

A luxury fragrance campaign photograph, black studio, one hard light and nothing else lit. The camera is low and very close, a little below the height of her hip and tilted up, so the picture runs from the middle of her bare thigh up to her face at the top edge and her legs carry on down out of the bottom of the frame. She stands upright, her weight on one leg, the light raking down the front of her body and the rest of her turning into shadow. A man kneels on the floor in front of her, folded down very low, and he is close to the lens and large in the frame, in a black jacket buttoned to the throat. He has leaned in and put his face against the crease where her hip meets her thigh, his cheek and the bridge of his nose pressed to her skin, his eyes closed, his mouth closed, his chin lifted a little - he is breathing her in and his whole face has gone still with it. The light catches his brow and his cheekbone and leaves the rest of him black. His arms reach back behind him and his hands are out of sight behind his own body. Her own hand rests on her hipbone just above his head, near the lens and large and sharp in the frame - her hand slim and pale, her long almond fingernails lacquered deep oxblood red, four of them clearly visible against her own skin, the only colour anywhere in the picture. Her other arm is down and outside the frame. Her head is tipped down and her eyes are lowered onto him, her dark hair falling forward past her cheek, her lips just parted, her expression unhurried and absorbed. Three tones: black ground, her lit skin, the oxblood of her nails. one hard raking source from the left, extreme high contrast, shallow depth of field, sharp focus on her nails and on his closed eyes. Fine 35mm film grain. In the lower right corner, a small pencil signature: Ziggy