It was never my intention to be different...

When I started creating these images I had stopped looking at what other people were doing and just started doing (OK, I can't help but reference my idols but I stopped looking at what was trendy). The first photo was almost an accident, I was trying to go for a mixture between my Shrouded Figure photo that sold at Take Home a Nude and Albert Watson's photo Leslie Weiner, Yohji Yamamoto, London 1989. Problem was the fabric was too light so I cut it and started playing with it. As we were shooting the makeup artist remarked that it looked like smoke, I think I grumbled in agreement but still wasn't sure if I had anything worth keeping.

Later when i got home I started to look through the photos and the smoke look started to become more and more apparent. I quickly set up a black piece of foam core, two Nikon Speedlights, an incense burner and using what I remembered from an article on how to shoot smoke I had read in some amateur photo magazine while killing time at a Barnes and Noble I began to shoot whisps of smoke. Once I had shot nearly a hundred images I went about the task of constructing the first image. I had no idea what to expect but as I started to layer the first images of smoke over the original photos of the model I knew I was onto somehting very cool.

Since that first shoot I have been exploring the use of different fabrics, lighting and setups to see where I can push and pull this idea. My next challenge is to take them outside.