I have some fond memories and some frustrating memories that crop up for me when looking at this image. The photograph was made in an incredibly cheap and run down motel room up in Seattle on an April afternoon about five years ago. I remember the trip vividly because I was going through a very emotional breakup at the time and I wanted to get out of Portland for a while to clear my head. So I set up a bunch of photoshoots in Seattle as a way to take my mind off my troubles.
Well, as luck would have it, the weather ended up being terrible that week. I’m talking rain showers that made even Seattle natives hide away indoors. I scheduled four shoots and all four of them flaked on me last minute. I can’t say I blamed any of them. The weather was not great for photoshoots. Nothing quite like being depressed over a relationship and watching rain out a motel window in Seattle. So what is a photographer to do? Well, I posted a quick ad on Craigslist (back when you could do casting calls for nudes on Craigslist) and crossed my fingers I would get a response.
A few hours later I had a volunteer who was willing to meet for coffee and ultimately do an indoor shoot where I was staying in North Seattle. It was a quick session as I hadn’t really prepared to do much indoor work and had to make the best out of photographing with slower speed film and no professional studio lighting. In the end, I feel like I a got a nice candid quality in the photographs which is something that I very much enjoy.