Oka & Scrappy
#lightbydan #gallery #neonTo date my only on-site studio shoot, to capture this shibari collaboration
My photography kit is fairly portable, but only once have I packed it all up for a remote shoot; in summer 2023 when Oka invited me to collaborate on photographing their shibari work.
Oka is French and was only in town for a short while, so I was honoured they wanted to work together. They’d recruited Scrappy as a model and organised a venue at Rocco’s place, so all I had to do was turn up with my (surprisingly heavy) gear and do my thing.
I’d not met Oka, Scrappy or Rocco before so I was delighted with how lovely they were and we chatted about all sorts. Being welcomed into a strange world and asked to document it is one of my favourite things, so I felt so privileged to do so.
I love this one so much, the beneficence on the outreached hand and the bliss on Scrappy’s face. I liked it so much I made it into a print , that and the header image are both available on my print store along with more from other shoots.
It was fascinating to realise the parallels between the sessions “riggers” like Oka and Rocco run for clients, and my own photography shoots. The content might be very different but in both there’s a lot of vulnerability, trust and collaboration, and both struggle with people not taking it seriously, or being in the wrong headspace for it to work.
As you can imagine as I was excited to share this new stuff with Instagram but… Instagram did not agree. Maybe I’m naive but I was shocked when instagram took it down with such vigour, they took Oka’s whole account for a while too!
I guess it’s no surprise that my standards on what is taboo doesn’t mesh with a large american corporation. That’s part of the reason I built this site, so now the images and the story can live here.