Ania from Moldova, in Milan

My first of three shoots in the northern Italian fashion capital.

So I’m in Milan this week. Three models in three days (and none of them Italian – go figure). A couple of quick observations about shooting in Milan: you can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting a model, and you get a lot more for your money in studio space. There’s a lot more to say about my experience of arranging everything for this trip; maybe I’ll stuff that all into a prose piece sometime later.

Anyway, meet model number one for the trip: Ania, from Moldova. (IG: ania.alexandrovna) She’s only the second Moldovan I’ve ever met, and the other one also happens to be a beautiful woman. Must be a thing. (Note to self: go to Moldova.) I’m shooting all three models in studios from the same company (Cross Studio, if you’re in the area and want a recommendation). Like in Hong Kong, these spaces are in converted industrial buildings a bit off the beaten path, so finding them is always something of an adventure. Thankfully there was a helpful chap named Enrico who sent me a little map and greeted me when I found the place.

He had seen the “Naked Prose” moniker in my contact info and assumed that I’d be doing a nude model shoot, so he had already pre-heated the studio space for our comfort. A lovely gesture, especially as it’s late October and fall is in full swing in northern Italy. The industrial heating unit, however, was a bit too good at its job, and it was sweltering inside. I turned it off before Ania arrived, but the space was… cozy, let’s say, for quite some time. (Until the end of the shoot, actually – we both noticed how comfortable the room was as we were leaving.)

Ania arrived on time and immediately did the usual show-and-tell; even though she knew it was primarily a nude shoot, she had a variety of lingerie options that would play well with the space. The space – I guess I should say more about it. First of all, it’s huge. Probably three times the square footage (meterage? metrage? Melissa Etheridge?) I’d get for the same price in Hong Kong. A seamless white background occupied the entirety of one corner, while a couch and some other furniture sat on the opposite side, all moveable for our purposes. The light was entirely natural daylight, which streamed in from both the ceiling and several segmented windows on the far wall.

Light galore! I picked up a camera while Ania was getting ready to see what we’d be working with, and it was a best-case-scenario. (ISO 200, f/2.8 or narrower throughout the space.) Well, almost best-case. The wiggly glass panes were perfectly serviceable at diffusing the light, but between them were thick black lines that created a distinct grid pattern of light and shadow. There wasn’t much I could do about this if I wanted to work in the bright light (the best light) near the windows, so I chose to lean into the contrasting look rather than shoot to minimize it. (A cloudy day would have masked the problem, but it was late morning and nary an obstruction filtered the sunlight.)

I fought with this geometric dappled light with ambivalence throughout the shoot. Sometimes it created a dramatic look that I leaned into, other times it confounded my attempts to frame up a shot. I had to drag the couch around to a few different places before the light fell evenly across Ania’s long, slender form. The only time I got away from it was at the very end of the shoot, when we were using the suspended chair. It was fun to work with (for Ania at least, who giggled while she struggled to keep it from spinning around) and far enough away from the windows that the light was perfectly even. (I guess there’s a tip for harsh window light – just move away from it. Inverse square law!)

I should say more about Ania, because she was fun and easy to work with. I won’t give away her age, but she’s older than you think, despite being a university student finishing her degree. Her phone was low on battery and she didn’t bring a charger, so she enlisted my phone to provide the soundtrack for the shoot. First she queued up a playlist called “Photoshoot Music”, but it quickly proved not to be the vibe she was looking for, so she shopped around for a better one. “Shooting Playlist” did the trick – an eclectic mix of stuff I’d mostly never heard before with a few pop hits thrown in for good measure. Ania danced and sang along between poses, so I guess she was happy with it. I’ll try to remember that when the app recommends “Purple Disco Machine” and “Kygo” to me for the next several weeks.

She was also refreshingly direct and easy to talk to, like the Ukrainian models tend to be. I think there’s a frankness of speech (the Greeks called it parrhesia) woven into the culture of former USSR territories. I prefer it to the polite but often unhelpful verbal circumlocutions one hears from Brits, Canadians, and Americans not from the northeast, but that’s just me. We had a little chat about our eye colors (hers are hazel, brown with a ring of green) when we were shooting with the mirror and a longer sidebar about remembering dreams and internal monologues.

We still managed plenty of shooting amidst the idle chatter. Some things worked, some really didn’t, but Ania was a good sport and helpful collaborator throughout. It was a great experience going to a different country and seeing how the model and studio scene operates, so I’m looking forward to another two attempts over the next two days. Stay tuned for more, as always!

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