My muse (Patreon)

Iryna Berdnyk

Part 1

And here it is - the wire shoot I’ve been wanting to show you for so long.

This is Iryna, whom I met for the first time at this shoot in May, while I was in Ukraine. And it ended up being our one and only shoot together before I moved to the other side of the world.

We both had packed schedules. I had a shoot before Ira and another one after her. We had exactly one hour.

And, of course, I somehow managed to be late.)))

So in the end, we had about 35 minutes to actually shoot.

Thirty-five minutes, a model I had never worked with before, artificial light that I hadn’t planned on using at all, and this idea with wire that had been sitting in my head for a very long time but that I had never actually tried to execute. Which also meant I had absolutely no clear understanding of what exactly I was going to do with that wire. We had to figure it out on the spot - bend it, twist it, tie it, see what happened, undo it, and try again. Basically, an excellent plan for a 35-minute shoot.)))

At first, I was beating myself up for being late..... Then I started regretting the fact that I had decided to experiment with this idea for the first time on a model instead of trying it on myself first. Especially with a model I had never photographed before and whom I still wanted some time to get to know and understand in front of my camera.

Everything was new.

Ira.

The wire.

The light.

And we were running out of time.

Then I started getting pissed off at the studio too.))) I had planned to shoot with natural light, but they refused to move the black backdrop closer to the window because apparently it was attached to the wall and “couldn’t be removed.” Complete bullshit.))) I used to work in a photo studio. I know how these things work. I know what can be taken down and what can’t. But I also didn’t have time to start a revolution in the studio.

And somewhere around that point, talking to Ira calmed me down. I just accepted reality for what it was, stopped trying to save my original plan, and started creating with whatever we actually had.

And this is what we made.)))

Despite all that chaos - I enjoyed it so fucking much. The process, the experiment, our communication, Ira herself, and the result. Even those 35 minutes turned out to be enough to try something completely new and create photographs that I genuinely love.

Of course, it’s not exactly what I had imagined in my head. And I’ll definitely return to this idea one day - with more time, more preparation, and preferably without having to fight anyone over a black backdrop.))) But this became one of my last shoots with models before moving - and one of those shoots whose results I’m still incredibly happy with. Maybe even a little more because of how many things had to go wrong for everything to turn out this well.)))