Yvette by Candle Light (Long Island, New York)

Over and over in these diaries, I state the obvious; how big an influence the internet has had on the evolution of my work. The Web provides a forum for me to exhibit my work, a way to fund the creation of my images (through sales to patrons), and, most importantly, it has lead to relationships with models that would never have occurred otherwise (Ingrid and Victoria are probably the best cases in point).

35mm film

Yvette had first e-mailed me in 1999, asking about purchasing a print. During our discussions of my work over time, she indicated that she'd actually be interested in being involved in my work in a more direct way. Given the distance between us geographically, we both agreed this wasn't likely to come to pass. When the expedition to New England was being planned, I got back in touch, to see if Yvette was still interested in modeling for me. She was, and we began to make plans. Initially we'd planned to work in the Boston area, close to where I was to be staying, but when a problem surfaced around the issue of finding places to work in in area neither of us were familiar with, we began exploring alternatives. In the end, a week before I departed for New England, it was determined it was a more sensible use of Yvette's resources and time for me to fly to Long Island, and work with her on familiar ground, rather than for her come up to Massachusetts to work with me.

35mm film

On a sunny Sunday evening, I boarded a 30 minutes flight from Providence, RI to Islip, NY, where I met Yvette for the first time. We drove back to her home, and spent the evening looking through her photo books, my portfolios, and discussing what it was she was looking for from the process we were about to embark upon. Though very enthusiastic about modeling, Yvette was pretty nervous about the actual first steps, and much of our discussions of the evening were focused upon reassuring her that the sessions we had planned would go well, and yield strong work worth her (and my) time.

35mm film

In order to make the upcoming work easier for her, Yvette and I had planned to make some photos that first night, working with candles and treating the session as an introduction to the process. Candle nudes are one of the most relaxing forms of indoor nudes, requiring the model to be still, and as such, they provided a good venue for Yvette to start modeling. The results were as I had hoped, both in terms of the images, which had some real successes, and in how it set at ease some of Yvette's qualms about the next day's sessions.