An afternoon of play, confidence, and a pepper.
La Tour-Maubourg, Paris · September 2023
Photography
•
2-4 mins
My apartment in La Tour-Maubourg, Paris became a playground. High ceilings, cramped living room turned into a makeshift studio. Through the big windows, you could see the façades of Haussmann blocks and people glancing in as if we were staging a play. Timothy arrived buzzing with clothes, ideas, and laughter. I’m usually a nervous photographer — but with him, the nerves dissolved. He hyped me up, and suddenly the session felt less like work and more like play.
He brought a full denim set even after I’d said no denim. Out on the street with the bike, he looked sculptural, bold, like he owned the quartier. Inside, in the beige coat, the mood flipped — quieter, more intimate, sharp edges softening in the afternoon light.
“It felt like two kids on a first playdate, building with light and clothes like Lego blocks.”
The pepper wasn’t planned. It became a stand-in for a heart — playful but loaded. In the photos it looks serious, heavy, almost cinema-like. In the room it was the opposite: chatter, laughter, Timothy’s charisma bouncing off the walls. That contrast — warmth behind the camera, stillness in front of it — is what made the images work for me.
What surprised me most was how far his confidence carried. I don’t usually reshare models’ posts or lean into behind-the-scenes hype. But when Timothy put the frames on his Instagram, I found myself reposting them too — wrapped in his energy, forgetting myself for a second, and liking that loss.
This shoot reminded me to let a session breathe. To let energy and play guide the frames, not control them. Timothy’s confidence pulled me out of my nerves and back into curiosity again.
If this series has a thread, it’s not about perfect concepts or polished outcomes. It’s about exploration. About the dance between stillness and laughter, light and dark, public and private.
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