Emotive photography with Rivi Madison!

Late, late night. I’m looking at this screen with bloodshot eyes but Steemit has been a consistent part of my routine for almost a year. I like to make a post daily, as often as I can. @lovejoy and I sat at @caffetto once talking about the significance of Steemit beyond post rewards and payouts. Sure, that’s a big incentive, but ultimately, we’re all leaving our mark on a blockchain that could potentially outlive all of us. Not just our posts, but our votes, comments, everything. I want @guthrie to look back in his 30’s and say “Holy shit, my dad was making blog posts every night when Steemit was still in beta!”. That’s some crypto-geek street cred if there ever was some.

Speaking of crypto-Jedi’s I have to give some love to @lovejoy, @robrigo and @mada as well all held one another’s hands through the labyrinth of MUSE this afternoon. It’s been on the list of buys I’ve considered and after @moony sent me some SBD as a deposit for our first shoot together […I can’t want for that, BTW], I decided to pull the trigger. SBD to @blocktrades for BTS for a sell order to become the proud new owner of OPEN.MUSE. Some hang ups on the way to my MUSE wallet, but @robrigo and @mada helped me through the trouble shooting. Including STEEM, BTS and now MUSE, I’ve got five digit wallets comfortably laying the foundation for my retirement […I’m hoping, considering I’m a freelance artist].

Speaking of the artist part, here’s a look at some work with a close personal friend and extremely respected artist, Rivi Madison. I was working on a zine project with a friend here in the Twin Cities and she found Rivi on Instagram. The publication was, in part, a collection of expressive art and fashion and a few swipes through Rivi’s account personified the look and esthetic we were both going for. Conveniently, she lives in Los Angeles, and I reached out seeing if she’d be interested in shooting for the zine. She did, we set a date and that was that.

As with many of my trips to the west coast during that time, the details are fuzzy. I vaguely remember a friend offering her apartment in West Hollywood to shoot. I was on three hours of sleep, and the initial sensation of following through on what was a clear overcommitment of personal resources wasn’t helping. Once Rivi’s make-up was finished and she changed in to the wardrobe provided by one of my sponsors at the time, What Katie Did, the creative adrenaline rush began and I was ready.

Rivi’s movements were slow, deep and emotional. She has extensive training as a dancer and she seemed to perform while she posed. Typically, I direct a lot as many of my clients are first time models, but I stood back and got out of her way, letting her body take her where it wanted, only giving slight suggestions on how to incorporate the low lights surrounding us. These images stand out from most of my body of work, even looking at them now as I write this. She is such an immensely talented artist.

We shot for about an hour, through two wardrobe changes. Both of us began to crash around midnight, reading one another’s creative energy, we stopped and quietly wrapped the collaboration. We’ve stayed in touch and are still good friends. I’ve hosted workshops on photography, lighting and modeling with her and she’s at the top of my list for models I hope to shoot with again one day.

Thanks for reading. I post daily so for more photography, art, illustration and the stories behind the work, follow me @kommienezuspadt!