Dancing has been one of Brigitte Carnochan’s passions since she emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1947. Despite Carnochan’s youthful desire to become a ballerina, she became a high school and university English teacher and an avid gardener. After earning her Ph.D in the ’80s, Carnochan took a junior college photography class, planting the seeds that would grow into a second career as a photographer.
Eventually she traded her job teaching English at Stanford University for a job teaching photography at the venerable institution. Given Carnochan’s penchant for dancing—she continues to take dance classes—and her love of herbaceous endeavors, dancers’ bodies and flowers were fitting fodder for her photographs. (Carnochan also takes still life photographs of fruit arrangements, and documentary-style portraits of women of various ages in the streets of farflung ports such as Havana, Cuba; Tlacalula, Mexico; Gula Parish, Tanzania; and China’s Guizhou Province.)
Both subjects are within close proximity to Carnochan: the majority of the flowers she photographs are grown in her backyard garden, and the nude models are acquaintances, and, often, herself.
“My models come from my circle of friends and fellow students in dance classes,” wrote California-based Carnochan in a recent email to the Advocate. “And I often use myself as a model—I’m available at the right times, and I know what the photographer is looking for& I always watch the model for that informal moment when she feels comfortable and at ease, even if it’s between specific poses, because that will often be the perfect moment of composition: form, feeling and light all falling into a harmony I couldn’t have predicted—the surprise and satisfaction of collaboration.”
The resulting photographs are sensuous shots of nude feminine bodies in elegant poses (usually with a minimalist prop such as a transparent shawl), and pictures of vibrant blooming flowers. Occasionally, Carnochan features both subjects in a single photograph.
Carnochan begins her process by shooting photographs and creating black-and-white silver gelatin prints. She then uses Kodak Selenium toner to create a dark background (although some of Carnochan’s new works feature lighter backgrounds).
“I want my photograph to show through,” says Carnochan in a 2006 interview with View Camera magazine. “I use [black] in terms of tonality. Where there’s a highlight, I paint a highlight with the oils.”
Hardly a uniform process, hand-painting the prints takes a varying amount of time, depending on how detailed the images are and how much color Carnochan wants to add. The colors that appear in the finished artwork, though, are not always representative of reality.
“I often add color to a black-and-white image in order to bring out, most convincingly, the impression it has made on me—and I have no concern about whether the colors are the ‘real’ colors,” writes Carnochan in her artist’s statement.
Not adhering to a color scheme that depicts the subject as it is in its natural setting—part of the debate over “honesty” and “truth” in photography, according to Carnochan—is what allows the photographer to use her imagination and follow her impulses.
“I don’t take color photographs to use as guides,” said Carnochan in View Camera. “I prefer to use my own imagination& If I’m in the mood to paint a white rose red, I can do it.”
While Carnochan uses a wide variety of oil paints (not just photo oils), the same isn’t true of the tool she uses to apply them: the paintbrush. In order to marry the print with the oils and achieve a smooth surface, Carnochan opts for homemade brushes comprising varying sizes of cotton swabs wrapped around small sticks instead of a traditional paintbrush, which, according to the artist, leaves brush marks.
“I use cotton swabs of various sizes instead of a paintbrush,” said Carnochan. “Painting on photographs is an old tradition, and I like to think I put a modern spin on it.”
Some of Carnochan’s hand-painted nudes and floral and fruit still lifes are on display July 4-Aug. 11, Iris Gallery, 47 Railroad St., Great Barrington, (413) 644-0045, www.irisgallery.net.