Percolate

Percolate is Jade Vixen's sister. Percolate and Jade couldn't be more different than each other in real life– ironically they often look remarkably similar in my images of them. That probably has more to do with the fact that I like to create personas in my images- many of the people that I photograph are often portrayed as more of a reflection of myself than themselves. Most people that I photograph are typically a little taken aback when they see my images of themselves (in a good way)– even though they were there for the shoot! They simply are not used to looking at themselves in the way that I portray them. My images are an illusion rather than a mirror. I've photographed Percolate many times, and I typically have created glamorous pictures involving elaborate makeup with her- because she's actually very laid back and doesn't really wear makeup. These images are a little closer to her actual personality, but they are still definitely a persona...

Jade Vixen

Jade Vixen is a very well known fetish model, who is also an old and dear friend. Some of my most memorable images were created with her, although they have usually been fashion or vintage looking images rather than raw and erotic. There are several good reasons for this, despite that she has a very edgy and uninhibited persona. For one thing, she typically tends to be in control and dominant (or wants to portray that in her images), whereas my erotic images tend to portray a submissive with some wild abandon. She also has an exquisite collection of latex and vintage clothes- so we've usually gravitated towards showing them off.

Ajaye

" If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff " ~Jim Richardson

Little One

Little One is a powerhouse in a very petite package, although she is extremely quiet. We rarely say much when shooting, but she is definitely quite the muse. Like Tanya Dakin, she has worked with so many photographers, and everyone gets something a little different from her. It's easy to get a very glamourous image out of her, despite the fact that she is half the size of a supermodel. I prefer to try and extract the soulful facial expressions that are just waiting to be tapped into.

Kellie

Kellie is a friend of Jade Vixen, and Jade brought her by when they were traveling together. Kellie is pretty awesome, but honestly, I would be interested in shooting anybody with boots and a corset like this.

PXE

Innocent, yet not so innocent looking...

Ajaye

I've always been fascinated with the idea of creating a large body of work dedicated to just close-ups of O-faces. The idea that of representing something very intimate, yet not really explicit at all, yet at the same time very genuine & erotic is an appealing challenge to me. The range of expressions that one sees in O-faces is compelling as well– everything from serene, to sexy, to even grotesque. It's a psychological smorgasbord!

M & M

It would bore me to be restricted to one genre for my whole life– landscape photography, for example. I could never impose such restrictions upon myself. It's not that I don't have respect for an artist that does just that, such as Mondrian (who actually started out as a landscape painter!), but it is simply not the way that I operate.

Maggie

There is something very Greek statue-like about this. Not typical of most of my work, but I always like when I can produce something a little different.

Maeve

"Now, what's cooler than being cool? Ice cold! I can't hear ya! I say, what's cooler than being cool? Ice cold!" ~ André Benjamin

Maia

This 70's lambs wool deep shag rug has served me well- it was a stock prop for years' at the Chinatown studio. It's been in a storage box for quite a while now, but I decided to bring it out of hibernation. I think that anybody that I shoot with gets inspired just by looking at it.

Li & Carl

Hand.

Tanya Dakin

I've known Tanya for more than ten years now. I consider her a dear friend. Tanya has worked with well over 70 photographers, and for good reason- she is incredibly photogenic and quite a chameleon. More than a few, including myself, consider her to be an inspiring muse. Tanya has always typically modeled nude, although ironically there has been only a couple of times that I've actually shot nudes with her. I always considered her to be a great fashion model, and I've tended to gravitate towards that with her. These images, though, represent a different way of photographing her.

The thumb sucking fetish idea was hers, which I really liked. Most good ideas are usually offered by the person that I'm working with, as opposed to myself. If it's their idea to begin with, then it's more likely that they'll pull it off well. That's not always the case, though. Sometimes my idea is something that they have not experienced before, so they attack it with vigor. Everything's relative...

Lee

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...

Ajaye

These are some outtakes from a shoot with Ajaye. They show her wonderful dreadlocks rather well. It's really difficult to show the nitty-gritty detail of dark dreads the way that I shoot- it tends to simply disappear. The third image is an homage to Edward Weston.

Mara

A very different feel than anything else posted here. I don't think that it really fits in with the rest of my work. Perhaps it is too calm, and too panned out? Perhaps it looks too much like a classical figure study? It is none the less a personal favorite.

Rachael

A couple of out takes from a recent body painting shoot...

Sofia & Kammy

This image may seem a little out of place with anything else in this blog. They were intentionally part of a shoot with Sofia & Kammy, and I've been dedicating a portion of many of my shoots to shooting these images. They're for my bodyscape series, which I have not shown anywhere on the web but here, although some were incorporated in my body painting show at Mew Gallery a couple of years ago.

Izzy

In a pinch. This term dates from the late 1400's, when it was put as "at a pinch"; pinch alludes to straitened circumstances. Izzy always comes through in a pinch...

Samantha

An old one from the vault...

Veronica

Contrary to general belief, photographs are not really unbiased- but then, neither are memories...

Sonia

These images might seem a little out of place with anything else in this blog. They were intentionally part of a shoot with Sonia, and I've been dedicating a portion of many of my shoots to shooting these images. They're for my bodyscape series, which I have not shown anywhere on the web but here, although some were incorporated in my body painting show at Mew Gallery a couple of years ago. btw, I hate the term body painting, but I can't seem to come up with anything better. The lighting, texture and mood are the same as everything else here, so I suppose that they do sort of belong with this body of work.

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.

Ajaye

To the next Whiskey Bar...

Some Random Stuff

A various assortment of gritty things...

Di

"We live in succession, in division, in part, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty; to which every part and particle is equally related; the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist, and whose whole beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one."   ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Meira

Bettie Page tribute. Deviating a little bit from my own style to create a more authentically vintage look. Actually all that I did differently than usual was add some scratches and some vignetting on the edges, but it works.

A & J

It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country. ~Bill Brandt

Scar.

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