A Collaboration of a Collaboration
An abundance of the photos I showcase feature my very dear friend Jillian Nettles. For most of those ethereal underwater images you see, Jillian (I call her Jill) is the swimmer who is composing those fantastic shapes and poses. While I have been shooting underwater images for more than a decade, and have taken some very lovely images of several friends who swim in the cold, dark waters of the Salish Sea, it was not until Jill and I met and began shooting together, that the photography took a steep turn in a new and creative direction. Jill is an artist and an art teacher. Trained formally in a wide array of mediums, she has an eye that is different than most.
About a year ago we decided that this was not a “photographer and model” type combination. Rather, we looked at it more like a band. That the two of us were in fact composing the art together. The direction, compositions, themes and ideas are a shared thing. And sure, once in the water, it is me snapping the pics. But that does not change our view on how this comes out. It takes both of us together to bring these images to life.
Jill endures a lot for these images. The water is cold and we tend to prefer shooting in the winter months because that is when the water is the clearest. And as you can see, Jill does not wear a wetsuit, so our time in the water is limited by the very fact that the body can only stand 48 degree water for so long.
I do shoot other things in the sea that are not Jill! But the best stuff, the most artistic, the most creative and the most evocative is the work we do together. And to the best of my knowledge, there is no one else anywhere in the Pacific Northwest shooting anything like this. We shoot in the wild, cold, open salt waters of the Salish Sea. Currents, winds, tides, and all the rest. Some days we even see orca whales passing by in the distance.
And - there is a whole other side to it as well.
Jill also creates art around our work (she creates much more than that too. But for this story, we’ll focus on the collaboration parts). She does so in an entirely other medium: Wool and felt. With her hands and small tools, Jill is a fiber-artist, and often uses my photos as references to the pieces she creates. Sometimes it could be as simple as a sunset on the water. And other times it can be as complex as actually re-creating one of our composed underwater photos, of her, into the felt and wool. The results are stunning.
This past weekend we had a unique opportunity to share some of the complete-collaboration with guests in an art gallery tour. On one side of our table was her fiber work. On the other side was my photography of Jill. And in the middle was the added layer: a stunning photo, sitting next to a stunning recreation of that photo, in wool.
Almost every single person thought the big fiber piece was a painting. And they gasped in disbelief when they realized they were actually looking at hand stitched wool fibers.
Then we would tell the story of the collaboration. The unique twists and turns of the inspiration, creation, recreation and more. People were taken by this. “I’ve never seen art like either of these…let alone that they also come back together in this way.” We heard this all day long. It was a delight to share and get to witness people so moved by it all. Look for more instances like this around Tacoma in the future…
