Mistress Bella Bathory No.1 Photograph

I started my photography career (the way I imagine most photographers do) by photographing my passion, which was (and still is) Rock music. That led to the publication of my first book, Live in Concert - 10 Years of Rock and Roll. After publishing that book, I started exploring my next passion: travel. I spent decades traveling the world (New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Greenland, Cuba, China, across Europe, and 22 countries in Africa) shooting stock and fine art images. That led to the publication of eleven fine art posters and a large-scale fine art coffee table book of my work in Cuba titled Cuba, This Moment, Exactly So, which includes 250 black+white and color images from my 20+ years of shooting in Cuba, along 32 micro stories from two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Brian Andreas, a foreword by noted author Pico Iyer and introduction by art historian Gerry Badger. The limited-edition version includes a 60-song Cuban Music compilation. The book has won several awards including: IPPY - Independent Publisher Awards for Photography-Gold, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award for Art/Photography-Silver, Foreword Reviews' 2015 INDIEFAB Book of the Year and The Photo Awards, 1st place photo book. During this time, I was leading travel photography workshops around the world and was also honored to win the prestigious Travel Photographer of the Year award, plus numerous commercial photography awards. I am currently working on my third fine art coffee table photography book, on what is thought to be the oldest known subject of art: Nudes. The working title of the project is Goddess Desire: Erotic Portraits Exploring Love, Lust and Sexuality. It delves into the intricate themes of passion, desire, and photographing the human female form. After many years of shooting fine art and travel images and after my fine art coffee table photo book on Cuba was published, I was faced with the question of “Well, what next?” I have always been a subject-driven shooter in my fine-art work. Rather than take photos just because I love photography (which I do), I took photos because I became obsessed with a subject. I’ve always been interested in and a fan of fine art nude photography. Everyone from Edward Weston to Robert Mapplethorpe, from Helmut Newton to Jock Sturges, from Jeanloup Sieff to Irving Penn. And many more. During my photo workshops, I always teach my participants to photograph what they love.