I love these pictures for a couple of reasons, first they achieve a certain level of intimacy that is hard to recreate. The model (Lisa) wanted to make a calendar for her then boyfriend, and so we took 12 semi-nude and nude shots for it. Though I can't remember, or didn't get to find out what month this was!
Opium
The second reason I like these is because of the shot below. At the time there was an advert out for a perfume called Opium, if I remember rightly it was by Yves Saint Laurent (YSL).
The model in the advert was Sophie Dahl, granddaughter to the famous author Roald Dahl. I remember wanting to recreate the shot, which was done in a studio on black sheets, beautifully juxtaposed by the milky white skin of Sophie.
However that shot took a blacked out studio an expensive set and quite a few lights, none of which were available to me seeing as I was just doing this as a favour.
So I decided to try for a kind of 'negative' of the shot, whereby we would do it in black & white, and have her on white sheets and light the whole thing with daylight and reflector with a touch of flash for fill.
Seeing as I was always on the lookout for locations with great light, I knew that another friend of mine's living room was perfect at around earlyish afternoon, so I arranged for us to come round one Saturday and take the shots.
We got a few nice shots that day, but I think these are my favourites of this type.
Note: I do not class these as NSFW simply because they fall into the realm of art; though I welcome healthy debate, so please let me know if you disagree with me.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE OPIUM ADVERT? WHAT DO THESE PICTURES MAKE YOU THINK OF? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!