I had shot a virtual photo shoot with Cam during the COVID lockdowns. So naturally, I was ecstatic when she reached out about doing a floral shibari boudoir session for herself.
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I recently spent a few Autumn weeks in Japan with my girlfriend, and while I was there I had an opportunity to refresh my art practice. In Zen Buddhism there’s a concept called “Shoshin", beginner’s mind..
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Like many women I work with, A is normally is the one at the top of control in her professional life, and she was looking forward to an opportunity to experience something different. In this case, an expression of finding release and freedom through sensuality.
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Vivian is an actress and model in Los Angeles, and she’s starting a journey in photography as well. We decided a walk around my old stomping grounds in Culver City would be a fun experience to shoot together and give her an opportunity to take pictures around an art deco former factory.
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Rock and Hawk, a poem.
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Shibari is a mysterious thing. How can the sensation of being restricted give the feeling of freedom?
Maybe it only seems like a paradox from that perspective. Lao Tzu describes the Tao, the Way, as one of yielding and “returning.” Letting things flow, like water running down a mountain into a valley. Perhaps rope bondage is simply a guide to that space of acceptance and letting go, which is a feeling that our culture tries to avoid at all costs. I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe it is neither. It is also possible that the appearance of conflict arises simply because our minds, overwrought with puritanical doctrine, want an explanation deeper than “touch feels good,” as if that wasn’t profound enough.
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Jessica writes: It was such a pleasure to work with Shane. Before we started we talked about my boundaries. He listened and helped guide me through out our shoot. Watching him tie was very intriguing and relaxing. I felt so at ease the whole time. As we shot he would show me what we had shot and I couldn’t believe it was me. He captures you perfectly and elegantly. Looking forward to shooting again.
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This is a question that I’ve been hesitant to approach, because for a long time I wasn’t sure.
It took me over ten years of photography before I started to find my voice and figure out what it was I had been trying to say all along, and likewise shibari has taken some time, about ten years off and on. Most of my realizations have come after I found my voice through the art of photography, and started to find parallels.
This is kind of a special one.
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Nathalie and I met when I was living in Tokyo in 2017. We only had a brief window of opportunity to work together, so, I did what I always do: I improvised.
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Due to the Covid quarantine, I and others have found that it is possible to do beautiful boudoir photo sessions virtually, by means of video calls. For me, creating art through these sessions is a joy, like flying after being let out of a cage. It’s still quite a ways away from the experience of actually having a proper boudoir photo shoot in person, but it is also rewarding in its own unique way, with constraints and opportunities.
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We are so used to only experiencing photography on our computers and phones that it can be easy to assume that's the final product-- and for some purposes that may be the case. However, Digital images are easily lost, whether it be to accidental deletion, devices breaking, going obsolete, or being upgraded.
In contrast, physical works such as prints or books are real, tangible objects that you can proudly display in your home, or keep private to enjoy for years or decades in the future. In this way, artwork you make can become treasured mementos that only become more valuable as time passes.
Anything that can be looked at has probably been photographed, but it’s the expression that matters. Even my work with my dear friend Ryan, who I have known and been photographing since we met in college, continues to change and grow, just as we do. Each time, better than the last.
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I hope you all had a happy halloween, and now, a happy Día de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead for my friends who are less familiar with Latin American culture. It is a celebration and remembrance of the lives of those who have passed, and its roots are a combination of indigenous Aztec traditions with Catholic influence.
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Currently we are in a golden age of photography-- we consume and create more photos each year than in the first century of photography. It has quite literally never in history been easier to use our individual, personal gaze and make photographic images and to share them with people around the globe-- forever visible. We are adapted to be aware of a Second Gaze, that of the judging public at large, which by the nature of the current internet is not bound by proximity of space or time. I suspect this has changed the nature of how we create and think about personal photography, how we see ourselves, and encourages us to find privacy by masking our true selves.
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This is from my boudoir session with Kealani in August.
My goal was to create work that would be dreamy and ethereal for her, since she had never before done any artistic photographs of herself, and I decided on doing a soft-focus effect for most of the photographs to achieve that style. There are many ways to get this effect, and in my case I used a vintage lens from the 1970’s.
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This is from a recent shibari session with my friend Karissa.
To be frank, I consider myself an absolute beginner in this art, and it would be foolish for me to claim to have much more experience than that. My rope tying is improving with practice, but like photography, the real art is in the deeply personal communication that takes place during a session. Literally anyone can learn how to tie some knots, and with practice make it look good. But that’s just the beginning, not the end goal.
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This was our second time doing a shibari session together, and in the three years since the first one, I’ve certainly grown. It was a fantastic experience working with someone who has been a dear friend for several years, and being free to create and explore without judgement.
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After a few years I'm still somewhat new to doing Shibari/rope sessions, and even though I feel like a total beginner, I can feel myself improving with each session. I'm finding better ways to continue ties, getting better at knots and managing tension, and working more efficiently. Sessions like this have some extra challenges as well: the model loses mobility so you have to plan or improvise poses that look good in photographs, likewise the placement that would make for good lighting. Of course, there's also the challenge of making something meaningful that communicates more than just "Look at this person's body!" That's always the most difficult part in photographing nudes, the mind and competency of the artist is revealed.
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