Business Casual
Being a travel model is fascinating because more often than not, I get the opportunity to encounter people that I wouldn’t usually normally interact with in my day to day.
Take Bjorn for example - I’ll try to describe him to the best of my abilities hahaha (Bjorn if you happen to read this I adore you) - Bjorn is a retired lawyer born and raised in New York. To give my best physical description of him, think Bill Nye [hahahaha] ….he even kinda dresses like him, which I love, it’s very on brand.
Bjorn reached out to me in 2021 via one of my travel notices that I posted about shooting in New York. He just expressed his interest in wanting to shoot with me and that was that I accepted his booking… everything used to be much simpler back then!
Anyway, we ended up using my hotel room at the Standard in Manhattan (RIP) for our first shoot. I like that we used my hotel because he got to meet my husband (then boyfriend) because we were actually in New York for my husband’s music gig.
My first impression of Bjorn was that he was very charismatic but only in a way that a New Yorker could be. His stories were so vibrant and entertaining. He told me so much about the history of NY and what it was like growing up when New York was scary. I love conversation and linguistics, so I wasn’t surprised at all that we hit it off so well. Not to mention, the portraits he captured of me, I felt truly resonated with my personality on a soul level.
Bjorn and I have only worked together a handful of times but it seems we always catch each other in pivotal times in my personal life. In 2021 - I was a new model, eager, naive and hungry (literally and figuratively lol). We also shot right before I got married - merely days before I eloped to my husband! During that shoot I remember brainstorming dates with him that would be best to go to the courthouse, also if we should throw a reception the same day or whatnot.
On our most recent shoot, I was having a bit of a lovers quarrel in my new marriage. I will admit, at first I was beating around the bush - I didn’t want to lay all my cards out. Bjorn is at least 40 years my senior and I didn’t want to come off as immature, especially in love and in my relationship, so I was being a bit coy initially. Bjorn likes to talk and shoot. So you'll notice in alot of the photos I'm not really posing, he's catching me in mid sentence intentionally.
As the shoot progressed, I began to lay it all bare - both literally and figuratively.
Bjorn is really easy to talk to and he has been married to his wife for longer than I have been alive, (and his wife was aware of his whereabouts - hanging out with me naked - so their marriage isn’t exactly vanilla either) so it was easy to open up to him and tell him the good, bad and ugly. It was refreshing because I had been really wanting an elder's advice on this subject, but no way could I go to my family or any older married couples that I know in real life - without fear of them looking at my husband and I differently afterwards.
Like a therapist, Bjorn was easy to talk to and was an unbiased third party in the situation. He gave me some very sound and insightful marriage advice that truly resonated with me and I implemented his words of wisdom into my relationship.
The cherry on top was that I got paid for that therapy session 🍒