I recently made the business choice to cut out the whole bedroom scene from my client experience. Yea I know. In the big ol’ dictionary boudoir is a woman’s bedroom or private sitting room. But I wanted my experience to be more about highlighting my client then their surrounding area. So, I spent a whole weekend painting my small home studio totally black. From ceiling to floor. In my mind I wanted my space to be the sucker of light. No chance for light to be reflected. I wanted total control of how the shadows and highlights brushed across my clients. 

Art gallery submission

Kali (the model pictured) reached out to me and told me about the Detroit Dirty Show that comes around once a year and how she thought some of the art we took in the past should be submitted into the art gallery. Me on the other hand, I knew I could submit better art. If this new direction I was taking was going to be the solid experience I would be offering, I wanted what I entered to reflect that. So we came together and came up with the idea of incorporating honey into the gallery. Working with honey can some times be a bit tricky. Not only do you have to make sure that you have enough of the matter to show up in your images. But you also have to position your lighting source at the right angle to give the illusion of separation from your subject. 

The gear

For this project I decided to stay with my go to lighting. One 5ft strip box and my handy dandy AD200. Normally for my sessions I stick with my 35mm lens but, I knew I wanted the gallery to be more about the fine details and not necessarily about the subject as a whole. To switch things up a bit I shot the whole session with my 85mm. This lens is my work horse and has been my favorite choice when it comes to capturing details. If I could have this lens on my camera for every studio session I have I would. But my 8×9 studio space makes that almost impossible. Over the years I’ve learned that the size of my space doesn’t limit me on the art that I can dish out. It just makes me think more outside of the box

I wanted this gallery to leave viewers asking questions. You know, when you go to a art gallery full of water paintings and you stand there escaping into the world in the canvas? Wondering where that road leads. Whats beyond that hill? All that good jazz. I also was really wanting the art that we created to be accepted into the art gallery. You see, for the past 4 years I’ve been struggling with this thing called imposter syndrome. It’s a true bitch and I don’t wish it on anyone. No matter what other photographers or friends told me, I still struggled with the fact that my work was good. It was almost like I needed this art gallery to accept something of mine to help me realize that I need to cut my shit out and get out of my own way. It’s pretty stupid now that I look back at it. But at the time, it was something I thought I needed. 

I should have listened sooner

I am proud to say that the art gallery submission was accepted into the Dirty Show and if I learned one thing from this experience, It’s okay to step outside of your comfort zone. Something I’m always telling my clients and here I am soaking in my own advice and laughing at myself for not listening sooner. My work may be out of the norm. It may not be the exact meaning of boudoir. But to me, the art that I create is unique, just like every person that comes in my studio.

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