The black light kayak is another piece of my UV project ‘Beneath the surface’ - it is a sports series that is lit only with UV radiation. You can read all about it in previous posts of mine.
This time I connected with Viki Wolffhardt, one of Austria’s best kayak and canoe athletes and a super cool and down to earth character too. She was immediately motivated for the project and put good spirits and a lot of paddle power into the shoot.
Apart from Viki I tried to find an artist to design her kayak and suit for the shoot. Originally the plan was to color the water and make it glow but eventually I realized that it would be way to bright and too much light for the image after all. I wanted to keep it more clean and dark, also to fit the other images from the series. Therefore I came up with the concept of designing everything else but the water and trying to merge Viki within the graphics, so she would be one with her kayak.
I made some calls and wrote some emails and eventually somebody knew somebody that might be a good fit. Thats how I found Emanuel Jesse, a crazy talented artist and super nice and relaxed dude.
He immediately picked up on the idea and organized all colors and equipment he needed himself. We did some testings before and the we were ready to go.
In the afternoon while Jesse was designing and finishing the kayak I did the setup and test runs with Viki.
It became more of a challenge than expected because even if you stay at one spot, the water is always different and changing. So Viki always comes slightly different into the course, which made it very difficult to focus and get a good shot with good body position, kayak position and water surface including splashes. In total, I was roughly standing almost 2 hours in cold water and Viki was giving her best to give me as many runs as possible to get a good outcome.
And at the end it was totally worth it again and I am happy we pulled this project off. Not with money but just with willpower and belief. Thanks to Viki, Emanuel, Michael Ramhardter and Verbund Wasserarena!