the drunken reader

A pile of books, a bottle of whisky, a wonderful young woman naked on the sofa - what more could one wish?

When I was searching for an illustrative photo for my last publicity article I stumbled about this beautiful series of artistic nudes that I took of Yana, at that time my girlfriend and muse. 

It is extremely different to work with a person which you know very very good, where your inter-personal communication works perfectly and on an intimate base, where both are interested in achieving an outstanding photographic goal... then to work with a "from-time-to-time-model" (as it is usually the case). 

Most of the models with which I work at the moment I only see during the sessions. Obviously - and as one can see in many series - most of them enjoy to show themselves in front of my camera. It is kind of an adventurous experience for them that sometimes even arouses their sensual feelings - I try to achieve that without passing the limits that naturally exist between photographer and model.

But, of course, it is clear that the main attraction for them is the money that they get after the session - and to a certain point the photos they receive later. They come here and do more or less what I ask them to do, but they don't come with own ideas, they are not especially interested in photography, we don't have profound talks about art.

And, very important, they want to look good in the photos. If it would be all to their taste, I'd take photos that they can upload to Instagram and get a lot of likes that increase their self-confidence (for reasons I don't understand, b.t.w., because you only have to open an Instagram mentioning you're a girl to get tons of likes no matter how you look and even less how you are... When, at that time, Yana and I had the same amount of followers in facebook and we uploaded the same image, she had 50 likes within two hours, and I had 2 likes within three weeks, for exactly the same...)

Back to the topic: with a muse, as Yana was for me during the time we were together, you can dare to use light and poses that are maybe not directly charming the models beauty, but that produce special images. 

One can discuss the topic and the goal of a session and then work together. While, of course, I still advice: move a little bit, show me more of that, think about this... she also, or even mainly, contributes with own ideas. 

And, very important, there is no time limit at all. It doesn't matter if I need a long time until I found the light and perspective I (we) imagined. We'll just go to sleep a little later. We can look at the images together and find what we could better. Please note the word "we"... The session is completely interactive. 

While with a "normal" model there is almost always a short limit of time. Her friends wait to see her to go out, or the boyfriend will call to ask what she's doing (that's when the session ends, boyfriend calls are the worst :-) ). It's not easy to make her lose the face and expression she knows or thinks that is her most beautiful. There is no time to "meditate" together about the coming session, there is no possibility to repeat one or the other shot with a bettered light or pose after looking through the shots on the cameras screen - by then the model is already gone...

Well, long talk, short conclusion: here I show you the fresh edit of such a session that I think it was a full success. I hope you like them as much as I do!