At the Speakeasy with MiMi...

One of the most unique shoots I've done with one of the most unique models I've met

This is a special one. I don’t remember whether I first saw MiMi on Model Mayhem or Instagram, but wherever it was, I immediately knew that I had to try to get her. I don’t love tattoos, actually; I haven’t got any myself, and I generally find them distracting and out of place on nude female forms. I don’t refuse to work with tattooed models, as you’ll know if you’ve been keeping up with my work here, but they’re not my fave, let’s say.

MiMi, though, has elevated her aesthetic with the sheer boundlessness of her body art. I’d never seen anyone like her before, and for that reason alone I had to shoot with her. I reached out all the way back in February, knowing that I wouldn’t be in her area until July or August. She immediately got back to me, and we started to chat about setting something up.

We kept chatting throughout the intervening months, actually, and I had to do some tough negotiating to come to an agreement on what we’d shoot. MiMi insisted very early on that any nudes we shoot must be behind a paywall, and up to this point I hadn’t had any paywall enabled on the site at all. That was problem number one. Problem number two came a few months later when she messaged to let me know that she was no longer shooting nudes at all, so she could only offer me lingerie/fashion and/or boudoir styles. No matter how lovely and unique she is, I don’t have much use for those kinds of images here at Naked Prose. Not ready to give up on this opportunity, I pitched the idea of a half/half shoot of lingerie and nude, with only the lingerie photos appearing in the writeup. Any nudes would be behind a paywall, and this would be written into the commercial model release that we both sign.

She agreed! I had secured two hours of shooting time with this amazing woman. Next was sorting out the venue. She suggested a few studios in the Philadelphia area, but as an available-light-only shooter, I don’t really thrive in those kinds of artificial environments. We were at a temporary impasse, until she agreed to come out this way and shoot here in the apartment I had rented.

And that was the plan until the week before the shoot, when I had an idea. I was browsing the area on Google Maps when I was reminded of a venue nearby that would be an interesting location. It’s an underground speakeasy, lavishly decorated in silk and leather, and almost never open. Their website says they can host events, so I emailed the manager. She was happy to arrange for us to use the space, even after I said that it was a commercial art nude photoshoot, so I booked the place for us.

Now there was a new problem – how was I going to shoot in there? It’s incredibly dark, narrow, and cramped with furniture, not designed for photography in any way. I went in a few days early to scout the place out and confirmed that there was no way to do the shoot without external lighting. (No easy way, at least – perhaps I could have done something ambitiously artsy, moody, and dark?) I borrowed an LED panel and a softbox from a friend and committed to figuring it out on the day when MiMi was in front of me.

The day came, and I arrived early to get everything set up and sorted with the venue. I spotted MiMi as she was walking up the street and went to meet her. “Are you a hugger?” she tentatively asked me, having caught herself mid-lunge for an introductory cuddle. “Of course I am,” I assured her. She gave me a long, disarmingly genuine squeeze, and we made our way down to the speakeasy.

I’ve had this same experience several times now with expectation vs. reality: I worry that a stuffy professional model is going to strut in and be highly demanding, standoffish, aloof, impatient, intimidating… and they just never are. They’re nice women who happen to be beautiful and like posing for photos.

My experience with MiMi was that, but on steroids. She’s very experienced, very beautiful, and very famous – her Instagram account has over 100k followers. Her portfolio is full of dramatic, striking, stunning images taken by prominent photographers in places the world over. She confessed that she misses out on paid assignments because people find her intimidating. She thought out loud for a moment to explain it – is it the tattoos and piercings? her experience? her portfolio? It’s probably a little bit of everything. I’ll admit to being a little intimidated when I reached out to work with her.

Let this be an important public service announcement: MiMi Fulton is a complete and utter goofball. Warm, genuine, charming, adorable, sweet, thoughtful, excitable, and even more stunningly beautiful in person than she is in pictures. She’s an absolute gem of a human being, and everyone should work with her.

The shoot, as you can now imagine from my description of her, went off without a hitch. The external lighting was an… interesting experience? I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with external lighting, nor did I really have any time to figure it out before it was go-time, so all I could manage to do was turn it on just below blinding-the-model level, point it at the scene, and move myself around it to get the shots. The static, consistent light source made things simple on the one hand, as I only had to set the white balance one time. But the consistency of the lighting was also a creative detriment, as all of the shots have the same kind of look to them. I’m sure there’s a lot more that can be done creatively with one LED light source, but that’s beyond my current level of experience. I accepted this limitation as a necessary condition for shooting in this unique (and perfect for MiMi’s look) location. I’m hoping that MiMi’s elaborate lingerie choices will spice things up and give some visual variety to the shots.

Since we were splitting the time between lingerie and nudes, I tried to keep an eye on the clock and keep things moving along in a methodical and sensible manner. MiMi and I were on the same page with wardrobe and location choices, which made everything very easy. We’d shoot for a bit, then I’d suggest we make a move, and she’d say “yup!” and ready herself for the next thing. When it was time to switch to nudes, she let out an excited “ooh, yay!” and scampered off to free herself from her elaborate blue lingerie.

The whole thing was a joy, honestly. Not just the shoot, but our conversations stretching back to February. We got along instantly and perfectly. The only thing I could possibly ask for now is more time with her – I definitely have not yet had enough of MiMi.

Hopefully you haven’t either! If you want to see MiMi in her fully natural state, you’ll need to be a paid subscriber. And keep an eye out for her in the future – I don’t think the book has closed on our creative collaborations…