How You "See" Somebody...

Meagan put up twenty photos that I've shot of her on an on-line modeling site today. I was sort of honored, as it seemed to be a little tribute to the work that she and I have done over the past ten months. I smiled. I feel "special."

; )

But when I saw them all together, I was surprised at how I've "seen" her.

Most of this is only in a way that it could occur to me, but in these photos I see, a fantastic model, a beautiful woman, a chameleon, someone who absolutely trusts me, a friend, someone who cares about me, and most importantly to my work, my muse.

Muse is a strong word to bandy about and quite frankly, I've never had "one." But Meagan is my muse now, unquestionably. And I'ma gonna run with it.

We've talked a lot about our photographic relationship and she and I are both acutely aware of how it transpired. After agreeing to work together last June, she had a little trepidation about posing "nude" as she had never done it before. The great thing is that she communicated that to me so I knew I had to be extra confident and comforting for the shoot to be successful, by my standards. Because of that communication, I felt really good about the potential of what we could get.

So we met in front of my former office on 28th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison and I took her to a little place around the corner and we had a glass of wine. And talked. About her photography career, directing people, and her comfort level with what she was potentially about to commit to.

See, I don't usually shoot with models without meeting them first, and then scheduling the shoot at a later date, but due to the fact that Meagan and a I had communicated so much about the shoot, I had a really good feeling about her. So, after a glass of wine, I said "So, are you ready?" and I will never forget this: she inhaled, smiled and said "Fuck yes!"

The first six photos (and the ninth one) are from that shoot. EVERYTHING we got was good, except for the obvious crap (her blinking, my thumb in the way, etc...) that a photographer always gets.

And they just keep getting better, now that she is my muse.

I realized something recently about what makes a real muse/artist relationship work.
But I'll keep that to myself.