THE STORY: When frequent collaborator and friend Mercedes Bankhead asked me to come out and take portraits of the attendees of her first modeling class “From Posture to Pose” I answered the exact same way that I answer anything else, “rock and roll.”

I spent a few days thinking about my lighting setup and landed on using a clamshell layout with a 6ft umbrella as my key light and a 36in softbox as my fill. I figured if I was going to be shooting models I’d better act like it! I decided to only use the wall of the dance studio as my background because I wanted to keep the feeling of the workshop consistent throughout the shots.

On the day of the class and after I’d setup, I sat down and thought, “I might as well learn something while I’m here.” Moments later, inspired by the energy of the class, I was on my feet and taking images while Mercedes taught the ladies some of the valuable lessons she’d learned through her modeling journey. They discussed posture, emoting, and the power of making micro-adjustments to create entirely new poses. I watched as she went from model to model giving them specialized one-on-one time while encouraging them to find their own modeling style.

When it was time to take the portraits each of them stepped in front of the camera with a confidence that I knew was from having just been taught new techniques and from being in a space that celebrated self-love and exploration. Those are the only kinds of rooms that I ever want to be in. That any of us should ever be in.

I hope you enjoy the images as much as I enjoyed making them and I’ll see you soon!

Best,
JYDNL