PHOTOGRAPHY: Fireman

... by Naomi Rossdeutscher

I took this photo for one of the Fireman Calendars I shot in Perth, WA. The calendars were sold to raise money for the children's burns unit in Subiaco and for the Fireman games.

At first, I put out a request to all fire men & women who were interested in being in the calendar to come along and have a mug shot taken and to leave their details. We then narrowed down the list to the final 12 to 15. Everyone photographed had to be a fireman/woman, except for a dog, a child and one woman (when we couldn't find any fire-women to take part)

This image was taken at their training ground. The professional fire wranglers lit the fire wall behind and we hosed water across the ground. The heat was immense, I feared my camera would melt. We oiled and greased up our fireman, wet his hair and I went to work with my camera. My plan was to do a PG version of an old Herb Ritts pic. This particular fireman was also a part time model, no surprises there and he was a very nice boy.

I shot the photo with an old Canon, on film (yey film) I still have the camera, although the back is covered with gaffer tape and I'm sure it's going mouldy in my cupboard, but I just can't part with it. Actually one of my favourite lenses, of past, had mould inside and took stunning, softly muted images... with my help of course.