A Window In Madrid
The energy in Spain is sensual and sexy which encourages you to let your inhibitions explore.
I've been fortunate enough to visit Barcelona and Madrid multiple times and the wonderful shot below was the impromptu result of a stay in Sol, Madrid. The image is important, only revealing its power to me recently. It is a female story, a human story.
My model and close friend had been living in Madrid for a while, working as an English teacher, (yes those overseas teaching jobs DO exist). After a day of artistic inspiration at The Reina Sofia Museum, home of Picasso's Guernica and before a night of Spanish beer, fresh olives and calamari, we had an inspired photo-shoot back at my hotel.
As you can see my friend is no prude, despite some insecurities about her beautiful body which seem to be a part of most women's psyche. But living in Spain seemed to have released her from a lot of the self-imposed scrutiny so common here in the US. Perhaps it was being so far away from the life she once knew or maybe it was the the open and freeing sensual energy referenced above. Whatever it was, I felt the difference in her, the new found confidence.
Not only was she comfortable posing nude for me, which she had done before, it was her idea to shoot with an open window facing other windows.
The shot is not about voyeurism or exhibitionism. It is about self confidence and self expression. It's about a woman saying "World, here I am! Love me or leave me, it doesn't matter because I Love me."
Of all the shots we did that afternoon this was one of my favorites yet it wasn't until very recently, years after that I realized why.
The story of this image is all our story. A story about taking chances, baring it all and withstanding the opinions and pronouncements of an unforgiving world.
In the end, it's a story of courage and that belongs to all of us.
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