I’m going through a lot of old magazines ripping out the photos I like and tossing the other 99.5% of the paper.

One thing I noticed in the stack of what I’ve kept, the models don’t look at the camera very often. I sometimes tell new models “don’t look at the camera unless you mean it.”

I look at all of these thousands of images in the magazines I’m tossing out, and I have a visceral reaction to compelling lighting, compositions, dances of color on the page. When I look at a photo in which the model is just standing there deer in headlights waiting for the shutter to click, supremely unconfident, no matter what is going on in the rest of the image, I have a strong dislike for the whole. If it is an interesting setting, I am even angry at the photographer for wasting it on an uncompelling subject.

To me, photography is only a rush when it feels challenging, and if the model just stands there looking at the lens, waiting to have their picture taken, it is uninteresting. I don’t like when they submit to the process, when they are having their picture taken rather than being interesting.

Unless you have the confidence to stare down the lens or tell a story, don’t go near it, the lens will know you are weak. The lens is predatory. To use it is always to be hunting for something. When the prey is immediately submissive, the hunt is dull.

I shot this backstage with my little Canon G9 during the Milan Mens Fashion Week (Milan Moda Uomo) in January.

I’ve put together a self-published collection of some favorite images from my first 4 years of fashion photography. Unsigned copies are $60, and signed copies are $80.

Here are shots from two tests I did for the Beatrice agency in Milan last month.

Anita Hodosi

Tamara Edwards

My feelings tend to imprint directly onto images. If I feel apathetic or tired, I get these:

If I feel frustrated I get this:

When I feel like being a technical photographer I get this:

When I click with the model and feel inspired by the styling I get these:

My mood and outlook directly affects what I am capturing.

I have been working on modaCYCLE projects so much lately, I have neglected this blog.

Here are some articles I’ve written for modaCYCLE Journal:

• Ports 1961
• 7 for All Mankind
• Fratelli Rossetti
• Caroline Hedaya

Trade Show Reports:

• Fashion Coterie
• The Train and Platform 2

I have notes for several more which I have yet to compile into articles, including a big NY Bridal Market article.

… and these are some model tests:

Darya for Supreme

America’s Next Top Model Cycle 9 winner Salisha for Elite

Decoration is a craft. Art is an anti-science. The pinnacle height of achievement in a craft is the perfect modification of a material into a vision. The pinnacle height of achievement in an art is the perfect modification of a vision into a metaphor. Some things can be both. Art cannot exist without craft. Craft cannot exist without art. Yet there is a vast difference from the goals of artists and craftspeople. Craft has a finite goal, the production of something tangible. Art has an infinite goal, the induction of something intangible. Craft relaxes. Art excites.

I have been working as a fashion photographer for several years, and I have amassed a small but vital collection of images. I would like to make a book displaying a selection of these images. Each contribution of $60 toward this effort will entitle the contributor to receive one signed copy of the finished book.

- Ched

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