November 2011

GQ UK Nov 2011

GQ-3

GQ UK Nov 2011

There are two kinds of being naked. One when you’re alone, another when you’re being watched. When I’m naked in front of a camera I am half-shy, but it’s like I’m performing: vulnerable, playful, a little vain. It is a thrill all of its own and, yes, it turns me on.

Thus H. By day she works in a hifalutin ad agency; by night she sets up screens in her flat and poses – sometimes for her girlfriend, sometimes by herself in front of a camera with a shutter release cable. Her archives are tremendous, an odyssey of her various sexual exploits. “Some people love to buy porn,” she shrugs. “I’ve always preferred making my own.”

She also swears by a floor-length mirror. “You’d be amazed how arousing it is to watch yourself being photographed. There’s something about that level of scrutiny, of moving your body into its most beautiful shape, or of directing from behind the lens, that leads you into your own dimension.”

Encouraged by H, I contact photographer Grace Vane Percy.

A slender brunette with a light, balletic poise, Grace has worked in London and New York for eight years taking nude female portraits. Her fame has spread entirely through word of mouth – a NyLon group of delighted clientele.