English: Model - Katie

Year Taken - January 2015 Camera - Canon 5d Mark III Lens - Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM ISO - 800 Location - Her House

Katie

If you want to see Katie's album on my website, or check out any of my other 3,500 model photos, please click here

I have decided that from now on, I primarily want to photograph people in their own homes. Why? Well, I think a persons environment says a lot about who they are and when I capture them at home, they are both themselves and they are surrounded by their possessions. This is their domain, their comfort-zone. This is who they are. So it was with this thought that I hit the road for the two hour trip to Chippenham, to spend some time with Katie and attempt to capture who she really is.

So who is she? Well, she is an old soul. In this life, she is no more than 21, yet behind those blue eyes there is a person who has lived for longer. She is a wonderful creature, one whose beauty has not yet reached her ego and her looks are both striking and unassuming. She is, in all honesty, the most 'beautiful' person I have ever photographed. There are so many ways we can describe a persons appeal. We can define them as attractive, pretty, sexy, alluring, desirable, cute, gorgeous...the list goes on. I would not necessarily describe Katie as gorgeous, maybe not even sexy. No, but Katie is the most beautiful girl Ive aimed my camera at. Her eyes sparkle, her stare transfixes, she is just, well, beautiful. And like I said earlier, none of this has quite made its way to her ego. So many models are full of themselves to a point of implosion. With the look-scentric, celebrity society we all live in these days, one can be forgiven for placing our aesthetics above all else, but Katie is yet to do that. She holds herself with a confident vulnerability that is so comfortable, yet suggests it could break at the merest of touches. She accepts who she is and does not hide a mass of insecurities behind fake eyelashes and spray tan. And I like this about her, I love this about her. She is real - and I hope you can see that in these photos.

She said "Im under no illusions, I make my living out of taking my clothes off." Had that have fallen from the lips of nearly any other model, Id have quietly nodded. But in this case, I disagreed. She has a talent, if thats what its called, that can transform a mundane image into something quite spectacular. Now you may not see that in my images, they may not be your cup of tea. But to me, in both my images and others, she dominates the frame, in a vulnerable way. Its quite strange, how she is both meek and timid, yet larger than life on film.

We started off, as it always does with models I click with, by talking and drinking coffee for far too long. An hour had slipped by before I even put finger to shutter. Her beautiful black labrador puppy decided to christen our first place of work as a present for our impending arrival, which coupled with her constant attempts to bite me and eat my coat (the dog, not Katie), delayed us even further. But it wasn't a problem, as I enjoyed my time talking with Katie even more than I did working with her. The puppy, in case you are wondering, is called Luna...which Im sure is short for lunatic. Never have I met such a boisterous, cute little dog and Im annoyed that I didn't get at least one photo of her. Next time.

And on top of the canine related troubles, there was our chat. We talked about personal stuff, as can happen when two people share a pseudo-intimate day as models and photographers do. For some reason, guards and walls can often come down and its as if there is a sense of implied trust. Maybe its the stranger syndrome, how you feel that you can tell this person you barely know everything thats buried deep within your heart. I don't know, but it does sometimes happen. Obviously, I will never divulge anything too personal that Katie may have told me. However, suffice to say that from where she has come, she should be incredibly proud of who she is.

So on with the shoot. The light in the apartment, which let me tell you is about ten times larger on the inside than on the outside, was perfect. Soft shadows, glowing highlights and a gentle, pastel feel to all of the images. Although the day was rain soaked and grey, the light that made its way to us was good enough to capture Katie as she actually is. And thats what I always try to achieve, to record who that person is. A lot of the time, ego (both mine and the models) gets in the way of that, but not today. It was an honest shoot, with honest photos of a lovely girl, in a lovely home, with a lovely puppy. There is one caveat to the above. The neighbour, in the flat opposite, whose eye we caught as Katie was stood naked at her balcony door. Yes, it seemed that we were spied on for the last hour or so of our work. We could see him, hiding in the darkness of his third floor apartment across the street. It wasn't long before the light went on and we saw, what I can only imagine was his wife, stood there in his place. Oops, seems we may have caused a domestic. It was worth it.