AlfredKing

Photographer creating a series of topless portraits to benefit the charities that support a cure for breast cancer. 

I started taking sports photographs for our high school newspaper in the days of film and auto winders, with a Nikon FE2. A 36-image roll of film would generally yield one or two amazing images of athletes suspended in midair, striking the opponent, hitting the water with a perfect dive, scoring the winning goal: Moments of grace captured and conveyed in an image.

After college, a girlfriend who was a model and photographer asked me to take some nude pictures of her. Like a great sports photograph, a great nude photograph awes those who see it, as beauty does awe each of us. Learning how to make them made me appreciate, even more than I already did, the endless beauty of the female form. When you photograph something, you are not just looking at it the way we do most things to orient ourselves to them in space, you are really looking at it. It's why PIXAR encourages all their employees to take drawing classes, even the accountants: because learning how to draw isn't just about learning how to draw, it is about learning how to see.

Photographing beautiful women, really seeing them, and hopefully adding some great images to their portfolios to magnify the shine of that light for others, brings me great joy. Since starting my series of monographs of topless portraits, I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with bright, creative, adventurous, ambitious, strikingly beautiful women from around the world. If you think about it, and I have found this to be true, models in general but especially models who take off their clothes in the presence of strangers, are among the most confident people in the world. They are, quite literally, comfortable in their own skin. It is nice to be in the presence of such confidence.

The conversations have been fascinating. Discussing New Zealand, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, India, Italy, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Canada with models from those countries I learn things I never would have otherwise. We have done shoots on location in the US and Europe and in my Connecticut studio, which is about an hour north by train from New York City. I did my first remote shoot in 2024, which yielded some great images, so I am now also available for virtual shoots using an app called CLOS. See: https://closapp.space/ Yes, I know and agree virtual shoots are not as nice as in person shoots. However, it can sometimes take months or even years to find a mutually convenient time and place to shoot. A virtual shoot can be scheduled within a week or two.

Paid shoots only, no TFP. Compensation at model's hourly rate paid at the beginning of the shoot. Travel expense reimbursed. Will need a signed model release with a copy of your government issued ID attached. Generally, shoot 4-hours (2-hours for remote) with four or five setups creating 400 to 500 images. Shoot short video clips if model is interested. Model will have access via DropBox or her preferred sharing app and free use of all images and clips for her own social media posts or self-promotion. Ideally, when we work together, we will shoot "clean face" i.e. no makeup, "clean hair" i.e. natural color or colored to the roots, topless nudes. The style I am going for could best be called: "the real you." The shoot's goal is to capture your natural beauty. If you would like to work together, I look forward to hearing from you.