I treat my studio like a sanctuary. Incense burns at the doorway, soft awake beats play out as we begin to get to know each other... My focus soon turns to what clothes and colors we will play with and a momentum builds in the room... There is almost always at least a half hour of frenzy that occurs... where the experience turns fluid... I like to play with emotion and comfort... I plant the notion of sea and sky into them so that they may come out even more and project their beauty, joy, longing... For me there is nothing easier to imagine than sunset over an ocean or the way clouds pass over brilliant blue space... Nothing is calculated or predictable... each shoot is different... I have no formula, no tricks... I just treat everyone as a new day...
I feel relationships between people very intensely... In a recent shoot one sister's energy shifted to inadequacy as her older sister pranced and played before my lens. I called the other sister in with the intention of showing their bond, their love... but her fear shone through... She looked at me and then looked at her sister and she began to cry. I hid behind my lights as this happened, watching, waiting... Without looking through the viewfinder I snapped the image with the emotion I was looking for... sisterly love... Her crying escalated and I suggested she go sit under my magick tree... I opened the red door, hugged her and sent her to release, to center herself... Then the baby started crying... and her mom took her out to the tree. Then the husband saw the image of the sisters I'd just taken and HE started crying... We stared at each other with wet eyes and then I sent him outside as well. I found myself sitting on the floor alone in the middle of a shoot... Such intensity... all born of love and fear... We drank tea, make-up was reapplied, the baby napped and more moments were captured.
Those are the shoots I live for... In fact, almost every shoot is a shoot I live for...
