SEDUCTION GAME
" She knows
I find her beautiful "
Photography as a seduction game
I am walking on the beach of a luxury hotel. But we are in the Philippines, and things are laid back, still. There are fishermen on the beach before sunset, acting as if they were alone in the world.
It's all so quiet. Maybe the calm before the storm? Clouds are moving fast, but the water is still. And there is this woman, in her flower pants and hat, picking shells. In her own way, she appears stunning to me.
I approach and appreciate the scene. The reflection. The smell. The breeze. The silence. And us. And when I am close enough to her, she notices me. But she doesn't make eye contact yet. She has her ritual. She turns around like a slow-mo dancer. She picks up like a slow-mo eagle. Then she turns around and starts again.
I watch and smile. I smile of my soft smile. My honest smile. My humble smile. My charming smile. I want her to notice me. I am in my seduction role. I'm not hitting on her, of course not. I'm just being charming so she does the same. I'm getting her used to my presence and the one of my camera.
I am here standing for a while before she finally unfolds and look at me. She is smiling. She knows. She saw me. She saw in my game. She knows what I'm waiting for. And she plays with me in return. She graciously gets back to her routine. Slower, even. I know I can shoot now. I know she is ready for this too.
So I shoot. A few shots at first. Then a few more. From time to time, I relax, she stands still, and we look at each other. And we smile. She knows that she is beautiful. Or at least, she knows that I find her beautiful. We're charming each other, in the best of ways. Enjoying the beauty of a stranger's smile, with nothing else in mind. I'm appreciating the present. We're flirting with distance. She hides behind her hat, she shyly smiles, and she makes circles in the water for me.
These situations are precious. They are rare. I cherish them. Since always. A lot of locals just don't play anymore with the million tourists. And yet, thanks to my candid but flirtatious nature, I think I get to share, once in a while, one of these magic moments with a complete stranger, before we finally nod each other good bye.
Seduction
Seduction is the process of deliberately enticing a person, to engage in a relationship, to lead astray, as from duty, rectitude, or the like [...]
Seen positively, seduction is a synonym for the act of charming someone — male or female — by an appeal to the senses, often with the goal of reducing unfounded fears and leading to their "sexual emancipation".
Some sides in contemporary academic debate state that the morality of seduction depends on the long-term impacts on the individuals concerned, rather than the act itself, and may not necessarily carry the negative connotations expressed in dictionary definitions.
(wikipedia)
MORE SEDUCTION GAMES FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
 Turning around and picking shells in front of me so I get the best of her. |  It's all a seduction game. I saw her and she saw me. She acts in slow-mo so I can shoot the best pictures of her. |  I'm shooting in HongKong Central. I like the triangles, the architecture and the mirrored situation. The Muslim young lady is shy at first, she's only looking at me indirectly in the mirror. But she can see I'm loving the shape of her scarf flying in her back, and the reflection of it. It takes her a while, but she finally dares turning around and look at me with that frank eyes of her and I know we've connected for a moment. After that, I put down my camera, and we nod good-bye. |
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 Diyarbakir is potentially the hardest place I shot. People are shy. They feel under attack. And even in my seductive role, I only managed to get a shy shot of these kids. I smiled at them for a long time before they dared making eye contact and giving me that precious picture. |  This beautiful lady knew from the beginning that I was interested in her features. She looked amazing to me. As she was taking me from one side of the lake to the other, we talked about all the reasons that brought me to this part of China. We laughed a lot and made a very honest connection before I finally pulled out my camera and took a few beautiful and natural portraits of her. |  It's difficult to seduce kids. They play differently. Candidly. You don't flirt with them. These kids were family of the amazing lady who invited me for a lunch over at her place as I was wandering in the Sichuan province looking for beauty. They really wanted for me to take pictures but they were afraid of their own image. We played a lot of hide and seek before they actually offered me a natural pose to catch. |
 This is my first seduction photography experience. I was traveling in China with a friend, and as we walked into the grasslands, we saw the daughter and mum running after their yaks. They naturally came to us and we sat down as they checked our hair, lashes, tongues, teeth... I took a first shot with my analog Leica while my friend took a digital shot to show them. They grabbed our hands and decided it was time for good bye. That's when they offered me this last pose for me to shoot. |