Hi, thanks for reading this.
I've come here specifically to see if I can find some interesting models to shoot.
As a photographer, I have a great deal of experience. Working with rock stars, actors, punks, porn stars, politicians and all sorts of other people. But, of course, the more you know, the more you realise you need to know. And I'm keen to keep my portfolio fresh and take on new challenges. So, I'd like to find one or two exceptional models to develop some picture ideas with. And attitude and personality will always be far more important to me than conventional beauty.
I'm very, very much a 'less is more' type guy. But I realise, if you're asking people who don't know you from Adam to work with you, a little bit more information might be nice.
So far, I've worked with the following Model Mayhem models -
Sophia Lares MM207727
Betcee May MM8001
Jeska Vardinski MM14883
Britt Black MM202977
Dae Daniels MM233266
Jana Defi MM137942
Submissan MM 173981
Kim P MM529745
Morrigan Hel MM22980
Messy Stench MM1963
Honey B MM 159782
Brittany II MM 530850
This is not that many I realise but again, for me, less is more. I like to find a few good models and stick with them, sometimes over many years. That way IMHO it becomes far more of a collaborative process.
I sometimes work for a British magazine called Loaded. It's not a top shelf type magazine, more like the US Maxim, and I have a page in it called 'Getting Away With It' which is b/w photos of attractive girls I happen to see around and about. They're mostly in fetish clubs but the odd porno convention too. The page has been going now for 15 years and has been published in book form as 'Stare'-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stare-Portraits … amp;sr=1-9
Basically, I'm a editorial portrait photographer that has a semi-secret sideline in shooting erotica. The only end use for this work, other than Loaded and very occasionally the UK Maxim etc., is books like these -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Favourite-Mo … 3936709319
http://www.amazon.com/Femmes-Masterpiec … B000KJTOLC
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fetish-Masterpi … mp;sr=1-25
I hope to publish my own book of erotica too, one day, but that is totally dependent on my work becoming much better.
My portraiture has been exhibited fairly widely in Europe (including a one man show at the Photographers Gallery in London, and inclusion in 'How We Are' show at Tate Britain, 2007 - their first ever photography show).
In the spirit of full disclosure, I'd also add that my street and club portraiture entered posterity with this book, now sold out, written by Professor Val Williams -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Derek-Ridgers-Y … 190379613X
My modus Operandi.
My modus operandi is a bit different to most other photographers inasmuch as I tend to like to avoid pre-formed ideas.
I love photography and I love the veracity of the medium. To always think everything out nicely beforehand tends to shut off bigger and greater opportunities. Mostly when I shoot someone, I think about what I should have done on the drive home afterwards. So I'm trying to rid myself of that.
My desire always is to turn up with one camera, one model, good daylight and an open mind. My best ideas always come on the hoof and they're always entirely based on the place and the personality, and mood, of the model. In also very open to the happy accident.
I obviously have a few fall back ideas, it would be extremely unprofessional not to have, but I do my absolute best not to use them.
The other thing I hate is the popular notion of "good taste". I don't apply that judgement to my work at all. If I thought my good taste was the same as everyone else's, I'd certainly give up photography today. It's always my hope that I'll do something that I've never done before. Photos of smiling girls with big hair and their thumbs provocatively hooked into their bikini bottoms is not my idea of good taste.
And it may take me literally years to make a proper judgement on what I've done anyway.
I'm one of the photographers on here who doesn't mind escorts. For anyone new or nervous, I'd encourage it. Coming from years of working with big stars and many more who simply think they are big stars, I've learnt to work under the watchful eye of teams of managers, agents and various hangers on. Not that I like that but I can work in those circumstances.
And if the only thing that might stop an incredible new model from working with me is the presence, or not, of an escort, then an escort is no problem for me.
