Red Dress in the Woods? a shoot with New York Model, Yenta
There are shoots that unfold gently, and there are shoots you have to work for. This one was firmly the latter.
We shot this at the edge of a quiet stretch of Buckinghamshire woodland—gear-heavy, light already slipping, the ground damp and uneven underfoot. First time working together, so there’s always that unknown. How quickly do you find a rhythm? How much do you need to direct? How much do you let happen?
It didn’t take long.
Yenta arrived with a quiet confidence. No fuss, no overthinking. Within minutes it was clear she understood exactly what space we were trying to create. A trained ballerina, she didn’t wait for instruction—she moved, shaped, extended. The kind of movement that doesn’t feel posed, just discovered. That made all the difference.
The location did its part. Deep, shadowed woodland, stone steps disappearing into nowhere, the sort of place that already feels like it has a story but refuses to explain it. I leaned into that. Let the light fall away. Let the shadows take more than they give back.
The red dress did the rest—cutting through the greens and greys, holding the frame together while everything else softened and slipped away.
It was a physical shoot. Up and down the steps, shifting position, carrying kit through uneven ground. Not one of those controlled studio environments where everything sits exactly where you left it. But that tension—the effort, the unpredictability—feeds into the work. It sharpens decisions.
What I’m always chasing is consistency. Not repetition, but a recognisable thread. Something that runs quietly through the work without needing to be announced. This shoot sits firmly in that space: dark, slightly off-balance, suggestive without explanation.
There’s no fixed narrative here. No beginning or end laid out for the viewer.
Just a moment, suspended long enough to feel like it might mean something.
