Kumi, San Francisco 1996

I'm pretty darn sure this is the photograph that I'm most proud of. My favorite images change quite frequently but this is the one that, once I saw it on the proofsheet for the first time, I knew would be an aesthetic cornerstone for my style for decades to come. Kumi's expression, the styling, the hair, the depth of field, and even the random figure walking in the background all come together like a perfect recipe for a most delicious dish. BACKSTORY: I've written about this many times but the date was 9/11/1996. I was in San Francisco shooting for my friend Molly's latex label So Hip It Hurts, and the two models that she recruited for this Chinese-themed shoot were Kumi and Midori. After getting prepped in Molly's workshop in Lower Haight, we headed to Chinatown where we created some of my most iconic images, one of which made the cover of my first book "The Beauty of Fetish" (Edition Stemmle) just a few years later. As always, I like to thank Kumi, Midori, and Molly for the visual contributions to my early work and for the continued friendship to this day. Much love! 

BTW, new t-shirt of this image available at stevedietgoedde.threadless.com…