I found my muse. I wasn’t really looking for one, but isn’t that always the way? “As soon as you stop looking,” they say. “All of a sudden, BAM!” they say.
Yeah. It was like that.
BAM.
On Friday I received a text message from my friend Denise,
who is also a photographer (She's known as "dep" on Flickr).
“Hey beautiful, what r u doing tomorrow early-ish am/afternoon? Want to shoot me?”
I say yes, of course, and ask what time. She replies and then adds “outside somewhere? Nudes?”
I say yes, of course.
Then came the question of where to get naked outside where it would be safe and we wouldn’t be disturbed or disturb anyone else. I realized she wasn’t too far from a (mostly) abandoned cemetery I shot in a couple years ago (and was naked).
I’d shot Denise one time before, when I went to her house for the first time and she said, “I would get naked for you, if you want” when I’d been there 5 minutes. And I’m not saying she’s eager to take her clothes off or I’m good at getting girls to disrobe, don’t get me wrong! I was humbled and extremely honored that she trusted me enough to be willing. I also think she is strikingly beautiful. We did a series of shots together that day, both of us naked. I was happy with some, but it wasn’t as “wow” as I had imagined.
Then this past Saturday happened. Denise wanted to model and to focus on modeling. She wanted me to direct her. I started getting into the idea of putting the majority of my focus on someone other than myself as a model. I took some self-portraits with her, sure, but only after shooting her for a bit.
When we were just about to leave her house, I spotted this great vintage suitcase and remarked on it. Denise offered to bring it along. That’s how Denise is: spontaneous, enthusiastic, and overflowing with spirit and sass. We hit a groove almost immediately once we found an isolated spot within the cemetery. The shots with the suitcase felt like catalogue shots and I was thinking that way, as I know Denise is a lover of fashion and fashion photography. The artist in me took full control soon enough, and some magic started to happen. Even though it was the middle of the day, we had the advantage of late November in the northeast of the US: low-angle light all day long. Truly, the thing I love most about the fall and winter is that light! The rest of the year you have to wait for that ‘golden hour light’ window.
I honestly have never had such an easy experience shooting
anyone, despite the fact that she claims not to like being photographed. I can
also say I’m not sure if I have ever been happier with any of my work prior to
this. I felt such glee as I went through the shots of the session. I have
filled in the front two pages of my Flickr stream with images of Denise or
Denise and myself together. I feel a real surge of pride and inspiration like I
haven’t felt in a long while, and I want more!
So it’s official. I told Denise she is my muse now. The pay is crap, but she’s got no choice. I’ll be showing up at her door again soon, my camera in hand.
[See the rest of the set on Flickr if you want to see the Not Safe For Work images. You have to have a Flickr account and either set your safety filters to ‘see all’ or click through the snowy images. The set has some older photos of Denise as well].
