Honestly, I really couldn’t think of a topic I wanted for this particular blog article. Especially with this being Thanksgiving. But I thought about it and the more I did, the more it makes sense: The Blondes

When Europeans arrived on the shores of the East Coast, Native Americans thought they were from the heavens. The fair skin. Probably some blonde hair. The clothing. The ship

When I was growing up, I really didn’t know anyone with real, blonde hair. I have a brother that had blonde hair until Jr. High. But that’s my brother and his hair was more dirty-blonde. As fair-skinned our family is especially around other Latinos, we aren’t nowhere near as blonde and fair-skinned as the Europeans and specifically, Nordic.

When I started Jr. High, the geographical area covered an area of our city that included many more Europeans. Quite frankly, I was wide-eyed for a while with all the different looking faces. Especially the blondes. Fascinated. Different. Exotic. It was even more interesting as most of these people came from middle to upper-middle class families. While I don’t most did it on purpose, there was a certain air about them. This probably lasted all the way through H.S. Maybe a little still. Even now. To me, they’ll always be visually exotic.

Before I moved to New York, I had actually photographed a number of blondes in San Francisco. However, in New York, just one! Blondes are much more common on the West Coast. Though even in the modeling world, blondes are vastly outnumbered by brunettes. I guess maybe that’s why they can be in such demand.

So while I’ve only photographed two blondes out here in New York, I’m going to include some earlier work I did in San Francisco with some commentary. Enjoy!

Blonde and most of my images of Alexis are in black and white! I had been photographing a few months when I did this shoot and there is a huge story behind it. Some of which I've spoken in previous blog articles. I did many vintage-styled imagery at the time as you can probably feel a little Hitchcock in the images.

Alexis was with Look Models in San Francisco at the time. Which I didn't know. I never asked. I just thought she would be a great model for the project. And she couldn't be more perfect for it!

Again, a blonde in black and white!  I had actually photographed her in color but they I thought the images were quite, average. It was for a beauty shoot that I thought went 'okay'. I was still learning. I hadn't even shot for a year...

But when we did the shoot, she DEFINITELY checked out my website before the shoot. We had some time and she wanted to do some images like the vintage-styled I had on the website. She came PREPARED! I think these pics came out pretty good without any real prep!

Deanna was a bit of a tough one for me to best articulate. I knew I wanted to photograph her. Never had I photographed someone so tall and who so captured what I thought about blonde women.I had never photographed anyone over 5'9" and at 5'11 and especially when you add heels, my God. Now, I'm quite used to the height in New York!

We did this shoot about 3 years after I started photography. Deanna, a model got chosen to do lots of wedding and long gowns. Elegance. Perfect.

Last but not least is Emelie of Major Models here in New York City. How do you become more blonde than by being one of Swedish ancestory?

The second blonde model I ever photographed here in New York City and certainly one of the best models I ever worked with as well. When I planned for a magazine publication, I really didn't plan any particular look for a model to have.

Sometimes, not having a definitive plan is a good thing.

Happy Thanksgiving!