Sensuality in Nude Photography or What Kisilda Did

Since I started shooting nudes, I have been trying to shoot the nude body as an extension of creating portraits. As a way of giving the nude body expression by pointing out the character of my model.

When I shoot portraits, I usually combine an “Inner Core” session with shooting conventional portraits or nude portraits. This means that I start a photo session by asking my model to do an activity that gets her or him as closely as possible to their feelings of that very moment. This can be by doing an activity like dancing, yoga, or just by sensing what kind of feelings my model can discover inside in that very moment. Following these feelings I start taking pictures with long exposure times.

If you are interested in this process you might want to read some blog articles on this website about the Inner Core Project.

This way of starting a photo shoot, let it be portrait or a nude session can be confusing or sometimes even irritating for my models. Particularly professional models have learned to “pose”, to take a certain body position with a particular expression that they hold for a moment to give the photographer the opportunity to take a good picture without running the risk of motion blurred pictures. Asking to express their feelings of that very moment instead of striking a pose can be indeed confusing. However, it is a great gateway into shooting pictures with natural expression.

Now let’s talk about sensuality. The way I just described a photo shoot, it sounds reasonable that for the models who are trying to tap into their feelings of that very moment, sensuality is not what will occur to them immediately. In an often unknown environment, with a photographer that they have not met before, being asked to tap into their feelings, sensuality will not be the first thing they will bump into. And I am ok with that. I’m not aiming at evoking sensual feelings but a natural flow, whatever comes up in a photo shoot. I leave it open to the model where they are heading.

And then there was Kisilda. Kisilda is a young photo model from Athens. I shot with her in May 2024. As many photo models in Athens, she uses modeling as a way of adding some income to their relatively small portfolio. Kisilda agreed to having the photo shoot at my apartment in Athens. As she doesn’t have a car, we agreed to me picking her up from the Metro station and to walk together to my place. During that walk she came across as a shy, a little insecure person who did not give away about very much herself in our first conversation.

Confronted with my request to express herself during the photo shoot instead of striking the usual poses, she found it difficult to find a starting point. We started slowly with some portraits in underwear. But very soon she had the knack of the idea and what followed then was a firework of expressions, movements, crazy ideas and silly behavior that was a joy to follow and capture.

She behaved naturally and without inhibition. And that also in the way she expressed her nudity during the shooting. It was as if she was flirting with the camera. That way we created a beautiful series of sensual pictures without me trying to prompt or urge her in any way.

After that photo shoot I had the feeling “what the heck was that?”, and I was thinking that it was far too fast, too distracted, in a way all over the place. And that was indeed the case. But the pictures that we created were beautiful with a great variety of feelings and expression. And with a natural sensuality that the viewer can perceive in the pictures of this photo shoot.

Destiny (is a very big word)

I am still marveling about the shooting session with Thekla that happened one month ago. The spirit of this session has lingered on as I have been processing and posting the pictures. And from that moment something amazing has been developing. I have been in touch with people that have helped me finding what I want to do in photography. Really, it is that big!

I have been looking around and searching for what I want to express in photography for the past six years. It has been a meandering through subjects, techniques, aspirations, disappointments and endeavors. And though I never had the feeling that I was really going wrong it also never felt entirely right, never complete, never as if I was on the path I wanted to be.

The first big step was that last year I started to shoot portraits. It was the first time that I worked with human beings and the first time that I dared exposing myself to them as a photographer. It was a huge step.

There was always the aspiration of working with people, taking their pictures and finding a way to develop my photography into that direction. I just did not have the courage. Accomplished portrait and nude photographers might smile about this impediment (or maybe some might nod as they know this feeling of fear from their own experience).

Whatever, for me it was the first time that I got in touch with people that were willing to work with me and that I felt comfortable to work with. I am really grateful to Io and her fellow musicians for this experience.

From there I shot more portraits and I gained some more experience. But it still felt sometimes clumsy and as if I was not doing quite what I wanted or should do.

And then two things happened. I met Thekla and had this amazing creative experience with her. And I also met Nanni. Nanni is an artistic photographer in Germany who I approached via Flickr because her pictures fascinated me. And via email we started talking about photography, about how our brains work and process information and reality and about what defines the core of us as human beings.

Picture from the photo shooting with Thekla in October. Picture processed with textures.

Picture from the photo shooting with Thekla in October. Picture processed with textures.

And all of a sudden it clicked. All this together starts giving me the feeling, I would even say certainty what I want to do and express and depict in photography. It is as if my photographic destiny is gradually opening up. I am not there yet. I will need to try things out. I know it is a path and not a place.

But essentially I want to explore what lies under the surface of us as human beings. What defines us, what makes us behave the way we do, what makes us human and what brings us together as human beings. And I wand to find the expression of this human essence in the faces and (nude) bodies of people that I depict.

Well, that’s kind of big, isn’t it? Very big. Maybe stupid. Maybe preposterous. And maybe hopeless and destined to fail. But it feels right! And I need to go there.

Thank you to all my companions over the past years, thank you to my new friends. Thank you to Thekla, Nanni, Marilena, Io, Tracy, Alistair, Frank, Jay (Vulture Labs) and Ioanna. Thank you for going with me, for your ideas, teachings, readiness and support.

And I will write more about this as it evolves. Who knows how the journey will be. And if it will be a journey at all. But at least I want to take the first few steps now.