The Iris

A beauty session that ended up being about one square centimetre. We had a wall of light, a stylist and a list of looks; the frame that made the campaign is the iris, the lashes and nothing else.

Close

A macro lens, a tripod and a model who could hold still for a slow shutter. Retouching was dust and one stray lash; the colour is hers. At this distance every blink is an earthquake, so we worked in bursts of ten seconds and rested in between.

The stylist had prepared six looks. We shot two of them properly and spent the rest of the day on the eye, because once you have seen the frame on the back of the camera there is no point pretending the list matters.

The brief asked for a face. The picture is a centimetre of it, and the client never asked where the rest went.

Why it works

Skin at this magnification is a landscape; the eye is a lake in it. The blue is the product, the lashes are the frame, and the reflection of the window in the pupil is the one thing I did not plan and would not remove.