Valery Sun & Sass
Valery Sun & Sass Backstage
Valery Sun & Sass takes me straight back to a tropical villa and a day that was already far too hot before Valery entered the equation. I remember thinking the heat had done enough to get my attention. Then I started photographing her, and suddenly the temperature felt like the least interesting thing happening. Some shoots stay with me because of one perfect frame. This one stays with me because I can still remember the feeling of being there, trying to stay focused while Valery made that a little more difficult than usual.
A hot day changes the rhythm of a shoot. You become more aware of every pause and every decision, perhaps because rushing seems like a terrible idea when the air is already asking so much of you. I wanted the photographs to have room to breathe. Not to look hurried, not to feel as though we were fighting the day. The tropical villa was our setting, the heat was impossible to ignore, and I had to find a way to let both belong in the pictures without letting either steal the whole scene.
Valery, of course, had no trouble becoming the center of it. Beauty is an easy word to use and sometimes a lazy one, so let me be a little more precise. What caught me was the combination of beauty and attitude, the sense that there was a person behind the image who understood exactly how much she could give away and how much she could hold back. That is where the sass in Sun & Sass lives for me. It is playful, but it keeps a little mystery for itself.
From behind the camera, I am always looking for the moment when a photograph stops feeling arranged and starts feeling alive. I cannot force that moment. I can pay attention, make choices, and try not to get in its way. With Valery, the interesting part was that the day already had such a strong presence. I could feel the heat, I could feel my own concentration narrowing, and her energy seemed to sharpen everything rather than get lost in it. She made the atmosphere feel like part of her story.
I have a habit of acting very calm when I am working. It is a useful habit, especially when the person in front of my camera has the sort of presence that makes my brain briefly forget its own job. Inside, I was having a more entertaining conversation with myself: yes, David, you know how to take a photograph. Please continue. That is the funny thing about chemistry on a set. It does not need a grand moment or a dramatic story. Sometimes it is simply the feeling that you want to keep looking, and you know the camera will understand why.
The title makes me smile because it gets the balance right. Sun gives you the heat of that day, the sense of being somewhere tropical where you cannot pretend the temperature is anything other than what it is. Sass belongs to Valery. It suggests a little challenge, a little play, something more interesting than being beautiful and waiting to be photographed. I like that balance in a set. Sensuality has more life in it when there is personality too, when the person in the frame feels present rather than merely admired.
As the shoot found its rhythm, I kept coming back to that contrast. The day felt heavy with heat, but Valery did not make the photographs feel heavy. There was an ease to the way I remember her presence, and a spark that kept me alert. I wanted to stay with both feelings instead of choosing one: the slow, almost dreamy pull of the setting and the lively edge she brought to it. That is the kind of tension I enjoy as a photographer. It gives me something to respond to, not just something to capture.
Looking back at a set like this, I notice how much of my memory lives outside any single image. I remember the mental effort of staying patient on such a hot day. I remember being impressed by Valery and amused by how little help her beauty was giving my concentration. I remember wanting the photographs to feel warm without becoming sleepy, sexy without losing their sense of humor. Those are small ambitions, maybe, but they matter to me. They are the difference between taking pictures and feeling that a shoot has its own pulse.
So when I think of Valery at that tropical villa, I do not think only of the heat, though believe me, I have not forgotten it. I think of how quickly she made the day feel more vivid. Sun & Sass is a good name for that memory: a hot day, a beautiful woman with an unmistakable spark, and me behind the camera, doing my best to keep up while pretending I was perfectly cool.
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