Michael Dawson

My Mother subscribed to a women’s magazine and my earliest memories are of turning its glossy pages and seeing the female form in bras and suspenders, applying mascara, lipstick and showing off shoes with one foot on the seat of the vanity……..how the breast might tumble from its lacy cup…..the curve of the hip, the softness of the flesh.

This visual fixation found its artistic expression in my connection with the Adult Industry in Los Angeles during its VHS heyday of the 1990s. I worked with women who were proud of their bodies and delightfully empowered by its powerful allure.

I was born and raised in London, England and flew airplanes in my youth. I began my photographic career working for the government in aerial surveying and then ran around the country as a press photographer and later in the wowrld of fashion where I learned how to set mood, costume, accessorize, pose, frame and light live models.

My goal was always to capture movement in the subject who knows where every part of her body is in three dimensions at all times feeling calm and safe enough to be present and awake in the moment. I photographed, processed and printed nudes in my home; girlfriends mostly. “Come into the darkroom, My Dear,” my old ...