In stark contrast to the blog post below, I will leave it completely to you to imagine how this image was created. It’s a weird, freaky one – I love it!
Publications
Into the Deep
I absolutely loved working with Clayton Bastiani on the Isle of Wight earlier this year. He is just so incredibly creative and it’s really no wonder that his images have been published on hundreds of novel covers all over the world.
I was thrilled to be booked with the aim of producing a few more for his novel-cover stock (though we also did some different things as well). As someone who is rather fond of books and stories myself, I find it very exciting to be able to find myself on the front of another person’s story, representing some aspect of an imagined world – it’s a similarly wonderful feeling to know that a complete stranger has a portrait of you hanging in their house (or indeed, perhaps a bronze sculpture!) – really quite bizarre and odd (I always wonder what kind of person they are, and what it would be like to meet them and also how odd for them it might be to meet me). It will be interesting to see what stories out there will be matched up to my image, and why… Anyway, I’d better not get too ahead of myself, but I’ll update on here with any news down the line… 🙂
I’m allowed to show four individual images here on my blog, followed by a composite grid of some of the other images. It goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway: all images are strictly owned by Clayton Bastiani and may not be used/reproduced in any way without permission.
I should mention that Clayton wrote a ten-part series on photo creation and photo manipulation for Black & White Photography Magazine, the May edition of which featured the first mermaid image below. In the article Clayton explains all about how it was made, and you may be surprised to hear that I didn’t actually grow a tail especially for the purpose of the shoot (I suppose I’m just not that dedicated.. ;-))
Here’s a snippet of Clayton’s own words (from his facebook page), from when the magazine came out:
One of the driving forces behind many of my pictures is improvisation, finding ways to create images on a tight budget with minimum resources. This month I wanted to make a picture of a mermaid swimming in the murky depths of the sea.At the beginning of a recent shoot with Ella Rose I asked her to stand in the bay window and pretend to be swimming underwater. After the shoot I popped to the shops and bought a small fish tank and an assortment of plastic plants. Through trial and error and a little bit of torch light I spent a couple of days (in my usual to-ing and fro-ing manner) and created the following piece.
In Vivid Paint
Just a quick update… Things have been quite wonderful here in my world with the usual balance of endings and beginnings and new stuff and new plans. Amongst other things I’ve started putting the final pieces of the puzzle together for my upcoming trip to Scotland (4th-14th May). Pllleeeeease let the weather be beautiful! I was quite amazed by how quickly this trip booked up, to be honest; it made me think I really ought to go to Scotland more often, not least because I absolutely loved my last trip to Edinburgh. That said, there has been a cancellation and I am also doing my best to squeeze in any extra shoots people might want to arrange with me. I’m going to be in Edinburgh, Fife, Dundee, Perth, the Highlands, Glasgow, then back in Edinburgh. Do get in touch if you like the idea of having me pose for you and I’ll see what I can do.
I’ve had some great shoots recently, including a commercial shoot for a jewellery company in London, some dance/movement work, and a shoot which partly involved wearing moss and twigs! I do love the variety. I’ve got lots in my ‘to blog’ folder, as always; it’s overflowing, in fact, and I still find it so exciting to be able to share the work I’m featured in.
Another fun thing that happened recently was receiving a huge print of a painting by Nurhilal Harsa from Turkey, which I rolled out on my bedroom floor and gazed at in amazement. I imagine it will make a really good feature on the wall someday, as part of my quite eclectic collection of stuff.
The painting is based on an image shot for Digital Camera Magazine (full info here – it resulted in 14 pages and a front cover). The pictures here (sent initially to show me the painting) don’t do justice to quite how vibrant and striking the colours are, in my opinion; the blues/greens in particular are very bold. If you click on the link above you can see Nurhilal Harsa’s distinctive style. She says:
‘A strong, secular, humanist art is critical for Turkey and art can help everybody challenge limitations of understanding and consciousness. Izmir is a magical city on the shores of the Aegean Sea. I throw open my windows every morning and both the sea and sky open their arms to me, welcoming the day. Every day the sea and the sky are different and also the same. They can be serene or tempestuous. They are moody, like me. My paintings are emotional and vibrant, colorful and expressive.’
I am often contacted by painters who wish to paint versions of the photographs I post online, or by those who already have.
Copyright is a funny thing. The images taken of me, by default, belong (along with associated rights) to the photographer/artist. (When I post them here, it is with permission.) I agree, on each individual occasion, to pose for a person on a particular time or location, for them to produce my likeness and use it in any (legal, non-defamatory, etc.) way they like. It is thereafter not my right to have a say in what derivative work may follow on from the exchange for which I have been compensated, or to which I have agreed. Therefore, I occasionally find (often after the event) that I have ‘remotely’ modelled for someone I have never met or made an agreement with…
I’m happy to be inspiring people – it’s quite exciting to see the results, but I hope that good ethics can be remembered by those who use my likeness in this ‘remote’ way, and that for any kind of commercial use or public display/sale, permission must be sought beforehand, from the copyright holder (I can usually put you in touch with them; it’s no problem at all!), and that my role as the subject ought to be respected too. And yes, being sent a physical print really does make things a lot sweeter, from my point of view. 🙂
…So thank you, Nurhilal Harsa, for sending me a copy of your beautiful painting, all the way from Turkey. I really do appreciate it! I also hope other artists might be inspired to send on copies of their work to the models too, where possible and appropriate; it might be appreciated far more than you realise. 🙂
Article, and Gladiator
I’m watching Gladiator today. Brilliant!
In other news, this article about me, written by David Bollt (creator of a great-looking model/artist site) is particularly cheering… Some incredibly kind words about my work, followed by my answers to some interview questions on what I love and dislike about this job… Some of the content was taken from an email I sent to a fellow model I met once, on the subject of ‘balance’, as we were emailing at the same time as I was thinking about my responses – and we models talk! – but mostly it’s a bit ‘stream of consciousness’-y.
Link to article on Model Society.
Or content below:
The Muse: Ella Rose, Nude Modeling, Dancing, and Writing

“You might have wandered around the streets of Paris, but have you posed nude at 3am with the Eiffel Tower as your backdrop? You might have driven past some stunning vast deserts or dry lake beds, but have you laid down on the cracked earth with a view of the stormy sky above, or negotiated your way through heat, cacti and rocks in the name of photography? Have you got up close and personal with ancient, enormous rainforest trees? Or bathed in a bed of bluebells in the English springtime? When I look through my portfolio it’s just a huge catalogue of some amazing moments I’ve been lucky to experience.”


Lilies and Vanity
Hallo! I modelled for the following images in Dusseldorf a while ago with photographer Vernon Trent – a mixture of film and polaroid. So nice to see the results, and I can’t wait for my next trip to Deustschland! Vernon and his lovely lady friend were very nice to work with, and I have always found Vernon’s photography beautiful. 🙂
I really like the fifth shot.
Also, I recently wrote an article about ‘vanity’ in the context of modelling. (Loyal blog readers might recognise some of the content.) It was published a couple of days ago on the front page of Model Mayhem, and had a great reaction. I was expecting some snarky comments along the lines of ‘why does she think we’d want to read about that… Who is she anyway?’ etc; forum reactions are unpredictable (and I have experience of this from writing for the Guardian; you get such a mix!)! But I have survived and am pleased to know that people are relating to what I say in great numbers. Over on the facebook page of MM it’s had a crazy amount of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’, and I’ve had some really nice messages about it. I have no idea if non-members of Model Mayhem can read the article, so here it is in full, for the record:
….And soon I’m getting around to looking at some questions I’ve had posed to me for an interview for an excellent website, getting ready to let loose on some more of my thoughts about this modelling business… Such a compliment to be asked, and you just can’t shut me up at the moment.
Paint, Feet, Magalazine Cover!
By Holly at Jewelled World, yet another book cover featuring… well, my feet again. Haha. It amuses me greatly that my little tattoo seems not to have been edited out by the relevant department at the publishing house; the absolute testament to the fact that no one ever notices it. I will have to see this in real life to be sure. Well done Holly!
Finally, my mug on the cover of Digital Camera Magazine recently, shot by a competition-winning reader up in Manchester. We had a great day; there were lots of sets and beautiful images made that I really wish I could have seen finished versions of after the shoot, but trust me that there were some absolute beauties! My hair and make up was stunning, I thought, and done by Zan, who was excellent!
I’ve also been told I’m featured in a book out at the moment, ‘Practical Photoshop: Creative Projects’. Someone spotted it in WHSmith for me (thank you!), so I emailed the editor and he’s kindly sending me a copy. I’ve got some lovely shots in waiting which I’ll be excited to show soon, but bear with me if I do disappear for a little while. Thanks for reading!
Public Service Announcement: a Book!
I’m so excited to have in my hands the fruit of several months’ coordination and the physical result of some extremely generous and kind photographers. I’m holding (well, not while typing, I suppose, but it’s here on my desk) a collection of some of my favourite images taken over the last three years, during which I’ve been practising my happy deviation into a life of art modelling.
I’ve mentioned before that I thought it was sad not to have many actual prints to show for my hard work, unlikely adventures and gloriously fun modelling frolics so far, and that computer files didn’t really cut it; and that I had decided to put together a photography book for myself to look at when I’m old (or anytime between now and then…). I’ve now managed to finish this project.
The book focuses on just one theme; it uses shots from one of my twelve website galleries, ‘Faerie’, and collects 29 natural, gentle, romantic and pure shots of me as the nude, female figure in a loose ‘garden’ setting; in tall grass, entwined in trees, in pools of water, surrounded by flowers, in faerie queen headdresses, in pre-Raphaelite forest guises, in the cool, shady dappled light of Mediterranean gardens and against huge, jurassic plants. I’ve never made a book before, so this is a great feeling, and just so wonderful to be able to own!
I’m so grateful to the photographers whose images are printed in this book, and although this was definitely created just as an indulgence for myself, as something to keep, I do have permission to make this book available for others to purchase. If anyone would like to buy themselves a copy, some money from each book bought goes to Amnesty. If you agree with me that physical prints are sooo much more satisfying to look at than online virtual ones, and you like the idea of owning a version yourself, having it adorn your bookshelf and perhaps provide some visual and artistic inspiration, you’re welcome to preview it online and see what you think.
Huge thanks to the following. Click on the links below to see more of their work:
Rebecca Parker
John Evans
Paul Bartholomew
Rayment Kirby
Voyages2004
Jeremy Howitt
DB Images
Dave Aharonian
Keith Cooper (website pending)
Imagesse
Robert Farnham
Gregory Brown
Michael Cordiez
Sean Buckley
and Pat Brennan
…I hope you like it. I’m so glad I finally did this and am already thinking of making a second book sometime in the not-too-distant future… Just need to choose a gallery/theme and start to gather my favourites!