Into The Archives, Part 2

In late 2018 I saw an illustration by an artist on Twitter that I liked a lot and it gave me an idea for a photography project that I wanted to create based around censorship. Specifically censorship of the human female body. It’s a project that kind of went away because some things changed for me early in 2019 and due to financials and finding more, reliable, people to participate in the project, I ended up switching my focus to other things creatively.

I managed to gather up four people to participate in the project before life happened, and one of those people were Mariah, now known as babyghost. (The period is in the name. Or at least it is to me. I’ve been typing their name that way ever since they became babyghost.) Given the time that this is about, I’ll refer to them as Mariah.

While everyone who was interested and ended up participating in the project were charging me their modeling rates (that I was happy to pay), Mariah liked the idea of the project so much that they only asked that I pay them enough for gas money to get to and from the location. More than fair in my mind. I got the shots for the project that I wanted, but of course I didn’t stop shooting there. We continued to shoot for about an hour until the next person that I had booked showed up. And we got a bunch of photographs that I liked. The thing is, even though I did not dislike these photographs at the time, it wasn’t until about two and a half years later that I fell in love with all of them.

During the first half of 2021, I was stuck in bed for a couple of month due to a knee injury. During that time is when I decided to make the switch from Adobe Lightroom to Capture One. While taking some time to learn Capture One, one of the set of photographs that I pulled up to play with were the photographs from this shoot with Mariah. There was something about the mood in the photographs that I interpreted differently than I didn’t 2 years earlier. There was something in Mariah’s face that portrayed something that I still have not figured out to this day, but I felt the photographs a lot. We did not plan a mood or anything when we were taking these photographs. There was actually a lot of talking and joking while we were shooting; the exact opposite of what the photographs scream at me today.

I don’t know if Mariah was a bit nervous being nude in front of someone that they’d met for the first time 10 minutes prior or if there was something on their mind that day. I never asked them about that, as I’m just thinking about that as I’m typing this. I might have to send them a text after I finishing writing this. But there was something in their face in these photographs that I LOVE.

I went through and gathered a bunch of these photographs and compiled them into a photo book that I’ve been wanting to release for about a year and some change now, but I still haven’t figured out how to explain the book. I want to give some type of explanation as to why I’m presenting these photographs to the world in this (book) form, but what it is that I see in the photographs just haven’t come to me yet. The book is complete and ready to print with the exception of that explanation and a title that I am one thousand percent happy with.

Outside of these photographs, Mariah, now babyghost., have become one of my favorite people and closest friends. I’ve taken photographs of them a few times since this shoot, but we have never sat down and planned out a shoot. We’re just friends. Family even. If either of us is where the other lives, we make a point to try to see each other if even just to have a quick tea and a hug. babyghost. is now doing their music thing heavily. You’ve probably seen the post I made here a few months back of them at their release party for Sad Ghoul Summer almost a year ago now. They are one of those people that I fully support no matter what it is that they’re doing. There were some jokes between us on Instagram about my producing a babyghost. rap EP after they posted a video of them rapping. I don’t know how seriously they took that, but it’s something that I’m plotting. So stay tuned for that once I get my music equipment back up and running. I do have a shoot that I do want to do with them that I just ran by them yesterday that might have a chance of happening next weekend. I’ll keep you posted if does.

I hope you all are enjoying this series of posts. I’m having fun doing them, and I have more coming.