The Many Moves of Ivy Millz

Some still images from what was actually quite a dynamic couple of hours.

I’m working with four new models over my summer vacation in the US this year, and as you’d probably expect, all of them are American. Living in Asia and doing most of my photography there, I rarely encounter models whose first language is English, so I’d gotten used to sessions that are at least partially fraught with communication challenges. “Art from adversity,” I’d tell myself. Or, since I know my way around the Latin language, Nil sine magno vita labore dedit mortalibus, as the poet Horace wrote - “life has given nothing to mortals without great effort.”

It’s also nice, though, when things are easy, and so it was with today’s model, Ivy Millz (IG: @ivymilllz). She’s not just a native English speaker, she’s from my hometown. And a decade younger than I am, so it’s not as though we’d crossed paths before, but we had no trouble chatting about local life from the moment we met until we wrapped the shoot two hours later.

Since Ivy was the second model I shot in the same rented apartment, I was conscious of trying to find unique things to do with her to distinguish her shoot from the previous one (with Crystal). I had a couple ideas based on the experience of that first shoot. For one, I took down the giant mirror on the wall behind the couch, because I found it difficult to keep myself and/or the TV on the opposite wall out of the shot. (Let me tell you how much fun it was to put it back up by myself before checking out of the place.)

There were other natural differences that helped create some separation, too. No erotica with Ivy, just art nude. She also took that description quite seriously and did not show up with a duffel bag full of shoes, lingerie, and accessories for show and tell. “You said just art nude, right?” she asked, shedding her underwear with a deft downward motion and her dress on the way up. I think that’s the fastest I’ve yet seen a model go from arrival to ready for the camera.

Models will also distinguish themselves by the idiosyncratic ways that they move and pose. I tend to embrace this natural variation and let the ladies be themselves whenever possible. Not just because I’m not the best at posing models, but also because it leads to a more frictionless, flowing shoot imbued with a healthy dose of the model’s own sense of her art. I find it’s easy to get what I need from a model well within her comfort zone.

That was absolutely the right approach with Ivy, who moves like no other model I’ve worked with. As we chatted, I learned that she has extensive training and experience as a dancer and a gymnast, which should be obvious as you’re looking at her poses. What you can’t see from the stills is the way that she shifts – dances, practically – between those poses. She’s almost always in motion, save for brief pauses for the shot. I learned quickly that I needed to keep my eye glued to the viewfinder, watching her through the lens for those moments when she hit on a pose. Demanding for me, yes, but comfortable for her; I knew we’d get good shots as long as I could keep up.

You’ll see some of the standard naked-female-on-a-bed poses here, too; I think it’s important to show how straightforwardly beautiful she is when she’s just draped over some furniture. Another feature of this shoot that sets it apart from the previous one is the time of day – Ivy came later in the afternoon, when the light streaming in through the apartment’s tall windows was a soft golden hue, equal parts warming and flattering for her complexion.

And then there’s the avant-garde, ambitious, audacious poses. I think she felt a complete freedom from the beginning to just go for it at any moment during the shoot. Bending, stretching, reaching, arching, folding – she pulled everything out of her bag of tricks. She really had fun in the window seat, practically doing a full balance beam routine as I raced to figure out exposure and focus amidst her acrobatics. “Do you like weird poses?” she asked at one point, having already contorted herself into the pretzel you see below. Whether I like them or not, I made sure to capture them for her and for all of you, dear readers.

Quite a fun shoot, then, this one turned out to be, mostly thanks to Ms. Millz and her protean posing and ever-undulating, limber limbs. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to go work on my splits.

If you’re just a big fan of Ivy’s and don’t want to subscribe, you can unlock access to her individual gallery for this shoot here.

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