Sometimes, the smallest mistake can cause the biggest ripple, a change in perspective, a paradigm shift. When Cherie smeared lipstick on her white shirt, she was devastated, convinced the shoot was ruined. But I saw something else. Whatever we had planned before paled in comparison to what unfolded next.
In that moment, I realized my job wasn’t just to create something polished or conventional. Why confine myself to the rigid standards of a publication I don’t even read? Instead, I embraced the unexpected, tossed the rule book aside, and leaned into the extreme.
I told her, “For the next shot, channel all of your frustration. Direct it straight into the camera. Let it out in one loud scream.” Perched on the stool, she took a breath, and on my count, she howled.
The result was one of the most intense images I’d ever captured. I edited it in black and white, leaving only the red of her lipstick and tattoos saturated. As if by fate, her tattoos aligned perfectly within the frame. The lipstick on her chest looked like she had clawed her shirt open, Superman-style, as if declaring: I bleed modeling.
That one shot changed everything for me. In an instant, I realized I wasn’t meant to create by imitation—I was meant to create what I found interesting, exciting, and raw. It was one of the freest feelings I’d ever experienced, and I loved it.
Ideas are meant to be free. There are no mistakes in creativity—only new possibilities.
And that single shot gave birth to something even bigger. (See: Bloody Cherie.)
