I’ve wanted to do a shoot like this for a long time. I bet you can picture it yourself – a cavernous empty space, dramatic lighting, a single nude female figure standing confidently amidst a sea of exposed concrete and weathered wrought iron. I’ve seen plenty of expertly executed shoots of this kind, and every time I have two thoughts, in this order: “wow, that’s a stunning photograph” and “where are these photographers finding empty warehouses to shoot in?”
As it turns out, there are two main ways to snag these killer venues. You can find a poorly guarded one and sneak in – very exciting, not recommended – or you can book a studio that has a room made up to look like this. I’ll let you all guess which one I did.
So I’ve got the venue, just need the model. (Re)enter Nastya, the feisty Ukrainian from the shoot in the yellow room a few months back. Turns out she’s relocated to Asia, where she prefers to do her modeling work. (The photographers in this part of the world, she says, are much more courteous than those in Europe. And better photographers.) Ok, so now I’ve got the venue and the model. Knowing Nastya as I do from our first shoot, I didn’t stress about the details. I showed her the venue ahead of time, so she arrived with wardrobe and ideas readymade for our surroundings.
She scampered off to do her hair and makeup while I surveyed the space, trying to formulate a basic plan of action for our two-hour session. I don’t know why I bother doing this, especially with a model like Nastya, because for the next two hours I basically followed her around with a camera while she worked her mojo. She’s very creative and needs little direction, so once we got rolling, all I needed to do was signal when it was time to move on to something different, and she’d oblige.
Model, then, not a problem. Lighting in the venue? Also not a problem. An abundance of late-morning sunshine streamed in on two sides, rendering every inch of the space perfectly useable even to an available-light-snob like me. The room was otherwise only sparingly appointed but still offered plenty for our purposes – a couple different chairs and stools for Nastya to crawl around on and, mercifully, a ladder for me to get some elevated perspectives.
Nastya emerged freshly coiffed and commenced the pre-shoot show-and-tell. She produced a handful of lingerie items and other adornments, all monochrome. A pair of black heels and some sheer stockings rounded out her accessory arsenal. “These, we can destroy,” she said of the latter. Destruction is very befitting of our sparse, ruined surroundings, and Nastya strikes me as the sort of woman who is quite handy at destruction, so I offered not a word of objection.
She donned the destructible stockings, and off we went. I couldn’t resist getting a few of those ultrawide shots at the beginning, so I stood far back and made Nastya just a part of the scenery. I revisited that wide perspective a few other times during the shoot, but I found myself picking up the tighter 25-50mm zoom way more often than I usually do. The wide-open space, free from obstacles, afforded me more working distance than I’m used to having, so I could use the extra reach of the longer focal lengths and still keep Nastya framed however I wanted.
She was ready to start tearing through those stockings, so I got closer and let her get a little aggressive. She found ripping them to be a bit more difficult than she had anticipated, so she ordered me to fetch a pen as a stabbing instrument. After a prolonged and thorough Swiss-cheesing of the stockings, Nastya grabbed, pulled, and tore at them with both hands while I did my best to capture the carnage. Mission accomplished, she discarded them, and we moved on.
I wanted to shoot with the leather chair next, but Nastya spotted a wood and metal stool and fancied working with that. She grabbed the white button-down shirt you see above, and we shot a nice little series against the bare concrete wall. Once she had worked that shirt on, around, and finally off of herself, I suggested we make a move to the leather chair. She took the opportunity to update her look, putting her hair up and grabbing a pair of glasses (which happened to be her boyfriend’s, too big for her, and kept falling off) and her black heels. This was about as playful as she got during the session, as she channeled naughty secretary vibes and posed with a pen and paper.
On the whole I would say that this session comes across as considerably more serious than the last one. I think that’s ok, as the venue suits her intense gaze and demonstrative posing, but it definitely adds a palpable intensity to the photos. Nastya is quite professional when she works, in that she’s very focused and determined. Her dark brown eyes can be quite penetrating when they find the lens, and I didn’t ever ask her to dial that back. I’m confident you can all handle it!
I do really find it enjoyable to work with models like Nastya who have big personalities and want to give themselves over fully to the shoot. I was thinking about this on the way home, actually – just how spontaneous and open-ended my shoots always turn out to be. I’m sure there are photographers out there who meticulously plan every aspect of a shoot and obsess over every detail - the wardrobe, the pose, the hair and makeup, the background, the lighting. That kind of process can produce stunning results, no doubt. But that’s just not my style. I’d rather book an energetic little Ukrainian lass, let go of the reins for two hours, and capture whatever happens. Hopefully it works!
What did you think of this shoot compared with the last one? There’s a good chance I’ll be able to work with Nastya again in the future - stick around and be sure not to miss it.
If monthly subscriptions aren’t your thing, you can download all of the images for this particular shoot by clicking on the button below.
This post continues for paid subscribers, who will have access to the full gallery at 4K resolution as a part of their subscription. I can’t do this work without a supportive audience, so please consider upgrading to paid if you like my work and want to see much more of it.
