The Hooker and the Porn Star

I've recently come to the conclusion that the best part about doing what I do is not the actual act of picture-taking but rather the people I get to meet. Or to put it correctly : I prefer photographing interesting people as apposed to taking a pretty picture of one of the oh-so-many pretty faces in LA.

I've been mostly shooting the "rising stars" of the (local) fashion world lately,(if there even is such a thing) which made me understand a lot more about what kind of people appeal to me as subjects to photograph.

And it isn't always easy to explain to someone that to me a pretty picture isn't always a good picture, or the prettiest, so to speak.
But when I look at the tens of thousands or hellknowshowmany frames I've shot in my life, how many of those were actually worth my time?

To some people a pretty picture is a damn good reason to feel proud and accomplished and I wish the same applied to myself, because it would make my life a whole lot easier.
Instead I often find myself looking at a pretty face and feel simply nothing.

No ambition, no inspiration. Just this vaccum in my head and the 'so whatchagonnadonow?' question arises which i usually answer with taking a pretty picture and everyone's happy while Unicorns fly around in the sky.

And this is what it must feel like to be a hooker, and I guess this would technically make me one.

Hookers get their Johns off.
Hooker pleasures her John in exchange for money or other goods of that kind.
John then walks away (more or less) satisfied.

The Hooker isn't.

But does that really make her a good lover?

And inbetween those hooker days , I get to meet some really special people, which makes being a hooker not bad at all.:

I got to photograph a young lady named Sasha Grey , who is definitely not the kind of girl that the modern dictonary has a description for (yet).

Her Wikipedia entry contains a long list of pornos with mostly "too extreme for mainstream" plots that will give you a slight idea what this girl is really is about.

Kinda.

Just - turned - nineteen Sasha is fearless and smart. Nothing about her seems fake, and she isn't the smiley type either. Her pretty face might fool you for a split second , but most people wouldn't even know of the books that she reads or the music she listens to.

I wonder what could possibly challenge a girl like her ? Not too much, that I am sure of. Everything she does is part of her quest to explore every aspect of herself and the darkest places that most people fear.
What might frighten others is where she finds comfort - I am not sure weather this is only temporary or not, but what really matters is that this girl actually goes there.

So yeah, she got quite some attention in the mainstream media , flipped off Tyra, gave dumbass "Dr 90210" a cold look during a TV segment for "The Insider" ,which made me laugh.

She's brilliant.



Even though I've known of Sasha since a few weeks into her start in adult, it took almost a year to get her to myself for the day, which is not easy with her crazy booking schedule.

And the burning question was: How would Sasha want to be photographed on her day off?

I pretty much left it up to her to decide.

And I've learned that Sasha Grey didn't want a pretty picture, either.

The "Hooker who photographed a Porn Star" is more likely to feel like an actual "photographer who took a picture that was worth her time", and that for sure is PRICELESS.