Jessica

I had a long night out yesterday. First I met my friend Yula at the “Metropolitan” a local bar but ended up at “Union Pool” at the end. I was hanging out with my Australian roommate Kristian who is a great guy but also a bad influence because he always encourages me to drink. Well, aren’t the Germans and the Australians the guys who drink the most beer in the world? The difference is that Kristian is way more in training then I am. He does not even feel four beers while I don’t find my way back home.

One highlight of the night was to watch one of the band members of the band “TV On The Radio” who Kristian calls the master hugger because he is always hugging a girl. We were watching him for about 15 minuets and Kristian counted in detail how many hugs and kisses he received from different girls. It was about 6 hugs, 2 kisses or was it 4 hugs and 4 kisses I forgot. It was definitely very impressive and I was regretting again that I am not playing my guitar. To be in a popular band seems to do the job. Or maybe it is his beard. Kristian and I a contemplating to get some glue on beards for our nexts visit to Union Pool. I will let you guys know if it works or not.

I also ran into Stacy the girl I met about a month and a half ago at the same place what inspired me to write my “Dancing” post. Interesting enough she did not recognize any more, well at least she pretended she wasn’t. At a certain point she send her girlfriend in to talk to me. I found out that based on my dance moves they came up with a nickname for me. They call me “Mr. Shimmy”. I am not sure if that is positive or negative though, nor do I care.

When Lucy designed my business cards yesterday we decided to put an image on one side of the cards. She suggested shooting new images for that and to keep the approach as simple as possible. She suggested asking some of my beautiful female friends if they would model for me. My idea was to shoot a little story about their lives. I right away messaged my friend Jessica and she was so nice to make the shoot possible today.

At two o’clock I took a car over to Jessica’s apartment. Since I want to make these stories about the lives of the people I shoot it is best to shoot in their apartments. I brought all these lights, stands and a tripod and did not use any of that. We were just hanging out, talking and doing a shoot while Jessica was doing her laundry. I had a great afternoon.

It is a new approach for me. In the past shooting was often almost painful. So much work, so much self-created pressure to take an amazing shot. Another advantage about transcending the past and to end self-hatred is that there is nothing to worry about. Even if I would suck as a photographer I would still feel good about myself. Now I can play and then magic happens and you capture what you were not able to capture before. I got many beautiful images out of the shoot with Jessica today but the portrait I post today alone is to me the best portrait I ever shot.

I spent the afternoon with a friend I care about doing what I love to do, what else is there to life?

 

 

 

“Jessica” Williamsburg/Brooklyn 04-13-08 at 02:50 PM

Please check out my website at carstenfleck.com