http://web.archive.org/web/20040403191945/http://suicidegirls.com/girls/Iggy/
Ahhhh...the good ol' internet way back machine...always good for those hits of nostalgia. I look back on what my profile said and what it looked like back then and I get all warm and fuzzy and confused inside. I've changed so much. Just looking at what was important to me back then and to think of what was to come after I wrote that entry.
Anyway, the current blog topic making its rounds is, "My Favorite Set and the Day I Shot It". Well, I only have two sets that were accepted and they're pretty much both my favorites, but for different reasons.
When I first found out I was going to be an SG I was ecstatic. Rapture filled my bedroom that December morning in 2003. I smiled quietly and sweetly to myself. Back then, SG wasn't as popular as it is now. It was still very much underground. I remember telling my best friend at the time over Instant Messenger about it and how excited I was. Her response was, "why do you want to do internet pron?" Many months later, after SG rose in popularity, she would attempt to jump on the bandwagon and become an SG herself, but it wasn't in the cards for her.
But then I remembered...I had no one to take a set for me! At the time, the only staff photographers were all the way in L.A. In fact, I think the only staff photographers at that time were @missy and @sean. But the site was understanding about that. Back then, anyone with a halfway decent digital camera could take a set for you. So I took to (gasp) Myspace to find a new friend to take a set for me because I had no friends with digital cameras. Sure, I had friends in art school that could have taken some bad ass avant garde art nudes of me, but I'm pretty sure that's not what SG was looking for. hehe. Through Myspace, I met @steveneurotic. Back then I was a particularly brazen sort of girl and after a few messages were exchanged I deemed him cool enough to take an SG set for me. He had heard of the site and was super excited that someone approached him to shoot a set. He lived a few hours from me in south Jersey. I remember going out there in the dead of winter in the crap-tastic car I had at the time that only had a tape player. We hung out a few times before we shot the set, you know, just to make sure he wasn't a serial killer with heads in his freezer. Or, if he was a serial killer, that I wouldn't be his next victim (a 'hookers only' sort of serial killer. You know the type.) Luckily, he wasn't a creep. A neurotic weirdo yes. A creep, hell no. Anyway, I remember bringing a few outfits down to his house and shooting my first set "Change of Clothes" in his room while drinking bottles of beer and generally having an amazing amount of fun.
The set is very indicative of the way the site was back then. It is also very yellow. I now know what my skin will look like when my liver goes on strike and I become jaundiced.
Behold! The yellow!
It's like I was 'Simpsonized'....
I'm still fond of the set though. I mean, look at my cute little face!! Also, my ass was pretty bangin' in this set, too. Seriously. It was. Go take a look if you don't believe me.
Anyway, this is a favorite shoot of mine because it was the impetus for a huge shift in my life. Some of that shift is positive in that I met so many awesome people and did some many awesome things because of this set and because of SG. And I just had so much fun taking it. Yeah sure, it's disorganized and doesn't make sense, but they do want sets to show your personality, so yeah...
(I remember the day my first set went up was the first day since my profile had been activated that I hadn't checked the site first thing in the morning. Steve actually called me on my way home from horse back riding that morning and informed me that it had gone live. I squealed with delight!)
My second set, 'The Globe' was a vast departure from 'Change of Clothes'. It was taken about a year later. I had a mohawk and more piercings. At that time, photography standards for the site were beginning to tighten up. There were more staff photographers in more locations. I ended up contacting @tmronin after being given his name by staff. Back then, I still didn't know who I was, not like I do now. I was interested in so many things and still lacking in so much confidence. But @tmronin helped me come up with a bad ass theme and find a bad ass make up artist (who was a member on this site but whose username I have forgotten) to help my newest set to stand out from the rest. Back then, we didn't have Member Review. Instead, we had a tired and beleaguered tiny staff to pick and edit all the sets. Could you imagine being staff back then? I think I would have become desensitized to hotness.
I remember the day of the shoot I had to drive to New York City from the sticks of northwest New Jersey. It was about an hour drive to my dads house to get the bus into the city, a half hour bus trip to Port Authority, and a few subway stops to the studio we were shooting in on the LES. I remember I had barely slept at all the night before (insomnia is not new to me) and I was tired from work at the dog kennel. I remember it was cold. I think it was February. When I had gotten home from work I took a bath so I could shave my legs and lady parts. I remember feeling so beat, tired, and cranky knowing I would have to get up early the next morning to go to work. I debated cancelling. But I made myself go. And I am glad I did. I had a blast at the shoot and learned so much. Before 'The Globe' I hadn't shot with many professional photographers of @tmronin's caliber. And I must say, the set turned out great!
I think I look pretty excellent, no?
(fun fact: both sets were taken before I learned what eyebrow waxing or tweezing was...)
Vaguely on the subject, in the summer of 2004 @missy wanted to fly me out to L.A. to shoot with her. I declined because of work and school. Looking back on it, I really wish I would have gone. It's one of my greatest regrets, really. I try not to regret too much, but I'm really not doing anything with my music education and I don't have any sort of stellar career with Urban Outfitters. Oh well. C'est la vie.