above and beyond

There aren't very many of them. But some models will do whatever it takes to create a powerful image.

Salome has done it every time we've worked together... five times? She's been encased in plaster, unable to move for an hour. She's played in the mud on a hot summer day. She's been buffeted by strong winds and blowing sand after driving an hour each way to the location. She's shivered in the cold November breeze off Lake Michigan, wearing only a thin bit of cloth. Finally, she's braved late winter freezing rain and a winter storm advisory for several hours, and traveled two and a half hours each way with me, to and from another location.

Perhaps I should offer her an easy shoot, one without adverse weather, one not physically strenuous...

Nah. That wouldn't be any fun.

As you can see, Salome takes visual creation seriously. Ask her to go into a particular emotional headspace, and she dives right in. Sometimes that can hurt more than the physical things or the weather. It's something many models never learn how to do. Yet she seems to go there for real, and stay there for as long as needed. I've had to remind her to give that dress a tug, cover that stray nipple when someone walks by, she's so deeply into her creative space.

What to do next...