photographer Diane Betties set up a shoot in Athens’ coastal suburb of Paleo Faliro. Despite the cooler temperatures, her images capture the warmth and unique light associated with southern countries.
Here she talks about how the series was created, where she finds her inspiration, and why the perfect interplay between photographer and model is so important for her work.
What prompted you to shoot a beach project in midwinter?
This was a smaller, personal project that I managed to fit in between two larger-scale productions set in Athens in late January. I felt inspired by the city’s local beach in Paleo Faliro. I love the backdrop of the residential buildings from the 1960s and 70s, and the atmosphere they emanate. It’s like stepping back in time. I have a penchant for the seventies and eighties, so my aim was to capture the mood of that period and, at the same time, create a connection with the unconventional style of today’s younger generation. My team and I approached this shoot with a lot of spontaneity. We allowed ourselves to be driven by and respond to our surroundings, while still trying to maintain a contemporary visual language. We had a basic concept which we elaborated and built on in the course of the shoot. It’s rare to have this kind of freedom, which is why I particularly enjoyed this shoot.
You seem to work exclusively with natural light. What makes this preference such a decisive aspect of your work?
I want my images to express a certain atmosphere, and natural light has a real way of captivating the viewer. It is dynamic, ever-changing and rarely dull. That’s the main reason I love working with natural light. Everyone has experienced these magical moments when the light transforms your surroundings and you are just left holding your breath in amazement. By choosing my location and the time of day, I am able to determine how the light will fall onto the subject in my composition. This allows me to emphasise and accentuate the subject, in order to convey a specific atmosphere or story.
What role does the model play within this context? The model featured in this series is mostly seen in natural, rather than formal poses. Did you know her from previous projects?
My creative inspiration rises and falls on my choice of model. For this shoot I picked a girl from a local agency without any preliminary casting, and I was incredibly relieved to find that my instincts had been spot-on. Right from the start, the chemistry was just perfect. There is no doubt that physical beauty is only one of a great many factors – especially considering that beauty can be quite subjective. To me, charisma, character and personality, as well as someone’s attitude towards what we are trying to achieve, are more important than the perfect face or body shape. The human connection between photographer and model is extremely important – I have to be a tiny bit in love with the person in front of the camera, otherwise there’s no spark in the final image (laughs). Perfection isn’t necessarily all that exciting.
You shot this series with a Leica SL (Typ 601) and a Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–90 f/2.8–4 Asph. What did you particularly like about this system?
My work involves a lot of travel and I frequently shoot on location – often whilst grappling with challenging climatic conditions. I therefore need a camera that is robust and able to withstand a whole range of different weather situations. Weight is another important consideration in my choice of camera. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when I picked up the SL and started shooting. The camera is very ergonomic with a straightforward operation. As a woman I have slightly smaller hands, so I wouldn’t mind if the five-way joystick was just a little more to the right (laughs).
How did you find working with the lens?
Normally I tend to work with fixed focal lengths. However, the projects I had lined up in Athens required flexibility, so I decided to opt for the tele zoom. My initial reservations vanished the moment I saw the overall image quality. The SL is a fantastic camera that allowed me to achieve top-class results – the colour rendering alone is simply out of this world. The zoom lens offered exactly the kind of versatility I had been hoping for. It performed equally well as a wide-angle lens high above the rooftops of Athens, as it did in confined interior spaces. Another surprising discovery was that I could happily use it as a portrait lens, seeing as I don’t usually separate my subjects from the background to a particularly large degree.
How do you develop the concepts for your assignments?
My preparation is always determined by the type of project and the client’s requirements. I often use mood boards as a creative basis for the storytelling process, whereby I compile colours, textures and pictures in order to visualise my idea. Mood boards are also helpful in terms of presenting a concept or narrative to the client, as well as to my team. They essentially offer the other person a glimpse into my mind, and illustrate my stylistic and aesthetic vision for the project at hand.
And what approach to you take with regards to your independent projects?
For my personal projects as well as editorials, I keep a scrapbook in which I collect anything I find appealing or inspiring in some way. This could be textures, colours, architecture, light, compositions, colour rendition, movie stills – anything that speaks to me. The contents of this book are forever getting replaced or swapped around. Changing the configurations often gives me new visual ideas. It’s something that helps me foster my creativity and allows me to interlink separate ideas, or consolidate them into a whole new concept.
I imagine that you are interested in a broad spectrum of visual art. Would you say that other art forms are an important source of inspiration for your work?
I’m like a sponge, I soak up anything that I find even vaguely interesting (laughs). Most often, however, I am inspired by abstract landscapes, unusual places, architecture, as well as the models I am working with. I am equally drawn to Gerhard Richter’s photographs and paintings as I am to Laura Knight’s portraits, or the works of Schiele, Klimt and Freud. Though it’s difficult to say just how much their work might have influenced my own visual approach.
What can you tell us about your plans for the near future?
Last year I directed a three-minute short film for Vogue Arabia, created in collaboration with Andreas Nowak of the band ‘Silbermond’. I found this type of storytelling incredibly exciting, and I can certainly imagine working on more cinematographic projects in due course. I’m also a great fan of aerial photography, and am currently exploring to what extent I could use this in my projects. At the same time I’m working on my ongoing book series, ‘Nude or Nothing’, which is now coming up to volume 3.
