On posing...

I don't like when models pose. When I see a model start to pose, I have to start on my whole spiel about how I don't want them to pose for me. While a seasoned poser can lend themselves to a great image, usually it's just simply superficial & soulless at best, and cheesy & fake at worst. It's easy for me to get what I'm looking for out of a neophyte, but an experienced model can be a different story. Kitty (second image down) was one of those who was apprehensive at first to my demands to just keep moving without stopping to think about it, but she quickly came around- by the end she said that it was the most interesting and refreshing shoot that she had ever done. Indeed, movement and spontaneity are the most important elements to my more recent style of shooting...

M & S

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Holly

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more you it tells you, the less you know."

~Diane Arbus

Devorah

It makes me happy when I can incorporate movement and have it come across effectively. It's more difficult than it seems, at least for me. It's something that I wanted to capture for as long as I've been shooting, but it's only recently that I've been achieving it.

Lady Lazarus

There's something about this that moves me, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It looks different than anything else I've shot. Perhaps because I don't shoot backsides often, or at least not well. Perhaps it's that the figure appears to be floating, due to the angle and the lighting- it just seems a bit weird...

Percolate

When someone hires me for a boudoir shoot they typically tend to gravitate towards imagery that is more glamorous, which is fine- I can understand that. Often they see some of my work that is more edgy and raw, and they ask to go in that direction. Invariably, though, I notice that women hiring me tend to steer clear of rope bondage. These two images, though, very often get a very positive reaction- "Oh I want to try that!".  From my point of view, it's really the same thing as the rope bondage- but the lace instead of rope somehow makes it much more elegant and refined. I can't help to be amused at the fact that there is such a fine psychological line between the lace and the rope. Rope= scary, but lace= classy.

Untitled

This is a very early photograph of mine, yet it is also a very personal favorite out of everything I've ever taken. It was an unusual paid shoot- a strip club owner hired me to take pictures of the girls to hang on the walls. It was not a big mainstream club like some on Delaware Avenue, though- it was a small seedy place in a less than safe part of town. A limo came and picked me up and took me there- an important detail, since there was no way I would just find and/or walk into a place like this. I was the only white person there, but instead of being out of place, I was treated royally due to the fact that I was the "Photographer". I spent hours walking around shooting anything and everything in this den of iniquity- seriously, it was much more raunchy than your typical go-go bar. I had an idea to make a sort of studio set up in the back, where I did some more formal portraits- and this was one of the results. I think that it has a very timeless appeal. It could have been shot in the Cotton Club in the 30's, but it also conjures up the 70's Superfly era at the same time- whereas it was actually shot in 1993 in the heart of West Philadelphia. What makes this image for me is the combination of her jovial smile and the complete pathos in his eyes- youthful beauty paired with weathered age.

Grace

I first met Grace when she just turned 18, and she had already been collecting vintage lingerie and dresses for quite a while. She would buy it on ebay- often wear it for a shoot, re-sell and buy some more. It really threw me that someone so young would have such exquisite and refined tastes. She is also one of my favorite artists that I know- she was already doing very strange and genuinely original paintings in high school. In fact, her style has not really changed that much- and that's a good thing. Grace is one of my favorite models to shoot with.

Katy

She is the bee's knees. Get it? Sam Goody got it.

Isabella

Lovely details, such as the little bit of dress.

Sonia

Wonderful soul to the eyes in these- something that I've always tried to achieve, but it's much easier said than done...

Izzy

More Izzy, except that this shot is in a warm shower, rather than a cold January outside on the roof.

Izzy

Shot in January- about 20 degrees outside. Izzy had just boots on, nothing else, for about a half an hour. That's what I 'd call a trooper- boots or no boots.

Sydney

I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.   ~Diane Arbus

Kati

I wanted to do something like it was out of a vintage bondage magazine. You've read some of those, right?

Lola

Nice film noir feel to these.

Izzy & Dessa

Revisiting an older shoot, but presenting newer images. I've been doing a lot of that lately- I've been a photographer for over twenty years now, which means that I'm now sitting on a huge body of work. Most of the film I've already well picked through, scanned, et cetera. Digital is a whole other beast, though. I tend to shoot much more- because you can. Consequently, there are so many images that eventually get forgotten about. I have to say that it's a treat to discover there are these gems that you didn't realize you even had!

Crystal

Smoke & Mirrors.

M

This image is from a shoot with a woman who was involved in a horrific car accident a few years ago. I initially met with her right before the last major operation of her recovery, and then I did a shoot with her a few weeks later. She wanted to both document herself, as well as feel good about herself with some glamorous images. I have to admit that I was initially apprehensive, since I hadn't actually seen her scars at first and I had to wait a few weeks. In the end both of us were very happy with the results. I did get some pretty shots, which actually wasn't difficult- she has a nice body and a attractive face, which amazingly was untouched in the accident. This image here, though, is the one that I thought is one of my most powerful images. It seems to really affect people who see it, as well as myself. On a side note, I did two versions of this image for her- one with the scars retouched out, and one with no retouching. I think that the untouched version is all around a better image, and I was happy to hear that she felt that way too.

Di

The moments of undressing are wonderful to catch, but you have to be quick. I try to catch these moments often, but usually they don't look nearly as interesting as they seemed shooting them. Every once in a while I get something exquisite...

Devorah

I've been playing around with versions of this shot for years now. It often does not work out the way that I want- timing is everything. I like this one.

Helen

This one has a nice realness (even rawness) to it, while still being somewhat glamourous- a balance that I'm always trying to aim for.

Daniella

Daniella hails from Austin, Texas. This is from a shoot was on a day that she was passing through in travels. A short shoot, but I love this window image, which figures in the window series. The window series is a large body of work that always features one of the windows of my 2nd floor studio. I hadn't cleaned the windows on the 2nd floor for ten years (as well as toys that have sat on the sills), so they had developed a wonderful patina.

Meira

These are some out takes from a shoot with Meira, for her paysite. Of course the images used for the set of 40 pics look completely different- pretty much formula soft core porn, in color. The lighting was even and straightforward, and I only employed my film noir lighting for the more interesting shots. I'm not very fond of doing sets because the post production is very time consuming, despite the fact that I try to rip through it. The typical porn producer would consider my "ripping through it" extremely time consuming. I need to work on letting go and just setting some auto levels to each image. I don't know how to be a hack. There are many days when I wish I could be. I do have to admit, however, that it's a blast shooting these sets! Porn formula is so easy. I don't even have to think about it. I just shoot and have fun. In my personal work I need to be so intensely focused- constantly moving lights, looking for the right angle, checking the camera parameters, et cetera. In the work that I post here, I'm always trying so hard to come up with something that is on a different level. I tend to forget that, perhaps, I should be enjoying these shoots more. I just saw your eyes roll... I'm serious, though. As Ming-Ming always says on Wonder Pets, "this is Seer-wious!!"

Adrian Louise

Sweat.

Jena

I don't post very many straightforward (my idea of straightforward) portraits here, but this one has been on my mind lately. Nothing much going on in this one except that intense stare, which attests to a credo that I've always tried to adhere to- less is more.

Scarlett

This is from a series that is like the old-timey boardwalk photographs, except that they more resemble actual vintage images, rather than being campy or hokey. I find it interesting there is such a fine line between being genuine versus stereotypical. It's like what David St. Hubbins says in Spinal Tap- "it's such a fine line between stupid an' clever". I, also, like to turn it up to eleven.

Trea

Trea is a dead on Josephine Baker look-alike. Josephine Baker was a 1920's Parisian dancer, famous for barely-there dresses and no-holds-barred dance routines. The moment I met her I knew that she was my opportunity to create a perfect homage. I didn't want to do an exact replica- so I based this likeness on existing Baker portrait, but that image is a crude one, rather than one that was iconic or particularly memorable. Of all of the vintage looking photographs that I've created, this one is probably my favorite.

Li

Yeah, I've always had a thing for super long lashes. I'm particular, though. They usually don't look good straight out of the box- at least the cheapie ones that I buy. So I get ridiculously long ones, and trim them to my liking first. That seems to make them a little more original...

Little One

Another, as I mentioned yesterday. This is very much inspired by one of my favorite Edward Steichen photographs.

Jess

The last post has inspired me to start posting some selective focus shots over the next few days. Actually, just about all of my images employ selective focus- but here are some that feature very particular or even odd points of view. Some are old, some are new, but I have never shown any of these...

Samantha

Abstract Expressionism is my favorite art movement, and it has always inspired and influenced my own work- although it's probably hard to tell from most work that I show here. I often shoot images like the one below, but I don't show many of them to anybody. I consider most of them to be indulgent exercises that no one else would want to look at. Every once in a while, one strikes me of having enough merit to show with the rest of my body of work- I think that this may count as a good example. The impressions left behind from a corset (an old theme of mine) make for a nice touch- I don't think that this image would work without them.

Devorah

I thought that these were some less interesting out takes from a set with Devorah, but they have been growing on me. They show her wonderful dreadlocks better than any other images that I've taken of her. It's really difficult to show the nitty-gritty detail of dark dreads the way that I shoot- it all simply disappears. It seems that perhaps capturing a good silhouette is the way to go...

Kelly

I seem to have a trend of turning floors into textured & graphic compositions as a background. I like this trend.

Autumn

These are out-takes from a suspension shoot, although they may be nicer than the suspension shots themselves. They seem to be much more soulful than my usual rope work images, which are typically much more intense or kinetic.

PXE

More fun with water.

Tali De'Mar

There always seem to be so many diagonals happening in the shower scenes. Tiles make slants when skewed, of course- but this really inspires me to pile on more and more lines. One more thing: You can't go wrong with water- it it so inherently sensual.

Jena

There is something wonderfully dirty and gritty about this one. Gritty, dirt-under-your-fingernails kind of raw. I think that I now need to actually shoot someone with dirt under their fingernails.

Meira

A first for me- I'm in the image. A self portrait. Sort of.

M & M

I think that if there were no ropes or rope marks (they tell an ambiguous story), that this might be close to straight porn. Or perhaps not- there is the low point of view and fade to black which makes it interesting and/or different as well. I'm always worried when shooting that my images look too porntastic- because then I'll have to discard it completely. I not concerned about some closed minded viewers that may think all of my work looks like porn- they can fuck off because they're wrong (says me). If someone who tends to admire my work thought an image looked like porn, though, I'd be embarrassed.