Behind the Scenes: Downtown LA

I can say for sure that Downtown LA is kinda gritty.
Skid Row is kinda scary to look at, too, sometimes.

At first.

Then you'll eventually get used to it.

Doing photo shoots Downtown LA can be challenging for models, especially when dressed head to toe in skin tight latex in 92F LA heat on a crowded busy weekday on Santee Alley.

A couple of weeks back I was shooting a 7 page editorial which left me time to a second setup with the girls.

I always let agents know what I am shooting, like I did for this shoot.

Only that Ira B. and Aleksandra P. , represented by LA MODELS did not have a clue what I had planned for them and were not too excited when they found out, either.

Here's a photo of them in the back of the car en route to one of them nasty Downtown Alleys:

(thanks to my dear friend Steve Diet Goedde I now have proof - and awesome Behind-The-Scenes shots).



The rear view mirrow shots reveal Aleksandras understandable feelings of unease- since I was just about to shoot these girls dressed in Latex in the middle of the day in LA's Downtown Fashion District, which is usually overcrowded by people of all nationalities who are usually below 5'4" in height.




Here's a photo of me shooting the girls- as you can see, it's not really cozy there and we attracted huge crowds within a matter of seconds, so we had to switch locations every 5 minutes or so.

Can you tell in the second photo how quickly they got acclimated to the situation?
Chatting with bag ladies and homeless people?

Awesome.




Ok and this one?
My fave.

49 minutes later...



The shoot was over in less than 50 minutes and the girls actually ended up having fun doing this crazy lil shoot.

I honestly don't like to push people beyond their comfort zone, but in this case, I am glad I did.