About the image

At the city’s premier business centre*, the bees were coming into their own in the newly matured, Texas-style designed garden (based around a dry desert stream bed). Not only do the bees pollinate to perfection, but they produce a scrumptious, un-British tasting honey. With the above in mind, the garden designer wanted a portrait of himself in the garden, to be used as a promotional when contacting other business centres around the UK. Therefore I suggested the beekeeper identity. With a well-positioned stream of smoke, and an undefined pool of light (i.e. no distinct light and shadows on the ground that would detract from the stark, lone figure), the designer might appear other-worldly, and hence reinforce the oddity of a Texas-style garden in Britain. To achieve this, a 5 ft octobox was placed fairly close to the designer/beekeeper, to keep the light soft and contained. That meant it was going to be part of the scene. Two exposures were made and then merged to remove the octobox, resulting in the enshrouding, slightly eerie, light. * 50 miles north of London, the former Texas Instruments European headquarters, 1960-1993