Hettie

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. ~Edgar Allan Poe

Christina

Great images transcend time and space. A great image makes you appreciate its impact regardless of where and when and how it was taken. I'm certainly not saying that the images here do that, but it is what I'm always aiming for...

Miera

My lovely, beloved Shag Rug. 15 x 20 feet of handmade lambswool. Classic 1970's throwback, but I somehow manage to make it look very 1940's film noir with, well, 1940's film noir lighting. Everybody wanted one, and everybody adored them at first... until you find out how easily they get dirty, and how murderously difficult they are to keep clean and properly clean completely. I found out the hard way. I actually had it on my studio floor, and it eventually got too nasty. It's perfectly undefiled again, after a lot of hard work. That's the real reason that they went out of fashion. So much trouble. I will never get rid of it, though. It's too wonderful. I just bring it out of it's hermetically sealed storage container for shoots only now and put it right back. I want to put it in my living room so badly, but I dare not...

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...