I told someone yesterday that the biggest challenge in accomplishing my goal of representing diversity in my photography is that people who are not traditionally represented in art are conditioned by society to not want to model. It's one thing to lament that your own body type or skin color or age is not represented; it's another thing entirely to put your own body out there at the alternative, and to subject yourself to society's judgment, however unfair.

One of the places I have been most successful at finding alternative models is FetLife, an online forum for the kink community. I've had an account for several years and have slowly built a reputation as a reputable photographer, and every so often that pays off when an individual or couple reaches out to me with an interest in modeling. And because of the sex-positive attitude that is more prevalent on FetLife, and the body-positive attitude that goes along with it, it is more common for those who reach out to me to be people with real bodies--beautiful bodies, but that do not confirm to the 0.2% of body types that make up 99% of popular art.

Tiana is just such an example. Latinx, non-binary, a delightful individual whose body has scars and curves and hair and life experience, and who happens to love being tied up naked in nature. They and their partner spent a lovely couple of hours with me in a local forest on a cool, cloudy day, getting rope-drunk tied to a tree and modeling for photos.

There is great beauty in someone who is so comfortable with their own body, who relishes the fresh air on their skin and the mud on their bare feet, who goes into subspace from the drip of dew on the nape of their neck. There is beauty in the act of submission, and the loving act of their partner tying them. It honors me to document that deep form of love, the care and respect that goes into doing it well, the careful fastening of ropes and constant checking for feedback, the efforts to heighten sensation, and the attentive after-care when the ropes are removed. When I'm photographing such a scene, I feel like a documentarian, hovering around the fringes, capturing the action and the emotion and the interaction between dom and sub, telling the story.

And of course when Tiana was fully tied, they had very little capacity to stretch and pose in typical ways, their interaction with the camera limited to the movement of eyes and face, and the act of breathing. I documented, as well as I could, Tiana's place in that space, their smooth skin pressed against the rough bark of the tree, their folded body anchored to the roots of a grove of trees that stretched away into the distance, their body resting on cool, damp earth littered with fallen leaves.

After being untied, and recovering somewhat, Tiana did a few more traditional poses among the trees. By this point she was, mentally, fully immersed in the space, one more living thing among the rest.

Edited images will be coming soon. Meanwhile, here are three preview images to give you a taste for what we created.