As a photographer, a big part of my job is to connect and help my model to express themselves by participating in a common creation of imagery. Sometimes I think I fail and something emerges out of the ashes … sometimes I just fail. I never blame the models, and I won’t this time neither, but I must admit that this shoot didn’t work as intended at all.

First, even if I understand the safety reasons and I accept them, it’s always painful to have more people than needed on a set. I never say no to a model wishing to be accompanied for a shoot, especially if it’s the first time we work together. Safety first, and generally it also helps the models to feel confident. But it’s a totally different deal if the person is not quiet and is required to « help » or provide insights to the model: mainly because it doesn’t allow to establish a full connection with the model. It’s like a small wall between us and I have to bounce in order to connect.

Secondly, I rather prefer working with models with little to no experience (or a lot of experience actually) because otherwise they often assume they know how to pose and can’t unlearn. Unfortunately, there is no 101 guide for posing, and I don’t do fashion. I’m interested in people so I don’t really care at your best profile or at your good-for-snapshat face. Really, that’s not what I do. But let me be clear, that won’t stop me … but sometimes it’s just too hard to teach how to forget and start fresh. Especially if I can’t connect because I need to bounce to a third party… goto #1.

This is pretty much the story behind this shoot. It doesn’t mean Elodie can’t be a great model or we can’t together. It just means I didn’t achieve to connect and give her what was required to let her express herself fully during this shoot.

I could have just forgotten about this shoot and go on. If you check the content of any photographer on Instagram, you’ll see only curated content nowadays. I totally understand why but I’ve made another choice for this blog, mainly because how I relate to my photography. Creating images is a mean of expression for me, and thus what I choose to work on is directly related to what I have to say. As a consequence, the blog is more like a diary: even if I don’t bury there my inner and deeper thoughts, the time goes by and each project is a mark on this journey. Even the « not-so-good » ones :)