I put the travel in "travel model" because even though I live in Fayetteville, NC I almost never shoot in my home town. I was born in Maine, though most people thing I was born in Russia or some other Eastern Block country.
I don't really consider myself just a model anymore. I like to think of myself as more of an artist.
I want to create and modeling gives me a wonderful avenue to let my mind run rampant with concepts to shoot and looks to create.
I think what makes a model an artist is the need and the want to create their own concepts and start their own projects. Freelance modeling is a commitment to me. An investment. So I'll dump money into tailored outfits I create just for a shoot, usually 2-3 per shoot and come up with these concepts that I think would work best with each photographer. I don't just invest my body in modeling, I invest my heart and my soul.
Everything to me is done with purpose. Every shoot I aim to have a meaning behind the photos. Whether it's just aesthetically pleasing or dark and eerie to make you contemplate what you are looking at. We can all do the "pretty girl on bed" look and they make for lovely photos, but I aim to make it to be more than just that. Even with photographers that come with their own concepts to shoot, and clients who pay for a certain look, I always come with more options to offer or things to add to the look.
I love modeling for most of the same reason that other models love modeling. I like to have fun. I love seeing the finished result. I love being a part of something bigger and watching how elaborate a shot can get and it comes out amazing. It's worth the stress, the hard work, that long night staying up dying my hair, packing and unpacking my car, all the last minute wardrobe modifications and constantly learning new beauty/styling techniques to incorporate so I can be the all inclusive, can do model I want to be.
I love the kink side of modeling because I live it in my daily life. I don't have to fall into a character. I am most myself when I am being bound and strung up. The ironic thing about wearing a mask while being suspended is that there is no place to hide when I am floating feely. Being suspended like that is like coming home to me. It's letting go and just melting into the ropes. It's an embrace that bites and tears at you while it send you into the dark recesses of your mind, like laying on your back in the middle of the ocean, just drifting away and not caring. It's intoxicating and I usually pout and fight back when I am told I am coming down and as I am bring untied until the ropes loosen and the chemicals hit my brain like a drug and send me into subspace, which is the ultimate black hole that knocks you flat on your ass and makes you forget your own name.
And most importantly I need to add that I have had help along the way. I want to take this time to give credit where credit is much deserved and recognize someone that has made a great impression with many photographers and artist alike as an artist all in his own. I want to thank Dan Robert, who is my multi-facetted Assistant on the set and my husband off the set. Many photographers that I have worked with praise him for his helpfulness and his skill in so many areas. He is the one responsible for tying me in all my shibari/kinbaku rope works as well as having so many additional talents including being a self taught prosthetics artist, aiding with wardrobe construction, helping the photographers out by holding reflectors and pretty much anything else they ask him to do, and generally being there for me to bounce concepts off of and give me input. He's committed himself to many long weekends carting me around from one photographer to the next so I can rest in between and constantly trying to get me to stop eating that piece of candy before a shoot (cause I am HORRIBLE about dieting lol). I am very lucky to have such an asset to aid me and even luckier that he married my crazy ass.
So thank you Dan Robert for all your help and thank you to all the photographers who have worked with us to create something amazing.
Photographer Matt Schmidt