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...