Lee

I don't like when models pose. Typically, it creates something just simply superficial & soulless at best, and cheesy & fake at worst. While a seasoned poser can possibly lend themselves to a great image, it is usually a dead-end road to travel for me. 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... just keep moving— I'm quick and I can follow along. Indeed, genuine movement and spontaneity are the most important elements to my more recent style of shooting...

Ajaye

Grrrrrr.

Izzy & Meira

Sometimes two is better than one. This is one of those times.

Sarah

I always try hard to avoid eye candy— a photo that looks fashionably attractive and sophisticated but only has exactly one layer of interest. They look great for about half a second and then there is no reason for your eye to linger any longer. Think of an ad in Vogue Magazine. But if you are a thinking photographer, you soon realize that you need to break free from the "eye candy" genre and start adding substance— without adding too much else. Easier said than done.

Lee

Never push me, because I am a very strong woman. I'm nice, but I'm very strong. When it gets down gritty, I can get grittier. Never, ever underestimate me.   ~Missy Elliott

Shower & Bath Series

I started the shower/bath series over a dozen years ago when someone who hired me asked if I could photograph her in the shower. That particular first shower shoot was actually one of the most intense and sexually explicit shoots I've ever done. Again, that was her suggestion. It's ironic, and most people probably wouldn't guess this, but shoots that I'm paid for are often the most interesting. So it wasn't really my idea (the shower, as well as being sexually explicit), but I ran with it... I've since done many intense and/or explicit shower images, as well as many rather beautiful and/or romantic ones. That seems to describe the two alternating variations in my whole body of work. Another thing of note is that once something is in my portfolio, anyone that sees it wants to try it because they can see that I can do it well. Most people do not want to be the first to try something, as they want the assurance that it will be done well. Back to the shower theme— shooting there seems to access certain expressions which can't be captured without the magical properties of warm water. The comfort of water falling just simply relaxes most people, summoning a very natural body language.

Dessa

Confession— I typically really dislike tattoos on breasts. Sometimes I just cringe. I perhaps shouldn't admit that as many of the models that I photograph have them. I might be burning my bridges. Most of the models that I photograph tend to have very interesting and well-chosen tats, though. I just think that unless you've unquestionably thought it through and chosen something exquisite, that the breasts and the neck should be left alone... or you've finished with the rest of your body and that's the last frontier. This tattoo, though, is one of my favorites. I love how the orchids wrap around and fall down, as plants are apt to do.

Ajaye

Ajaye has my favorite kind of eyes to photograph. In a portrait, they are soulful and expressive. In erotic images, they are bedroom eyes- sleepy, yet they draw you in. From the very beginning, eyes have been the main focal point in my photographs of people, and that has never changed. I can always help someone's eyes connect to the camera better with a few tricks, but there is only so much that I can do. In the end, either someone's eyes connect to the camera or they don't. The eyes are the best non-verbal indicator of our emotional and intellectual state of mind. That is why it is only every so often that I create a portrait where the eyes simply get an intense visceral reaction from most viewers. It's a constant frustration, but when I get it, it's such a joy.

Lillian

The moments of dressing/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...

Izzy & Dessa

So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves— so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories.   ~John Williams

Ajaye

To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.   ~Alexander Smith

Tanya, Izzy & Dessa

Abstraction in photography started very early on with contact prints of plants in the 1830's; later on, with Vortograpghs, Rayographs, et cetera— with the inventors' name usually attached. Most of these abstractions were darkroom processes (and later with digital effects). I tend to prefer abstraction via straight photography. Strange angles, strange lighting, strange subjects and in your face close-ups. I also prefer to leave little Easter Eggs, so that the viewer can still figure things out. I find that if you don't leave a little something for someone to find, the eye gets bored and moves on. With abstract nudes, that means a lip, or a belly button, or a nipple that says what you're really looking at. Belly buttons are my favorite detail because everyone recognizes them even when distorted, but no one takes it as gratuitous.

Percolate & Autumn

I think, in the future, people are going to look back and say, 'I can't believe that gay and lesbian people had to fight to be able to get married'. ~Edy Ganem

Lillian

Something a little more elegant. I've found that violinists make the best models. At the very least, they have amazingly expressive hands— they've been unconsciously practicing on making them articulately eloquent since childhood. No posing necessary on that front...

Joe & Lissa

Burlap is a good all-purpose background (see the last post...). I think that I paid $40 around twenty years ago for a ton of remnants that I keep stuffed in an old steamer trunk (which looks like I stole it from a pirate). I can throw them over another backdrop, throw them on the floor and walk on them, stuff 'em back in the trunk... they just keep looking even better! They're pretty awesome.

Percolate

My ropework images tend to have a rawness and a visceral immediacy to them. I think that these two are a bit more on the elegant side. Being tied up can be very calming and relaxing— everything is relative. Also, a side note— I think that the burlap backgrounds work best with my bondage work, as it perfectly matches the feel and texture of the hemp rope.

Little One

Keeping the aesthetic of the last few posts...

Sienna Luna

These natural outdoor nudes are me going back to my past. More like work from ten, fifteen, even more like twenty years ago. Definitely changing gears a bit. Slightly Edward Weston influenced. I love Edward Weston, but I have rarely taken much direct inspiration from him, until recently. Seems to work here well enough!

Tanya Dakin

Reminiscing the days before digital: I remember ogling the Canon 10D digital camera when it came out in 2002— I steadfastly clung to my EOS-1V film camera and told it... you will not be replaced by this new-fangled not quite good enough yet digital thing-a-ma-jiggy (I was already an old man at heart), and I still have important work to be done in my brand-spanking-new-better-than-ever darkroom. Then came the 20D in 2004— well, the poor EOS-1V didn't have a chance, despite that even today it is still a pretty awesome camera. Here are a couple of film images from 2004. Tanya said she loved the fact that I was still shooting film and giving out real prints from the darkroom, and I didn't have the heart to tell her I was about to try something different...

Lucy

This image represents an example of an ongoing project that I've been working on during the past few years. I've been going back to older images and completely starting over from scratch, and finding new ways to finish them. That is the beauty (and possibly the frustration) of the potential of negatives— whether film or digital. The possibilities of what a technically good negative can be turned into are endless. In the past, my modus operandi was to retain good solid blacks, make sure that the lightest areas were not blown out- and then let everything else fall in between. This was a logical way to work in the darkroom with film, with some burning & dodging here and there to help. Using layers in Photoshop, though, allows me to exploit areas of detail that would have been impossible or at least extremely difficult in the darkroom. Rather than exploiting the possibilities of distorting or retouching images, I'm finding that instead, I can create levels of detail that inherently exist, but were way beyond my reach in the darkroom. That is to say that I'm not making detail up, but merely excavating it very carefully, much the way an archaeologist carefully excavates a dig with fine brushes and other tools. After all, that's exactly what Photoshop is anyway- a very powerful tool. Of course, all tools can be used either heavy-handedly or with fine precision. I've discovered that using fine precision is allowing me to make images that are hyper-real, instead of becoming hyper fake.

Speaking of detail, the images that I post here are actually scaled down versions in order to be viewed easily on the blog- if the image is clicked on, a larger and more detailed version can be seen...

Little One

With the exception of suspensions, I regret spending as much time as I have in the past shooting with a white backdrop. With the suspensions, I feel that it gets rid of the unnecessary distractions, therefore keeping things elegant. I actually tried black backdrops first, but too much information disappeared into them— the white gives everything a nice pop and a sense of depth that black was missing. Otherwise, in retrospect, the white backgrounds feel kind of soulless. They also feel fake, like a fashion shoot— which is what I originally got them for. This one, although one can't really tell, was after a suspension— you can see some rope marks on her legs...

Heff

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.

Jade Vixen

Smoke & Mirrors.

Heff

Pepper No. 30 is one of the best-known photographs taken by Edward Weston. It depicts a solitary green pepper in rich black-and-white tones, with strong illumination from above. To me, it always looked like a perfect nude, with a wonderful texture. Many, of course, saw that, as well as many other things (usually sexual). Weston hated these comparisons, despite that nudes were one of his main subjects— he felt that it was just a picture of a pepper. There is even a nude (Nude, 1936), though, of his that perfectly pairs with the pepper image. A couple of years ago I did a nude that I thought was a nice subtle homage to this nude without being a total rip-off. And now, this is what I think is a nice subtle homage to his pepper series...

Heff

This is from a series that kind of look like those 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 silly. I like the challenge of taking that extra effort to make it work. By the way, I scraped this scene together on a tight budget and have been using it for years now— the rug was $20 from IKEA, backdrops are my usual from fabric row, and the rest came as bits and pieces from Linens n' Things (remember that?). It all fits into an old steamer trunk, and it takes me about 15 minutes to set it up!

Olivia

The last post was an image that's twenty years old... this one is almost thirty years old, and likewise looks exactly the same as when I first made it— no Photoshop, just a straight scan from a beloved platinum/palladium print. Likewise, my work has changed, but I think that it still retains many of the same hallmarks. This was my Pictorialism phase (my first adopted style), which I still return to on occasion because I've never lost a fondness for it. While there is no precise definition of Pictorialism, I would describe it as a photographic approach focused on the beauty of subject matter and conjuring a certain romantic dreaminess rather than strict documentation of the world as it is. Early photographers felt that they had to prove that photography could be a relevant art form, not just a science. As a photographic art movement, it was strongest from 1885 to 1915. It then started to be phased out, and even scorned by photographers that were forward thinking— sharply focused, pristine and modern was the new thing. Most never looked back to it again. Of course, now that the history of photography has mostly been written, there really is no period that is irrelevant or overlooked— everything had its place and purpose. People are now just starting to go back and revisit past styles. I started right off the bat with revisiting past styles, because I felt that the 80' & 90's would quickly become painfully dated— I didn't see anything meaningful happening, and I wanted to avoid it all. Personally, I feel that Pictorialism could be practiced forever because it is based on timeless universal beauty.

Amy & Christine

This image is twenty years old, but I've never posted it before. I have not done anything new to it since it didn't need anything done. I pretty much got it just right in the camera— a rare thing! That being said, it is a good image to show as a comparison to show how much I have or haven't changed in the way that I shoot. You tell me...

Ajaye

I am not interested in rules and conventions... photography is not a sport. If I think a picture will look better brilliantly lit, I use lights or even flash. It is the result that counts, no matter how it was achieved.   ~Bill Brandt

Izzy & Dessa

These are older shots that I've re-worked from scratch. There were some details that I think I overworked, and some details that I added which I now think were unnecessary. Sometimes it takes me a few years to realize that I didn't get it right the first time. Actually, it often takes me a few years to realize mistakes, and I rarely get it right the first time.

Sofia & Cammy

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. ~Martha Graham

Lee

There is something about this image that I find delightfully strange. A nice combination of awkwardness, elegance, and tension. It is not posed— posing is something that I've been avoiding for a long time, as I think that it tends to lead to stilted and artificial images. I make my models work, constantly moving and trying to get over self-consciousness. They never seem to mind, since they can appreciate that I am willing to work just as hard. I'd be lying, of course, if I said that I entirely avoid posing— I'm a sucker for a strong image of an obviously professional model working it, which makes things easier for me at the same time. I really do try to avoid it, though. That's when I get images like this...

Suhanisa

Full disclosure: I’ve always been a cropper. Having started with film and spending years developing black and white photos, cropping in the darkroom always felt natural. To me, it also felt necessary to accomplish what I wanted to. This despite being vehemently told otherwise by others— they said that cropping was a cop-out for not being able to get it right in the camera, and it was a form of lying. Of course, that's B.S. All photographs are lies, all photographs are crops. My definition of a photograph is to add edges to the world which has no edges. But, none the less, I had guilt about cropping. I realize now that a “perfect” rectangle or square— pulled back so you see the edges of the negative in the exposed print (to “prove” you haven’t cropped) is basically a parlor trick. Over time I've seen the work of many photographers who don't crop beside the camera— and I honestly feel that while they may sometimes get an image that looks pure and wonderful, usually their compositions in the majority of their work are kind of (if not very much so) seriously lacking. So, yeah, I crop. Not always, sometimes just a little, and sometimes a lot. Sue me. All these years later, I look back with no regrets about it.

Ramonita

If you are a 100% amateur, shooting might be as simple as your photos existing to make yourself happy. Or to preserve memories of your friends, family, and experiences. For a pro, it might be as simple as earning a paycheck— and nothing more. While I've met a couple that is one or the other, the real world tends to have more shades of gray. Most photographers fall somewhere in-between. I think that I've always been right in the middle— in fact, most people might have a hard time telling the difference among images that I've been paid for or not. The truth is that I've often been paid for work that looks very personal or even indulgent. I never really cared, because I (mostly) have not needed to— clients tend to come to me with a trust to let me do my thing because that's what they want. I definitely have always appreciated that...

Ajaye

I've had an avid interest in photography as an art form since childhood— I read National Geographic and Life from my grandparents' subscription and collection (which went back to the mid-50's) since I was as young as I can remember. I suppose that my inherent interest in photography has surely been influenced by that. In fact, there is one NG cover in particular—  Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl from 1985, which is probably the first photographic portrait that had an immediate and lasting effect upon me. I've never forgotten it, and it's most definitely in the back of my mind whenever I'm doing portraits.

Katie Marie

The fingers must be educated, the thumb is born knowing. ~Marc Chagall

Maeve

I made a version of this where the scar has been removed, but this un-retouched version is infinitely more interesting.

Grace

Imagination versus creativity...  imagination for most people connotes an ability to envision something before or without it existing. As a photographer, that usually means pre-visualizing an image or developing a concept. To me, something new and/or interesting can be photographed, but I tend to utilize creativity instead of imagination. For instance, Jackson Pollock (although I can't attest to how his mind worked) could have done his paintings on intuition alone but possibly without imagination. Full disclosure: imagination is something at which I have long sucked at. I have long seen myself as having very little imagination, yet being very creative. Years ago I painted, but I would sit and stare at a canvas with no clue what to do. I tried splatter painting, but the results were (duh...) pathetically derivative. When I finally picked up a camera I knew that was what I was meant to do. Voilà— I could suddenly create without having to pre-visualize. Many photographers are good at imagining concepts, of course, but that was never my bag (I usually find photographic "concepts" to be cheesy). I prefer to work off of intuition— pick up the camera and shoot. Having the skills necessary to create something, be it a wooden sculpture or an interesting image, is just as valid— and necessary, as being imaginative.

Natalie

Milk. It does a body good.