A chance encounter w/ a Bulgarian pinup!

What’s up, Hive? It feels like @guthrie is never in school and it pisses me off like you can’t imagine. I constantly hear about how bad teachers have it but I don’t think he’s had a full week of school since November. He was off today, but fortunately spent the day over his half-brother’s which meant I was able to work at @caffetto. I got to some editing and then met up with my longtime friend, @kellifury. We caught up […there’s a lot that’s been happening in my life that I’ll be sharing in a freewrite here soon] and to talk about a tattoo idea. She’s an incredible tattoo artist. More on that in the near future as well.

I was able to revisit a shoot I did in October of last year. The model’s name is Tanya. She’s a goth pinup from Bulgaria and we’ve been Instagram friends for several years. In a serendipitous twist of fate, she just happened to be in Los Angeles the same time as me and with a sliver of overlap from when she arrived to when I had to leave, we managed to corner about four hours that we could make a shoot happen. She was enthusiastic, even with jet lag, she committed to meeting me at the Clark Gable estate in Pasadena my last morning there before check out.

She arrived and I gave her a tour of the estate. This mansion has become a huge part of my LA career. I’ve been shooting there for almost ten years and I’ve become close with the family. I also know exactly what room to shoot in at what time of day to get the kind of dark pinup photo I’m trying to create. We were able to pull some dresses and gowns from La Femme En Noir which completely the ensemble. It was a beautiful day, early enough that we could capture portraits in the garden before the sun was directly overhead. She was an outstanding model as well.

This was an example of what makes my job so enjoyable. The spontaneity of meeting someone from across the world to collaborate, documenting the time and place that we were able to meet and create art. Tanya was outstanding to work with and this was one of the more memorable shoots from 2022. A great way to end an otherwise difficult year. Thanks for reading. I may have one more set of photos still to come from this shoot. For the next day or two, I’ll be booking all my travel for the upcoming trip to LA and Vegas. In the meantime, please follow me here on Hive for more photography and art.