Nostalgia 011 : Carla

The first model with lots of experience who posed for me was Carla and working with her had the effect of a shock wave. The preceding four models were in the same boat as their photographer at the start of his mission so they left the initiative to me. Carla was different. Right from the start, I felt a witness rather than a photographer.
Fortunately, the phenomenon was familiar to me from my music career. I was a proficient uilleann piper when after fifteen years at this demanding instrument, a couple of antique instruments crossed my path. Some of the very best pipers were interested in my finds and they asked if they could have a go on the pipes. I will never forget how they "took possession" of the pipes and poured out music from this other world. They were playing my pipes and all I could think was "Never thought the pipes could sound this way. Never thought this was in them....".
The same thing happened when Carla started posing. The best thing seemed to be simply "go with the flow" in our model / photographer duet. By the time we got to the extremely strong glasses, I was delighted that the massive blur created by the myodisc lenses had no negative effect on the high quality of her posing. Carla was in full control of the situation, just like the best uilleann pipers of the globe were when they played on my antique pipes. It's safe to say that Carla set the standard for many models who followed her and in doing so, I realized that the photographer had to raise his own standards as well.
The real shock came when this portrait rolled out on my computer screen. It was my intention to bring back to life some of the precious images seen in the streets of Amsterdam in my schoolboy days. But Carla gave me images never seen in the streets. Carla produced images that could have graced the windows of optician's shops half a century ago if only.... Even as a child, I knew that there was something lacking in the photos in shop windows. Empty frames only tell half the story. What brings life into portraits of ladies in glasses is the effect created by the lenses, especially so when the lenses are strong.
In retrospect, a model like Carla could have done miracles if a clever optician would have seen the potential of model photography behind strong glasses. A model with similar great abilities could have taken away much of the stigma associated with myodisc glasses in the days before alternatives like contact lenses were available. The message in this edited portrait is, "Yes, I may be extremely shortsighted - but before and above all, I'm a beautiful lady - and you can be beautiful in your own myodics if you forget about the stigma".
Archaeology is great, and here is a testimony of it. Thank you Carla!