If only you could have seen this process...

Photographer: 

Andrew Kufahl

I had some lights in my bathroom that had chains connected--it was neat. I always liked it. There's got to be something that can be done with this, someday, photographically, I always thought.

That was the beginning.

And the day to use it was approaching. Years after moving in. After tons of self portrait shoots. After turning these lights on day after day. Waiting for the pieces to fall together... After meeting the talented Andrew Kufahl...

Andrew Kufahl and I had the itch to create. And we finally found the time to do so. We wanted to do a model shoot-these are quite different from the concept shoots. We wanted to play with lighting, techniques, poses, expressions, hair/makeup, etc. We wanted to practice getting into a flow with one another, feeding off of each other, letting the shoot turn into whatever it happens to turn into, and we shoot until we've got nothin' left. We wanted to simply PLAY and create.

Photographer: 

Andrew Kufahl

I had an idea for hair/makeup-a lot of my self portraits stemmed from some sort of vague idea, like a really vague hair/makeup idea. I wanted to use this gold headband, and style the hair around it...That's all I knew. I wasn't sure how... As I mentioned, I start with very vague ideas sometimes, but once we committed to doing a shoot, I rolled with it real time, getting Andrew's feedback along the way.

Oh how I wish there was behind the scenes video of this shoot! I don't know if there's ever been a goofier set up in my experience-for me as a model, or for the photographer.

I climbed on top of my bathroom counter, straddling the sink. I had to squat or bend some how, to avoid the ceiling. My space was quite limited. Making this look good was going to take some effort! As silly as it sounds, it was completely necessary due to the position of the lights/chains that inspired us to begin with. I was set!

Photographer: Andrew Kufahl

What's even better was the position Andrew needed to be in.

He wanted to be around my height. How could we do this in a bathroom? There wasn't much room to bring anything in to help him out.

So without a second thought, Andrew climbed onto the toilet--my toilet seat was quite flimsy, and I'm renting...we don't need to break anything... so the seat cover and seat had to be up. Yes, Andrew was balancing on  an open toilet, while holding a camera (above toilet water) and dealing with lights and chains and angles, oh my.

We added a few more chains for depth and interest.

Photographer: 

Andrew Kufahl

I wanted to push my expressions again. He helped me push 'em. Look! We even got a smile! We wanted PRETTY, but we still wanted emotion as that is a huge part of our work-our work together and our work individually.

It was awesome getting into the groove of things. I have no idea how we were able to make it work so well. While the we didn't have much space, and we couldn't move very much, and none of this was terribly comfortable, the shoot felt limitless.

When I saw some of the final images, I was blown away. I'm pretty sure with the first image, my response was just pure awe of how pretty it was... I couldn't believe that was ME! These were some of the prettiest images I have ever seen! And the prettiest I have ever felt! That seriously can't be me... And the colors! All while we straddled a toilet and a sink.

To see more of these images, check out my artist page: www.facebook.com/NFGartist or Andrew's artist page: www.facebook.com/AndrewKufahl