Lucie from Czech Republic

Lucie was one of those couch surfers who really taught me not to judge a book by its cover.

When I picked her up at the train station, I met a young woman wearing big glasses and an exuberant laugh. I’m embarrassed to admit that my assumption was that she would not want to take pictures, as I had judged her to be a bit of a nerd. I guess the glasses threw me.

She was only 19 at the time and I was the second person to host her. She travelled to improve her English. She told me that she lived with her grandmother and each time she traveled (first time to Cyprus), she only told her grandmother on the day she was leaving.

When we discussed taking pictures, she said shyly, “I don’t want to take nudes.”

“That’s absolutely OK,” I reassured her.

So I was surprised when we started shooting at how much of her clothing she chose to remove!

In the end, she chose to do what is called “implied nude”, which allows the viewer to get a sense that the model is not wearing clothing, but does not reveal all to either the viewer or the photographer.

I was very impressed with her ability to pose and control her expression and her body. Perhaps because her best friend is a photographer, or perhaps she is just a natural talent.

I started out experimenting with my infrared camera, which causes false colors (hence the blue hair). I liked the unusual quality at the time.