A Voice Within:
The Lake Superior Nudes

WORDS | ANDREW KAISER

In the introduction to A Voice Within, Jim Brandenburg gets right down to the heart the story when he states, “you will find an unusually deep and delicate partnership of three – a man, a lake, and a woman.”

Craig and Honey Blacklock have created a symmetry very rarely found between a photographer, model, and the environment they inhabit. This plays out in large part thanks to the relationship these two individuals share. They are collective visionaries, friends, lovers, appreciators, and most importantly of all, the parents to a young daughter named Charis.

In practice it is Craig Blacklock who acts as photographer, creating the visual elements of their work while Honey acts as muse and chronicler; providing the text and insights behind their collaboration.

A true collective effort between artist and muse, Craig and Honey Blacklock spent over eight years recording their adventures around Lake Superior, the world’s largest landlocked body of water. The result is a body of work that harkens to the natural beauty Ansel Adams was able to draw from the majesty of Yosemite; only in this case the images go far beyond a spiritual reverence for the natural landscape.

A long time nature and landscape photographer, Craig Blacklock uses what many would-be photographers consider to be an archaic process. He insists on shooting with a large-format view camera – a piece of equipment that is so large a tripod becomes an absolute necessity as hand holding is impossible.

It is often said that the act of photography is a singular and perhaps even ego-driven process. If that is true then the Lake Superior nudes of Craig and Honey Blacklock is a shiny and sparkling breath of fresh air in an all too often exclusive world. The line between photographer and model, creator and muse, fall to pieces under the mutual desire of producing a bountiful body of nudes with Lake Superior as its fulcrum.

Unlike many photographic projects where the model is a silent partner in the creative process, Honey Blacklock is an active participant and has become the speaker for A Voice Within. On the cover of the book and in the gallery credits she is listed as “Essayist and Model” – a well deserved title considering she chronicles the couple’s life together in relation to their expeditions to Lake Superior.

In today’s digital culture, where instant results are not only favored but demanded from today’s crop of photographers, it is awe inspiring to view the results of a photographic project that took years before seeing completion. When viewing the finished portfolio present in A Voice Within I can only imagine every drop of sweat, every wince of pain, and every tear that must have been shed over the years.