Olga A. from Russia

After first hosting Olga Z. and then Olga A., I keep wanting to say that I’ve hosted Olgas from Z. to A., but I promise not to make such a horrible pun.

This Olga happened to be a professional model, but she was also a couch surfer. I gave her the same talk I gave all my guests, about taking pictures being optional and she didn’t need to decide right away.

“Yes,” she said firmly. “We take pictures. We start now, yes?”

Throughout her stay, she continued that approach. She came up with new concepts every day, sometimes multiple.

Goradz, a guy I worked with who had seen my pictures mentioned that his wife, Russa, was a makeup artist from Argentina (you can find them both in Friends). She was having trouble finding work in Denmark, and she wondered if she could work for me and accept pictures as compensation, so she could demonstrate her skills. I mentioned this to Olga and she was interested, so Russa came to talk concepts.

At first, Olga was silent as we asked her thoughts. Russa and I awkwardly talked and Olga left the room.

“I guess she’s a little shy,” I whispered, and we brainstormed about dark stormy face painting concepts.

Suddenly, Olga came out of my guest room and said with a big smile, “Bright colors! Fruit!”

Russa and I stared mutely back at her.

“Bright colors!” Olga repeated. “Fruit!”

She showed us some pictures she had found to get the idea across.

I looked at Russa and she looked back at me.

“OK,” said Russa. “I guess that’s decided.”

As it happens, another Russian speaking model, Yulia, contacted me to suggest shooting together (you can find her in Models). We all agreed to shoot Olga and Yulia together.

I bought the fruit and fashioned the strawberry and citrus necklaces. Russa did the makeup.

Olga and Yulia could not have been more different as models.

Ogla, as you can see, seldom smiled while posing. Yulia struggled not to smile while posing!

All in all, it was great fun!