Lorilee Janine Keller Photography

2009-11-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

Winter.

2009-09-28T11:49:00.001-07:00

This shoot attempts to combine elements of portraiture, fashion, and dance. The model is one of my favorites who I've worked with quite a few times and portrayed quite differently each time. I love the fact that she is a model and dancer because it gives me much more flexibility to combine different elements of my photography. The overall look of the shoot is mostly inspired by the raw setting and muted colors of the environment which I tried to emphasize using wardrobe. Its also inspired by older Kate Moss photos I came across when she was still being shot with film. Very raw. Think messy hair, freckles, and un-photoshoped skin. Some shots are more about dance. Others more about fashion. But all of them are raw, real, and full of interesting texture.

Creative Portraiture

2009-09-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

"When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes but when you photograph people in black and white you photograph their souls." Ted Grant

I love hats!

2009-09-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

Photography/Styling-Lorilee Keller

Hair - Kayli Buxton

Make-up- Lorilee Keller

Model- Katie B with Essential Models

Geisha

2009-09-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Photography/Creative Director-Lorilee Keller

Hair- Brendan Hopwood with Beatuy a go-go

Make-up- Lorilee Keller

Model- Sylvia Xu with Luxe Model Management

Snow Ballet

2009-08-30T11:46:00.001-07:00

Engagement Session and Party

2009-08-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Abandonment

2009-08-11T11:20:00.001-07:00

As I surveyed one abandoned town after another I could feel the overwhelming sense of loss. What it felt like to live there. To a live a life which could be called sheltered but perhaps isolated is a better word as sheltered doesn’t seem to accurately describe the life of people who literally lived of the land. You can feel what Saskatchewan was essentially built upon. Its not meant to be a place of cities. It’s meant to be a place of towns. Small village where people’s lives were based upon the weather, the land, their family, and religion. There was no questioning of life allowed. You accepted life and that was it.

People say that sometimes you should go back to your roots and try to remember where you came from. So you don’t forget who you are. It seems most people I meet have come from another country or their parents have or at least their grandparents. Not me. Except for one of my grandpa’s who came to Canada at the age of 12 , the rest of them were born and raised on farms in Saskatchewan In fact they all lived almost their entire lives in rural communities in Saskatchewan never traveling or living elsewhere until their 70’s. My parents both born into small communities both left them after high school as many people of the baby boomer generation did. This was the time when many towns and farming communities gradually deteriorated until only a shell of what they were remained. One room country school houses and teacherages shut down. Numerous houses and barns were abandoned. Entire towns and villages left behind to remain for many years to come. It seems that with each generation we move father from our parent’s view of the world. Maybe each of us can only go so far.. Maybe our brains and our minds will only let us stretch to a certain point. And each generation we have more opportunity to go further and further. But sometimes looking back it seems like maybe our grandparents did have it all as if simplicity maybe really truly could be rewarding in its own way. Perhaps marrying into a town and being with family all the time and truly understanding the elements which make up your surroundings could almost be incredibly freeing despite it being very constricting. That is what I really find fascinating about older eras and ways of life. However the reality of this life is very difficult. Their lives based upon prairie weather. Long long winters. Some not bad; others brutally cold. And when summer does finally arrive its not without the battle of mosquitoes, grasshoppers, horseflies, wind, and hot prairie sun with no water in site. But at the same time I can almost sense how town life could be charming. I can imagine the people. Friendly, helpful, and hard working. I can see their days filled with chores, having a family, and going to church. Everyone more or less in the same social class with similar problems as well as similar hopes and beliefs. I can sense the simplicity of their lives and in a way I can be envious. I can get a sense of what it was like to not be given choices which in some ways would relive us of a lot of the things that we stress about. But as each generation is given more we cannot truly imagine what it would be like to live your entire life in a community without any opportunity for more. Perhaps the fact that they didn’t expect more gave them peace of mind, as it seems many of us struggle to match our actual lives with our expectations.

The more I thought about it the more I began to get a sense of why religion was so important. It was almost needed in order to focus your life on something. To build yourself a community and to give yourself some control. Some ability to put your life in a certain direction. When I saw all of the remaining town and country churches, some of them still very quaint I could imagine the beauty of them in their prime as people gather together to be a part of something important. I can imagine them packed, person to person as everyone greets one another in their best Sunday wear. To see the churches as they are now; many of them rundown, abandoned, left behind I know its more than a loss of a quaint building. It’s the loss of a feeling; an experience that cannot be recreated. And it’s a change of value as each generation seems to let go of religion a little more than the one before it.

Essentially what this collection is about is not historical or beautiful buildings or old fallen down delapitated buildings although both are present. Its really about the loss of a way of life. A way of life foreign to most people. A way of life that can never be recreated despite the remains which hold on which have marked their place for 50 or 60 years and continue to. And whats really amazing is how untouched some of these places are. The pure isolation of them makes them almost impossible access to most people expect locals and those who scout them out. Neither of which would destroy them.

As each generation is given more and pushes further away its gets harder to remember this way of life. The longer I’m away from Saskatoon the harder it is for me to relive my life there, although the memories remain clear. And this must be what other who come from towns feel as they return. Perhaps to see these places for them is sad or even depressing. But to me its just fascinating, Its make believe. Its so far away from reality that its special. It’s a little window into the remains of other people’s lives. Their secrets and their memories. Their world view so limited but yet so rich with human experience. They worked hard as tasks and chores must be accomplished. As the same jobs repeat themselves year after year. But you can still imagine them enjoying life. Going to dances, playing cards, visiting with friends. There is something to be said about not having a lot. It helps to build your imagination. There is something to be said about kids inventing games in the middle of nowhere that is so much better than any video game or ipod. Land and space can change the way you think about things. And to those who remain it’s their perspective that keeps them there. Something they see and enjoy in that life. Something to hold onto.

Vancouver International Flamenco Festival

2009-07-10T10:45:00.001-07:00

I’m so excited that I had the opportunity to photograph a show from the International Vancouver Flamenco Festival and to bring together my two passions of flamenco and photography. What I really love about photography is that it lets me see things in a different way. It allows me to show other people the world in the way in which I see it. In a way that I’m sometimes not even aware that I’m capable of seeing in. I wanted to do more than just capture beautiful poses and stills from the show but instead I wanted to capture the essence of what it felt like to be in the audience watching the show. The beauty of the colors. The intensity of the expressions. The mood. The lighting. The drama. The movements. Every single sensation and shiver that the audience feels. For someone who loves flamenco its very exciting to share that experience with everyone who was there and those who weren’t.

I first fell in love with flamenco about 4 and half years ago. Although its hard to imagine my life or identity without it. I saw it for the first time in my hometown of Saskatoon where one of my best friends was a very talented dancer. I still hold onto the memories of spinning layers of beautiful fuchsia ruffles and the haunting rhythms of guitar accompanied by incredibly intense singing. After seeing the performance I knew that I somehow had to be a part of this beautiful art form. That’s the thing with flamenco. Once you fall in love with it you can’t really stop. I was hesitant to start. Like any self-important 18 year old I thought I had my identity already created. But something in me took over me and registered. I felt very liberated that I could start at that time in my life and didn’t have to feel pressured that I didn’t start fifteen years earlier when I was a child who really nothing about what I liked. It didn’t take long before I was hooked. Sometimes you see other people watching flamenco and you know they don’t really get it. It doesn’t do anything for them. But those of us who love it feel something from the moment the guitar starts. And it’s amazing how this overwhelming feeling ties people together. People of all ages from completely different lives and experiences. We have one thing that ties us together. Its flamenco. Some of us are better than others. For some of us it’s a passion for others it’s a way of life. But we were all brought to flamenco somehow through different series of random experiences and coincidences.

Like anything you are passionate about..the initial passion may fade but every time you perform or see a performance. Every time you master a dance. You can feel it again. You know you love it and you can feel it. The energy. The excitement. The passion. Its all still there. And maybe you can have to work harder to feel it buts it’s amazing when you do. When you can relive the passion and motivate yourself to put more into it once again.

One of the things I love about flamenco as opposed to other forms of dance is that you aren’t restricted by body size, flexibility or age. You can never be too old to perform. Age doesn’t hold you back but instead improves you and marks you. You can’t help but feel an overwhelming respect for dancers who continue through the years. The energy and passion that they have is incredible. Something can only come with time and experience. In a culture so obsessed with youth and beauty its not only refreshing but also inspiring to see an art form which celebrates age, which allows it to be something which takes wisdom, time and experience. By saying that flamenco gives people opportunities isn’t to say that’s it’s easy. Flamenco is very complex. It’s very intricate. It takes a lot of skill a lot of hours, time and effort before you can even claim to begin to understand it. Three years minimum is what ive been told. Sometimes I find flamenco incredibly frustrating and I begin to wish that I could have chosen something easier. But then I realize it’s the challenge which makes it exciting. Its easy to give up along the way or to not pursue it seriously. I’ve seen a lot of people do it. But its rewarding when you do and can..

The thing with flamenco is you can’t let yourself get too competitive. One of my favorite sayings from a flamenco teacher is “there is always going to be somebody who is going to kick your ass”. And I find myself thinking about this a lot. Whether it’s a hidden talent who shows up in the class; a teacher; or a performer from Spain.there is always someone better than you. It’s a good challenge to our ego. And besides we can each do our own to love it. To express it and to become good at it because once you fall in love with flamenco, you really cant live without it. I plan to dance my whole life. After four years I feel like im just on the brink of understanding flamenco. But hey I still have 47 years until im 70.