Sintija

Sintija is one of those people that I found very difficult to categorize.

She’s actually not a professional model.

I met her when I worked with a professional model, Kat, who asked if her friend could join us for the day. I normally do not like to have other people attend a photo session, as I find the other person distracting, especially for me, but sometimes also for the model. It was clear, however, that this was important for Kat, so I agreed.

Since I would be taking nudes of Kat, I was concerned that this may make Sintija uncomfortable, but she assured me that she did not mind.

I had the idea to recreate a scene I remembered from my university years for the movie The Incredible Lightness of Being, in which a female photographer takes nudes of another woman. I gave Sintija my infrared camera and asked her to pretend to take pictures of Kat laying naked on the floor.

Sintija didn’t just pretend, though, she actually took pictures. Then I turned things around and asked Kat to take pictures of Sintija. This time, the photographer was nude and the model clothed, which may be an old joke but I still like it.

The pictures each of them took were, in my eyes, wonderful. Those pictures captured some of the playfulness in their friendship.

The picture of Sintija with her infrared colored blue hair ended up highlighted in Flickr’s Explore feature, which shot up my Flickr views that day.