By Mighty Aphrodite, who put me forward. Thank you!
Well, not ALL that famous, I suppose, but still….
Last year, just before I had an operation to repair an abdominal hernia (as a result, of course, of an art-nude shoot) I was offered a day’s work, filming close-up video shots for possible inclusion in the title sequence of 2010′s behind-the-scenes Pirelli Calendar video. I took the job (naturally, I was awfully flattered to be asked to basically be a body double for models a great deal more famous than me). And then shot the job 5 days after my abdominal surgery.
Ouch. I’d been told I’d have fully recovered by then, and, not having had any kind of surgery before, I believed the doctor. Which was an extremely foolish thing to do. I struggled my way through what would normally have been a very easy, comfortable shoot, and went home feeling rather disheartened, because I wasn’t sure I’d really been agile enough to be much use.
So hooray, I’m so glad to tell you that I am indeed in the title sequence. Here it is!
See if you can spot me. And then, please, acknowledge that I am now, very, VERY famous.
Hello everybody – as always, I’m sorry that I’m so excessively poor at blogging; I really like doing it but struggle to find time. Anyway, here is the reason I wanted to blog today:_
The very excellent Bill Mundy ( www.billmundy.blogspot.com/ ) has just finished this lovely miniature of me, and I’m awfully proud of it. Not only because it’s beautifully done, and very flattering (check out the slightly enhanced boobies!) but because somehow, a painting feels less transient than a photograph. This is probably partly novelty value for me – I don’t pose for many artists so I see a lot more photographs of myself than I see paintings. But the feeling of timelessness of a painting (especially a nude one) makes me hope it’ll be around long after I’m not.
Actually, I hope my photographs will be too. But this painting makes me feel a little bit immortal. And makes me want to read the Harry Potter books again to get some tips on immortality.
Hope you like it too! I’m off to work with Bill again today, and I’m excited about producing some portraits in the bluebells, although the weather seems to be trying to warn me off….
I’ve always said to myself (and too anyone who will kindly listen) that it’s too easy for artists to fall in love with their own work, and that it stops us (if you count a model as a sort-of artist) from being sufficiently critical. I wholeheartedly believe this, and yet, when I was looking through my pictures from the last few months, I realised I’ve fallen totally in love with one of my poses. Here it is, in various forms, by four different (and splendid) photographers.
I love it so much that I even tried posing it sideways on a wall (In Scott Brown’s picture). It is now time to MOVE AWAY FROM THE POSE and make up a new favourite. But I’m not sure if I’ll be able too, because I just love it too much. I think it works beautifully, but I think it’s been done as well as it can be by me now. Thanks everyone, for indulging me while I worked it out of my system
It’s very fun having a blog – I’ve suddenly got somewhere to put down some of the things I’ve been thinking about my job for years. I’m off work this week after minor surgery for an injury I sustained at an art-nude shoot (extraordinary! Makes me feel dedicated.) so I’ve had time to look through my pictures, plan some future shoots, and blog about what’s in my head. I’m really missing work, which makes me feel kind of lucky to like my job as much as I do.
Anyway, one of the shoots I’m planning is with a photographer I’ve only had the chance to work with twice, but who I really love to shoot with. Here’s a link to his work at homepage.mac.com/gravenimage/PhotoAlbum60.html and here are some of his pictures of me from last time we worked.
Siren
It’s probably vile of me to be so interested in pictures of myself, but I like looking at them. Scott’s pictures are much more highly-coloured than most of the artistic nude work that I do, and probably a fair bit more sexual feeling. I really like them – I don’t really recognise myself in them very much, which makes me like them more (I suppose everyone gets a bit bored of themselves sometimes) and I like the idea of the kind of person who looks like that. Sort of confrontational, and much stronger than I normally look, I think.
Sometimes I wonder if modelling is a weird unofficial kind of out-of-body therapy for me. If so, Scott F Hill is a great therapist. I’m excited about working with him again!
I was in France last week, working with a super group of photographers from London’s famous www.thecameraclub.co.uk/ And very fun it was (I’ll write more about it when I’ve got pictures to show you what I’m talking about). One of the photographers had thoughtfully brought a selection of magazines, including Practical Photography Magazine, which I love. (Have a look here if you’re interested… www.greatmagazines.co.uk/store/displayitem.asp?sid=91&id=30787&custid=0 )
I turned a page, and suddenly found a picture of myself. I imagine that if you’re Kate Moss or similar that this is probably quite a boring experience, but I’ve never really got used to it, and so I squeaked loudly enough for everyone to think I’d been attacked by an insect. Yay! Sometimes having a picture of you appearing in public can be rather painful, because the picture that gets chosen often isn’t one that you’re awfully happy with. But mercifully, this one is a picture I’m really proud of. So here it is.
Whee! Well done to Darren Birkin of www.v11.com/ who’s made the final of ‘Photographer of the Year’ with this picture. I’m very happy. And glad that he chose that dress for me to wear for our action shots – in the picture I think it looks liquid.
After I discovered it, I got very excited and looked through all the other magazines in a great frenzy of ego. But none of the others had any pictures of me at all. Bloody rude – why SHOULDN’T ‘Yachting Monthly’ support artistic nude photography a little bit?
PS – Sorry if none of the links work, I’m still learning how my blog works, and I’m a bit slow with these things…
And about time too. I’ve avoided having a blog for my modelling work, because I’m scared I won’t have time to write in it much. But I often have pictures I’d like to share and I’d love to have a place to put down my thoughts about my lovely job. So here it is. I wonder if anyone will read it? Otherwise, it can just be like a sort of diary. Do say hello if you find me! To kick off, here’s a picture from my shoot last week with Howard Nowlan, who’s work can be seen on http://photo.net/photos/LightWorks among other places…
a picture from my shoot last week with Howard Nowlan
It’s an out-take, I suppose, what with the signposts in the background, but there’s something kind of gentle and un-worldy about it; kind of like the 1950′s H&E pictures….(http://www.henaturist.net/joomla/)
