In ‘Völur’, the Portuguese photographer Rui Faria plays with his image of the ideal woman: strong, self-confident and resolute, while also having an implicit soft, feminine and erotic side. He chose a Viking female warrior as the heroine for his models, Benthe de Vries and Elsa Brisinger, to emulate.
S Magazine: The imagery for Völur has a rather Celtic touch, yet also a certain warlike eroticism. What was the idea?
Rui Faria: The inspiration for the shoot came from the television series The Vikings.
The protagonist embodies my ideal woman. I love women who are strong and resolute, yet soft and feminine. It may be a contradiction, but I’ve always admired strong women with a soft side to them: my mother was a very strong woman. I met with Linda Öhrström (beauty director for Volt), and Cynthia Lawrence-John, (fashion director for Volt) and together we set about putting all the elements together for the shoot.
So, the models’ clothes were chosen for their raw and woolly look, while the backgrounds were created to enhance the atmosphere of a natural setting?
As we’re telling the story of a female Viking shaman, the clothes had to convey the rawness that embodies her role. We wanted to create the atmosphere of a battlefield, or warlike place, again to try and convey as much realism as possible within the confinements of a photographic studio.
Unlike other photographers, you are known for taking a limited number of shots and for being very clear about your motifs.
When I was at university in New York, I was lucky enough to attend a seminar with the great Helmut Newton. During the Q&A, someone asked him how many rolls of film he shot per outfit. His answer was, “There aren’t that many ways to shoot a dress. If you don’t get it in one roll, you’ll never get it.” Later when I assisted the late Bert Stern, he confirmed that statement by rarely shooting more than two rolls of film per outfit (120mm, 20 frames in total). I don’t like to shoot too many frames because I lose enthusiasm for what I’m doing, besides you can always tell when you’ve “got it”. Very often the best shots are the first frames.
Has your video been influenced by Andrei Tarkovsky and David Cronenberg, or what else has impacted your video work?
Before I became a photographer, I was interested in film; in fact, I wanted to be a film director. I studied film-making at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, before moving to F.I.T in New York City where I studied photography and advertising. The first film to ever make an impression on me was the 1971 action thriller, The Duel by Steven Spielberg. I guess you could say that there’s a small element of Andrei Tarkovsky in this film: I’m strangely drawn to the world of solitude. As for David Cronenberg, apart from The Fly, I avoid his films as I’m not a big fan of violent films.
