LAYLEY

This is a collaborative portrait of a young woman discovering her sexuality for the first time. Actually, John just wanted to photograph young Layley and her horse for an equestrian magazine. Then they left out the horse. Then her clothes. And finally all restrictions. A unique collaboration between model and photographer. John Donegan had long wanted to create an erotic series using only one girl and when he shot Layley for a print advert in an equestrian magazine he realised he'd found his girl. Layley, never having done nude work before, was unsure until she saw the results of the pictures. She loved them.

The pair established a new plan for working, with photographer and model as equal co-creators, a technique rarely attempted. Each new photo session became a fresh erotic discovery for Layley. The pair had simple rules. Nothing would be faked; the eroticism would always be real. In the resulting images Layley seems strongly connected to her audience, a young woman discovering a newfound eroticism at the same time as her readers are seeing it. The observer and the observed, voyeurs together. Layley is as excited to see her photographs as she is to be in them. Each picture is a new step on her journey of discovery and ultimately she may be the biggest voyeur of all, as surprised and delighted by the images she has created as her audience is to see them.