Beatrice Neumann shoots Omahyra Mota - Video

There's the first segment of RTL's mini docu on my work that was aired in Europe on 04/11/07.
More will follow very soon!

Omahyra Mota : Behind The Scenes and Sneak Peek

Last week I shot Omahyra Mota for 2 days and it was filmed by RTL German Television for a segment on one of their most viewed prime time shows "Explosiv Weekend", to be aired within the next few weeks.

Besides all the publicity involved with this, I was mostly stoked about photographing Omahyra, who to me is one of the most amazing models right now and her unique androgynous look has also fascinated Helmut Newton, Ellen Von Unwerth, Bruce Weber, Terry Richardson just to name a few.

But what I loved about her most is the fact that she didn't complain for a second, even though the first day was especially rough, with a 4am call time, hours of driving and hours of sitting and standing in the desert heat with almost no shade , and even managed to entertain my entire crew with silly jokes and stories.

Below a few behind the scenes photos with a B/W sample of our shoot.

me·di·oc·ri·ty in Life versus Death

I wasn't surprised when I learned that legendary surf photographer Warren Bolster had committed suicide sometime last fall:

He had endured at least a dozen surgeries and many broken bones participating in and documenting the world of surfing , which had ultimately lead to a life in pain and an addiction to painkillers.

He shot himself in the head a week after a fateful car accident that exceeded the amount of pain he was willing to cope with, along with financial struggles and the bitter aftertaste of 2 failed marriages.

Would you rather be alive, incapable of doing what you love, crawling through mediocre, oxicodone-hazed days and nights or just die?

I don't blame him.

Do you?

A David Bailey quote from his bio:

"It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer.

You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary."


Ps: I've learned that David Bailey was turned down when he applied at the London College Of Printing in the late 50's.

My rejection letter from LCP (now LCC) eventually motivated me to move to New York in 1998.

This sidenote is completely unrelated, of course, but being in the pool of LCP rejects gives me a little bit of comfort - in Bailey's case it sure wasn't a bad thing.

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.