LATEX FIGURE
Portrait of Laura and how we met.
Part I.
That day began like any other: espresso in hand leaning on the balcony overlooking the street below. The morning was particularly frigid yet my mind was made up and I was to go shoot some photos in the city. Consistency is key when you want to get better at something. That’s not to say that other factors aren’t at play. I’ve learned that bringing together street photography, consistency and luck creates unique situations by which I meet people that otherwise I would have never.
I was shooting in the financial district when a man approached me and asked if I would take his picture. He wore a run-down coat and was holding a crumpled brown paper bag close to his chest. With slight hesitancy I said, yes. I tried placing him where the light was good but he didn’t take direction very well. English was probably his third or fourth language. After a few minutes, I became a little frustrated. He must have sensed this because after I was done he asked me to come with him. As if to make up for something. I accepted.
We entered a building a couple blocks down the street and walked up an old creaky stairwell. He then unlocked the door to a beautiful loft-like apartment, classic New York down to the smell. There was photo equipment strewn all over the place. The man, whose name I still didn’t know up to this point, said he wanted to introduce me to a special acquaintance of his and that she’d be arriving anytime now.
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Part I.
That day began like any other: espresso in hand leaning on the balcony overlooking the street below. The morning was particularly frigid yet my mind was made up and I was to go shoot some photos in the city. Consistency is key when you want to get better at something. That’s not to say that other factors aren’t at play. I’ve learned that bringing together street photography, consistency and luck creates unique situations by which I meet people that otherwise I would have never.
I was shooting in the financial district when a man approached me and asked if I would take his picture. He wore a run-down coat and was holding a crumpled brown paper bag close to his chest. With slight hesitancy I said, yes. I tried placing him where the light was good but he didn’t take direction very well. English was probably his third or fourth language. After a few minutes, I became a little frustrated. He must have sensed this because after I was done he asked me to come with him. As if to make up for something. I accepted.
We entered a building a couple blocks down the street and walked up an old creaky stairwell. He then unlocked the door to a beautiful loft-like apartment, classic New York down to the smell. There was photo equipment strewn all over the place. The man, whose name I still didn’t know up to this point, said he wanted to introduce me to a special acquaintance of his and that she’d be arriving anytime now.
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Part II.
As the day unfolded amidst the afternoon’s cacophony of the clinking radiator, the passing sirens and the jackhammers’ pavement pounding in the distance, there we were, sitting listening to a new rendition of John Cage’s 4’33. Jacob was a middle eastern photographer who shot mostly conflict and street photography with forty years of experience under his belt. Just like that he interrupted the ‘silence’ and offered to make an espresso. Of course I said yes.
He prepared a true 40ml espresso and served it in a Finnish ceramic saucer and cup set which he praised as ‘the set’. As I took the first sip I heard someone walk through the front door. Jacob’s friend had surely arrived. He bounced out of his seat and put on a big welcome show. I placed the saucer and cup on the coffee table and walked over. Laura and I met.
Laura had a magnetic personality, she was always talking with a smile and used unbreakable eye contact. As the three of us got to talking, Jacob told Laura about our earlier encounter and how I was in need of a portrait subject since he had failed monumentally at it and I was upset. Clearly I said he had done fine. Laura laughed and said: “Photographers are good as long as they stay behind the camera, that’s why you have us models to make your pictures beautiful."
Jacob went on to make Laura an espresso and she and I sat down as I finished my own. I told her about the work I was interested in and about the photographers that have inspired me. She then stopped me abruptly and asked me if I had ever shot any models wearing latex. To which I joked: “In my dreams, is that enough?” She intelligently replied: “That’s perfect, you’ll do an original job then." I was thrilled.
As the day unfolded amidst the afternoon’s cacophony of the clinking radiator, the passing sirens and the jackhammers’ pavement pounding in the distance, there we were, sitting listening to a new rendition of John Cage’s 4’33. Jacob was a middle eastern photographer who shot mostly conflict and street photography with forty years of experience under his belt. Just like that he interrupted the ‘silence’ and offered to make an espresso. Of course I said yes.
He prepared a true 40ml espresso and served it in a Finnish ceramic saucer and cup set which he praised as ‘the set’. As I took the first sip I heard someone walk through the front door. Jacob’s friend had surely arrived. He bounced out of his seat and put on a big welcome show. I placed the saucer and cup on the coffee table and walked over. Laura and I met.
Laura had a magnetic personality, she was always talking with a smile and used unbreakable eye contact. As the three of us got to talking, Jacob told Laura about our earlier encounter and how I was in need of a portrait subject since he had failed monumentally at it and I was upset. Clearly I said he had done fine. Laura laughed and said: “Photographers are good as long as they stay behind the camera, that’s why you have us models to make your pictures beautiful."
Jacob went on to make Laura an espresso and she and I sat down as I finished my own. I told her about the work I was interested in and about the photographers that have inspired me. She then stopped me abruptly and asked me if I had ever shot any models wearing latex. To which I joked: “In my dreams, is that enough?” She intelligently replied: “That’s perfect, you’ll do an original job then." I was thrilled.
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Photographs by Kevin Pineda-Gould, January 2022,
New York City.
Photographs by Kevin Pineda-Gould, January 2022,
New York City.
