Approach
I spent years photographing professional models. They were good at it. They knew their angles, held a pose and gave the camera exactly what it expected. The pictures were beautiful, and after a while they started to feel like the same picture.
What I kept coming back to were the moments in between: a laugh before the shot, someone forgetting to hold their stomach in, a hand that didn't know where to go. Those were the frames that felt like a person.
So I've shifted my work toward everyday people. People with stretch marks, scars, grey hair, soft bellies, tattoos they regret and ones they love. People who have never thought of themselves as models.
I work with low, directional light and deep shadow. It's moody and quiet, closer to film noir than to a glossy magazine.
I shoot in both color and black and white, and choose whichever tells the truth of the image best. I have a soft spot for black and white. Without color, a body becomes shape, light and texture, and the things people worry about tend to fade away.
I don't reshape bodies, smooth skin into plastic or make you look like someone else. I do edit: light, tone and contrast, plus small things like a pimple or a stray blemish, and sometimes a little shaping of light to lift or soften part of the frame. That's in service of the picture, never to hide who you are. Scars, stretch marks, wrinkles and softness stay.
I photograph nudes as fine art. Nothing explicit, nothing staged to be provocative. Just people, honestly seen.
What a session is like