Nice To Meet You
There’s something surreal about meeting someone for the first time and, within an hour, photographing them naked. I’ve always thought that was incredibly cool.
Not because of the nudity itself, but because of the trust exchange that happens so quickly between two people who barely know each other. One person says, “Here I am.” And the other says, “I’ll handle that carefully.”
The first few minutes are always interesting to me. There’s uncertainty of new energy mixed with polite laughter. There’s figuring each other out. You learn how someone moves through space before you learn anything substantial about their life. You notice whether they hold eye contact, whether they joke when they’re nervous, or whether they become quieter once the camera appears.
Then there’s always a moment where the atmosphere shifts. You become two people collaborating on something vulnerable. This shift is the quiet part. And honestly, it still amazes me that people are willing to do it at all. To meet someone they barely know and allow themselves to be photographed without clothing is rather brave. There’s courage in that. Curiosity too.
Two strangers entering a room carrying entirely separate lives, and for a brief period of time, creating enough comfort between them for honesty to exist is an amazing feeling. That feeling ends up in the photos, no doubt.
And maybe that’s the coolest part: how quickly art can collapse distance between people who, hours earlier, had never even met.
