Art Galleries always provide inspiration for photographers whatever the subject matter.  One day, I found myself viewing Sir John Millais' Ophelia at Tate Britain. Ophelia willingly drowns herself after the murder of her father at the hands of her lover. The painting's power to hold you is immense. The sense of detachment, hopelessness, and lack of struggle leading to her inevitable death so contrary to our age.  It is a haunting image and yet it is the romantic image of love, death, and despair from the Victorian era. It took Millais months to paint but I wondered how this image might be recreated photographically.

How do you capture all those emotions in a fraction of a second? Weeks of planning, one ‘willing’ Model, a make-up artist and crew in waterproof boots,  one medieval costume dress, an inflatable garden pool, and four days in the studio to set up and complete.

​

I hope my version tells the same story. The production of Ophelia led me to other otherworldly images. ‘Dreamscape’ is photographed in a Studio through a water table and ‘Dark Angel’ hopefully also asks for an emotional explanation. It seems not everything in an image can be captured in a fraction of a second.