It wasn’t difficult to guess who my third muse was… every man browsing my portfolio will notice the sexy brunette with a doll face. I say every man because I know how they love Diva, things are slightly different with women who usually don’t like her attitudes. Anyway, as a man and as a photographer, it was a pleasure to shoot Diva. Amazing pin-up face, beautiful bottom and lovely boobs : believe me, that’s a lot for an amateur model. I remember when she contacted me. She was 17 years old and I told her it was impossible to shoot her before she turned 18. I’ve also heard bad things about her behavior with another photographer and some models but I decided to give her the opportunity to work for me. I didn’t regret it because we did a lot of great sessions together… lot of pictures I love. Even so, I consider Diva apart from my others muse simply because I was more interested by her physical (when the intellectual side was prevailing with Greta, Dana or Anaïs). We were not sharing the same universe. She doesn’t love the same things than me. In few words, we were simply different : the dreamer versus the pragmatic. Unlike with Dana or Anaïs, I never thought we could work a long time together. I remember what I said to my friend LouLady when we shot Diva for the first time : “every shooting can be the last one”. Let me explain, Diva is the model with the highest potential I’ve ever seen : beautiful face + great body + narcissist personality + desire to be famous = a terrific equation when you are 18 years old. So, I always considerated Diva could become a supermodel working with the best photographers… and I was conscious my work was too basic and explicit for her. That’s why I ever thought captiveculture would be only one step in her modeling life, the best way to get professional and good looking pictures quickly, the right way to catch a better opportunity later. I have no problem with this policy and Diva worked very well during several months. Finally, the “short time” experience has gone longer than expected but things became more complicated after half a year. Dana stopped to be my assistant and I proposed her job to Diva : I did a mistake. Indeed, Diva loves the fetish universe, not the pervert side. A lot of french models are dreaming to be the new Dita von Teese or Emily Marilyn but they have a distorted and incomplete analysis about the reality. They think it’s a dream life, easy work with easy money, full of pleasant things and cool people… like a movie star or a famous singer. I think Diva like others french models forgot how Dita and Emily started their modeling adventure: it wasn’t always classy and sexy. Here is the problem… you can’t work peacefully when you don’t adhere to the whole thing. I think Diva was not interested by the bondage domination shootings and it was noticeable on several sessions we did together. I don’t criticize it, I just analyze it. There is a real difference between a model and an assistant. When you are the producer’s assistant, you have to promote and defend your product towards the models and that’s not easy when you don’t appreciate or understand all things involved by this kind of productions. I only needed few days to understand that Diva couldn’t replace my previous assistant. I also doubt she realized the given opportunity, Diva probably thought things would be easier (but this role is thankless). She also wanted to turn towards burlesque and glamour universe and didn’t find the words to inform me about that will. At the result, her mind and her schedule started being less available for me and we became unable to communicate efficiently : that’s a recurring problem when you work with younger people, they don’t know express their decisions and their wishes. I don’t understimate my personality too : I don’t like people cheating or hiding something, specially when I guess there is a problem. I love people who express their thoughts even if I don’t like what they have to say… It seems Diva choosed another way ; maybe things would have been different with more experience… Work and Listen are the rules to build a sure and fast career and it’s not easy to agree when you are young. I just hope she will be able to live her dreams entirely within a near future because she’s a great model and a good person.

posted by JG on 2007-08-14

category : story