Original subtitles

How does it make you feel to be looked up and down by some of the most powerful

people?

Hi, I'm David.

How are you? Good?

Nice to meet you too.

Very good, very good.

How are you?

I will help you to pose.

I just like go and move your hair by myself or move a shoulder or something.

How long have you worked as a photographer?

22 years.

You love it?

I hate it.

I love it, of course. Of course, of course. I won't wake up in the morning

shoot you if I don't like it.

I love women, and I love photography, otherwise it would mix, you know?

Did your agent tell you that we're going to be, like, barely naked?

He didn't? Really?

You can wait.

You can,

you can, you can. He's normally aware of that.

That's no problem, you know?

There's no problem.

But you're going to keep that. You're not going to be naked. You're going to

keep the...

Do you know that I'm supposed to be naked on Saturday?

No? No, no.

Yeah, completely.

Marius, it's okay. I just want to let you know.

He's like, thank you for waking me up at 7 o 'clock.

So what did he say? He said, no, I didn't know, really. Are you okay with

Yeah.

Before, I was 17, so I didn't turn 18.

And in America, it's like kind of pride, you know, when you take off a bra. You

are more than 18.

Huh? You are more than 18. Yes.

All right.

Yeah, you keep your hand in front of your book. Put that just a little bit

Don't.

You see girls beautiful, that's why I'm shook and pretty naked.

If I love your stuff, I will never take my bikini if I didn't like it.

Really?

How are you?

Good, and you? Very good, very good. You're on time. Yeah.

Okay? Yeah.

Try to keep low, to stay low, and you try to unbress. Okay, let's go.

Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it.

It's not what you think.

It's not what you think. Stay like that.

Very cool.

You good?

Nice to see you. Nice to see you too.

What's your size?

35? 35.

35.

Keep moving, keep moving. Move your legs.

If

I

would be a beautiful girl like you, I would be a top model.

So move your ass, babe.

I'm shooting a lot of magazines around the world, from Vogue to Marie Claire,

Elle and Victoria's Secret.

It pays well, the build, sure, but it's a kind of comfort, you know, like it can

be like a trap.

I have the passion to do some more personal pictures when I have time away

my commercial photography.

When I shoot nude, I let myself go in a question and I don't even know who I am.

I forget my name and I just do it. And this is the moment I love.

I think it's like an obsession.

I shoot.

I retouch.

I sleep.

I shoot more. I retouch. Maybe I shoot again.

And I sleep again.

Sometimes when I dream also I shoot.

I see like a movement of a woman in my camera and like I'm shooting.

She turned and I see that.

Hi, Steve.

How are you?

Let me just take a shot of you holding this.

Who's next?

We had over 2 ,000 girls apply from all over the world to be part of the New

Muses project.

This is spread like wildfire. It's crazy the amount of people that I know that

have come up and said, have you seen this calendar project?

And they didn't even know I was doing it. I want to find girls that no one's

ever seen and...

we make their careers. It's not a Victoria's Secret calendar.

It's not a Sports Illustrated calendar. This is actually an artist looking at

the female form.

So you're finally going to get naked?

Yeah. Yeah? Finally.

Awesome. I kind of like that these girls aren't just your typical glamorous

model. Perfect.

She's not the supermodel that you're never going to get close to.

She's like the cool girl you can hang out with.

Men love her and women love her.

And she wants to take her clothes off.

Having been a photographer for many years, I got frustrated working for

magazines. That's it. Great.

And then back.

There were so many restrictions.

Like, she would only show a quarter of a butt crack or slight side boob. And I

was like, I hate this. This would be so much better if there just wasn't any

clothes.

So there's your bum.

All right, you have to take this off. It's a nude calendar.

Touch your toes.

This is fabulous.

I thought, fuck it, why don't I just start my own magazine?

There's going to be 200 pages for photographers to just go and do whatever

want to do.

David Bellemare was one of the first photographers that I reached out to.

I'd seen his work, and it was amazing.

When Steve proposed me to do this project, I'm so happy about that because

shooting nude on the side.

Fashion is the application of my talent to sell clothes and show them

beautifully.

When I shoot nude, it's much more personal.

David Bellemare is one of the top fashion photographers in the world, and

gets paid tens of thousands of dollars a day to do these commercial projects.

I'm paying him a lot of money to do a personal project, not something he would

normally be paid for.

We're shooting nude.

Yeah. Way better.

Oh, really?

Why? Oh, yeah.

I like being nude.

Let's close the better.

Are we talking like close? Or are we just talking like... We say nude, like

nude. Nude is like no close.

I'm so lucky to have like so beautiful woman wanting to do this kind of picture

with me.

It's a good feeling for the woman to see herself like beautifully shot nude.

Gorgeous. It's so hard to find photographers to do that well. I know. I

can do that well, and I've done it for a long time, but...

Are you going to shoot for this as well? No, it's just David. And that's

amazing. I'm a photographer, but yeah, I've gone and hired another photographer

because I know what he can do.

He can produce the results that we need in order to sell this calendar.

Oh, stunning.

100 % beauty.

Is there something specifically about this project that spoke to you?

Yes.

David. Hi, thank you.

Thank you. Of course, it's good for them to be shooting with me through

Instagram or...

or on their portfolio when they meet a client or another photographer and they

see the photographer and say, oh, you shot with David Balmain.

I like his work. So finally he's considering the girl.

How do we narrow these girls down but also make sure that they're doing it for

the right reason?

They don't want to do it just to get famous.

They want to be part of an art piece.

Hi, I'm Christiana. I'm the creative director. Nice to meet you. Hi. Hi.

your name? Katie.

What is your name? Katie. We are in the Polish community.

And Kate, she is Miss Polonia, California.

Do you know that this audition is for posing nude?

Posing nude?

Now? Not now, but if you're selected for the project, it is posing nude.

Are you okay with that?

I will have to decide.

That is normal, I think. I'm not sure if I would like being nude on the

calendar. Oh, yes, but if it's nice art, why not?

I'm a child.

I'm still a child.

Next week, I will be 18.

If you're a new model, it's probably not right for you.

Can I explain this to my mom?

Oh, but you should be trying to have a new... No, I don't think so. Maybe after

the experience, I think it will be... It's probably not right for this.

Why? I don't think she's comfortable with it, you know?

Hi, how are you?

Oh, yeah.

We had a striptease, thank you.

Oh, oh, oh.

Yoga.

Yeah, there you go.

Jenny is more like a devil, a little devil, you know?

But inside, she is a sweet, sweet one. She's an angel inside, but she's a bit

rock and roll outside.

Why do you consider yourself, like...

Timeless beauty.

I have no sense of time.

And I'm beautiful.

What interests you about the project?

I don't know.

I think it's something different.

I haven't done a lot of, like, modeling.

I just turned 18.

So I think it would be, like, a great way to, like, start my career.

I discovered Jenny through Instagram.

And I was like, oh, wow. I was like, this girl got something different.

I like the way she is.

So I sent her like a private message.

She was too young. She was 17. I said, next year, get back to me and I'd be

than happy to be the first photographer to shoot you.

When I see a girl and I see the amount of followers is under 500, I say, yeah,

that's something I want because nobody saw it.

And I love that.

David is looking for his partner in crime.

I think he has to fall in love with each girl.

So, what's your inspiration in life?

Oh, my God.

My inspiration in life is to be happy.

Yeah.

It's Beyonce.

To be full of life.

Did you take your meds today?

Did what?

Did you take your medication?

Yeah, I did.

I did, I did, I did. I did.

You're acting weird, David.

Come at four.

I'll be on time.

We all do think she's got this real beautiful quality to her, but she's

very young and she's not able to speak what is important about the project.

I mean, unless she can turn that around, it's going to be difficult.

I don't know what relationship he has with certain girls.

Even if they're 18, they have to be articulate. They have to be a new muse.

We're launching a new brand that no one knows about. It hasn't existed before.

So I figured the only way to do this is to have a voicing component.

We need to see how these girls use their voice to go and tell their audience

about new muses.

Ultimately, we want to find 12 brand ambassadors.

But there's many reasons.

It doesn't mean that. If a girl has a lot of social followers, if she doesn't,

that's going to affect everything as well. We can't define. I have my own

personal idea about some girls because they make me want to do my best.

You know, I have something, a little crush on them. And this is how I'm going

make them the most beautiful because I want to make them the most beautiful.

it's something I feel.

You've got to be happy with every girl that you're going to shoot. I think it's

important, you know.

I'm not going to tell you who to shoot.

Sure, sure. But sometimes it's not something like just physical.

It's something you feel.

You can get it.

Yeah. You know?

And respect that you have to feel a certain thing about a certain girl.

But that girl also, we want to build...

It's not just whether David wants to shoot a girl or not. I don't care.

If these girls are really making a lot of effort to get people to vote for

every day, like these girls are doing posts, those are the girls that have

actually come to the top.

Sometimes I think David forgets, I do this on a daily basis with the girls we

put in treats.

We did it with Emily Radichowski. This is a girl that no one wanted to

photograph. She couldn't get a job.

And then we put her in treats, nude, with hardly any makeup on. I shot her,

like, raw, and it went nuts.

200 million views on video of her.

Like, Rachel Cook has the same qualities.

Rachel's been on the cover of treats.

That cover of hers sold out.

She sold double everybody else.

That's the girl that needs to be discounted. And she just came into it.

actually forgot to submit and we put her in.

I feel like I've already won the lottery in terms of like genetics.

I've had an Instagram since Instagram came out.

There's like 16 ,000 likes on this photo and like 400 comments.

So I was just looking at this like, what?

After that, January, 100 ,000 followers. February, 150.

It just kept going, and I was like, I have no idea where this is coming from,

but this is awesome.

But, like, how crazy would it be to go from 100 ,000 to a million in a year?

I pretty much know when a photo's going to get a lot of likes just because I

know my followers, and they like cutesy, girl -next -door kind of photos. Of

course, they love the bikini pictures.

When I try to put my personality into my Instagram, it doesn't translate very

well because people are so used to seeing like, oh, a hot picture of me in

bikini, a cute selfie. And then like I post like a goofy picture and it's like,

no, like, OK, I'm just going to keep doing what I know works on Instagram.

I think new muses will give her a certain kind of exposure.

And people look at her, you know, if you shot with David Bellemare, the pictures

are incredible.

And they're classy and timeless.

Instead of her kind of running around on Instagram in a bikini.

Wait. Oh, come on.

Yeah.

Come here.

Try this.

I should go back to your place.

Don't do anything like that. Just keep it easy.

Just like to take it easy.

You don't need to overdo. I have to do a test with most of the girls, you know.

I can feel, you know, because it's really important and I know what's going

with girls.

So you kind of want to do it. Okay, she want to do it. She's pretty.

And then I can tell you if it's going to work or not.

Well, that's why we're not going to pick 12. We're going to pick 20 girls and

then decide from that. Because obviously there's going to be girls you vibe with

or not.

Go down.

It's about you. Voilà.

Look at me.

You spend a couple of hours.

Snapping a few pictures of them.

And then from those girls we pick the ones that we think are going to work the

best for the project.

And for you, you know? Yeah.

A bunny. That's an amazing, amazing body.

One of the most beautiful bodies I've seen in my life.

If God exists, he looks like you.

I first met David four years ago.

He came into my agency looking to test some girls.

We created some awesome images that time.

The best for me is to get to know the model through an evolution of

together.

Sometimes the photographer isn't sure what they want, and you sort of just

to pose and feel it out. But with David, there's no really improv there. He's

very on top of it. He knows exactly what he's looking for.

He sees women's bodies in shapes, and he's able to capture moments that are

very, very special.

The best model has the best partner.

It's like dancing with someone.

You know each other.

I really know her body, she knows my way to shoot.

But you don't get this connection very fast, and you don't get the connection

when you talk to somebody on the sofa, you know?

There's definitely a certain comfort level shooting with David that I don't

really have with other photographers because we have built this friendship.

You know, with things going up online today and being able to circulate so

quickly, it's so important with nudity.

to make sure that you're shooting with someone you trust.

You can lose a connection if you become unrespectful with the girl.

No one in a moment like that, so delicate, so fragile, trusts, you know?

Jessica.

Hi, nice to meet you. You're tall.

I lost my underwear on for now, but I can keep it on.

You're going to just stay on your eyes.

Stay on my eyes? Yeah, like this.

You're not going to see anything else.

Except when I'm in the camera, I can look in the front.

I always wondered about that. I was like, all right.

Your nose is beautiful.

Thank you.

Mine too.

I know, I was going to say, we have very similar noses. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You are more beautiful than me.

We should?

Yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

Let's go.

Okay. Okay.

Okay.

You're going to lay on your stomach.

That way.

Come over. Come, come, come, come, come, come, come over.

Et voila.

Don't move at all. That's right.

Stay like that.

Beautiful.

You shoot someone because you want to shoot her. You don't know why at that

moment. But knowing her before, it doesn't matter.

Is there something charming and seductive discovering someone?

This girl, Janine, has 80 ,000 views.

This girl has gone about explaining what the project is to people, explaining

what it's about, talking about new muses as a whole.

She's driving people to go and look at this. She's number one.

I think the best way to consider nudity is actually wearing your nudity.

And you can wear it in an elegant way or you can wear it in a cheap way.

So I think it's a question of being confident with yourself and in trust

the people you're working with.

No, no, just relax.

Just relax. Put your hair on the back.

That's nice.

In Philippines, pageants, they're really big.

I won in the Miss Philippines, and then I landed first runner -up in Miss

Universe.

And a lot of people from my country don't like the idea of seeing me doing

So when I posted my photo, the one with David, I've got a lot of comments. It

was like, why are you doing this?

Where are your values?

Slut, whore, those kinds of things.

My mom doesn't like the idea of a nude photo shoot.

And we had an argument, actually.

We were kind of like not talking.

I know that when she sets her mind into something, no matter how much I dislike

or hate it, she's going to go for it.

I specifically asked her, begged her, please don't do frontals. She

told me, I will do whatever David asked me to do.

How many Filipinas have David Bellemere photoshoot?

So if you're going to shoot with him, you're going to own it. And you're just

going to pose and do your best and give it your all.

I think she's going to be great.

She's conservative.

You know, there's no pictures of her naked. It's fashion shoots that she's

doing. It's not her in a bikini.

She didn't amaze me, really.

She's a beautiful girl, sure. But for me, she was nothing special for my

photography. So this girl has gone out of the way.

and worked really hard and been at number one, and then he doesn't feel it,

she's out of the project, that's very hard for me to give him final say.

I've been a photographer longer than David, and I know sometimes you don't

a connection, but you've still got to take the photograph.

Take someone like a Janine.

who is gorgeous and has done all this outreach and knows how to be an

and find something deep within her to bring out that even she didn't know she

had. That, to me, is where the artistry lies.

A little bit more here, a little bit here.

You don't move, okay?

You look sculpted.

If you have an artistic project, you normally choose everything yourself.

is the freedom of the artist.

Look, I have to be really honest with you. Ali, out of everybody, is my least

favorite. She looks like she's going to do a surf competition or a swimsuit

competition or something.

And Rachel, Rachel is a great girl.

But there is something, I don't know, maybe because the body is not totally

natural. David, she looks great nude.

No.

She's got fake looks. Yeah, I know.

It's not like she has huge, dreadful ones. I don't know.

The thing with her is, for me, she looks too much like a model.

This has got to be a calendar that someone desires. It's not like just...

Yeah, pictures of girls that are not sexy.

The best girl are not the one that everybody like, oh, oh, look at her.

Voila, and you let the rest of your body fall.

It can, yeah, that's nice, that's nice, actually, very nice.

You're beautiful.

Sabina is something really true, very natural.

She is more than a woman, than a model.

Most of the other girls are models.

Voila.

Whenever I say that I'm a model,

People would think, oh, but you're not skinny enough.

It took up until, like, last year for me to really, really accept my body. My

stomach rolls when I sit down. If you have cellulite, who cares?

I have cellulite, and I'm a full -time working model.

She wasn't on my list.

She's definitely not your typical calendar model.

I should actually follow her, I guess.

Someone asked me, like, why I wanted to model once.

Well, I was like, because I can, and I want to, like, get my name out there,

then once I get my name out there, I want to, like, do good things with my

It doesn't honestly feel like a job.

It's, like, really fun, all of it.

It's just, like, exploring a whole new world.

Having worked with David for many years and seeing the girls he picks, he's

definitely got a particular type.

Younger, a little edgy and a little odd -looking.

and he brings out that beauty in them.

It's probably some kind of addiction that he even had.

Don't play with the knife. You don't know how to play with the knife.

Yeah, I do.

No,

don't do that.

It's my knife.

It's my knife. I don't think he would choose the girls based on anything

besides, I like them, I don't like them, I like them, I don't like them.

You can have it.

It'll be nice.

He's shot it so many times.

I mean, you look at her Instagram, it doesn't look and feel like new muses.

She doesn't look like a woman to me. She's just a teenager.

I just don't think she's prepared to be an ambassador of a brand that's this

elevated. What's a brand?

Twelve girls with the same role. Twelve soldiers, twelve people, format in the

same way. I value his opinion, and that's why I hired him to do this job.

but I think he forgets sometimes that it is not just his project.

He asks me, you're going to do it, and we want you to choose a girl, and blah,

blah, blah, and finally, no, you don't choose a girl anymore.

I appreciate his wanting to have a connection because I know that's how he

brings out his best work, but this is a job, and you're the client.

He has alluded to the fact that he'll pull out if he doesn't get what he wants

now. He wants me to do my best, he wants me to shoot, but...

Finally, they're choosing some girls that I don't understand.

Just pushing and pushing and pushing and not listening to our reasoning at all.

I understand them, you know.

But the thing is, they don't understand me.

I think, oh, they don't like me. They don't care.

They don't care.

What makes a big photographer a big photographer is that it's freedom to

themselves. I really love to shoot you and I really believe in your potential

and that's why I bring you in that project, by the way.

I took you. We're going to do that together. It's going to be great.

They find you too strong, too rock and roll.

I mean, they don't say even rock and roll. I always say rock and roll to make

good because it's like, for me, it's like something you have that nobody else

has. And this is what I love in you.

Beyond your beauty is your character.

They don't see that, and they find it, like, annoying for them because they're

scared.

You know? They're not totally free, you know? Yeah.

They don't have the free spirit.

They still have some fears, and this is one of them.

I mean, I, like, understand why it happened. Like, I'm not, like, bitter,

sour about it, and I think it's important that...

Like I just like move on from this. I don't think this is like everything.

You don't need to be one of those 12 You really you know, you can be one more

one year Normally the

decision was on my hand, you know, and they make me believe that until the end

and that's why It's always another reason for me to leave because finally I

didn't have the choice

So dramatic.

Yeah, what kind of hope, like, they're gonna be thinking, like, oh, maybe David

Benoit is leaving, so we have to take care of what he's saying, because the

guy's gonna really go.

Nothing becomes easy in life.

Do I scare you?

No. Do I scare you?

No.

Look at me.

Look at me.

You're good? Mm -hmm. All right.

Okay. Stay like that.

Stay like that.

Now the hips. The hips.

I want something from you.

I want something from you. Very feminine.

Relax, relax, relax.

Relax, relax, relax.

I'm on the way.

Stay like this.

Breath, breath.

Leave yourself.

Leave yourself. Easy, easy.

She's so tight sometimes.

She looks mad.

He's upset that it's not me.

He's not laughing with her. He's not trying to prove that I have a completely

different demeanor.

Tomorrow, I know we're chasing light and all that, which is great, but we have

to plan ahead a little bit. Because the girls are only here for a certain amount

of time.

So, yeah, I know we've got to figure it out. I guess what we were thinking

about... as just deciding in terms of where we're starting and with whom?

What I mean is I don't know. I want to have kind of spontaneity. I can't say to

you where I'm going to shoot because it's all about that. It's all about to

the right part at the right moment, and I don't know.

It's what's going to show up.

Right, right, right. I can't say we'll be there, we'll be there, we'll be

and they're going to have to follow.

It's not like, you know. We need some structure. So if you want to just shoot

the house, then we can figure that out.

And then, you know, if we are going to go on location, let's decide on a time

go on location.

It's as simple as that. We have to do that.

We're not just running it everywhere, David. We need to know.

So let's make a decision.

No, it's not so easy. It's not so easy to make a decision like that.

It's not difficult at all.

No?

Okay, right.

Okay, let's go.

You ready? Yeah. You ready to be nude? Yeah.

All right.

Walk a bit that way.

Just walk for now. Stay there.

Go down on your elbow.

Like that. Okay.

That's cool. Very cool. Beautiful.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

Stay like this. Stay like this. Keep it. Stay like this. When I say stay like

this, you really stay like this.

If it's ever like one moment too hard to keep, and even I'm like a maniac, say

stay, stay, stay, really tell me like, no, I can't, okay?

You okay?

You can relax a little bit. Don't move the leg. You just relax the top.

Beautiful, beautiful.

I like that move. I feel that you're going to give me something sensitive.

You're going to fix those parts of your body. You fix here, you fix here. Okay,

you fix your hips.

Then you can really play with your hair, with your hand.

I say you fix. Why do you move?

I'm fixing it.

No.

I say you fix. That's good. We start by that.

I'm transmitting some knowledge to the model I'm shooting.

And I feel sometimes like a coach, like a trainer.

Is it hurting?

Okay, so we go fast from that position.

You're going to try to get away from there using your arm, all right?

You can use your arm, your leg. Go, go, go.

Beautiful. Stay like that.

Don't move. Stay like that. Stay like that. When I say stay, you stay. Just

stay. Stay, stay, stay. Stay here forever.

Don't move. You did it. You stayed.

This is how we do it.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You did so well for our first time.

We're going to start simple the pose, not too much like that. Sometimes I ask

you to be like this or like that.

Isabelle is very beautiful.

I was like, oh.

So it takes me so much time to get away from there because I was always like,

oh, she has a beautiful body.

I was like, oh, no, I want to do something simple with her and just about

beauty, like the guy is falling in love.

When I see the body, I see there is a shape I love.

But the rest, sometimes it's disturbing in the picture. So I find something

really beautiful, then what do I do? It's so simple. I just correct, remove

things I don't like.

I can create a shape, the back, the shoulder, the hips, but the way she's

to put her hands, the way she's going to move, the way she's going to look.

Even the way she's going to breathe is going to be something she does.

You have that moment, like, I just need it, and I love it.

I said to the girl, I want you to stay here for life.

Sabine, she's the most difficult to convince about our beauty because she's

most critical one about herself.

Voilà.

That's very nice what you do. Very nice.

But she looks at me.

As she looks at herself in the mirror, and she's pleased because she feels that

she's beautiful.

And this is the feeling she has because I give her back what I see.

Look at this.

Stay like that. It's very beautiful.

You're really, really beautiful.

But you've got to say to the girl that she's beautiful.

But you have to say to her, if you find her beautiful.

You don't say to her she's beautiful when she is not beautiful, because this

a lie. But when you really see that she's beautiful, you give it.

Twist a little bit.

Voilà.

Okay, voilà.

Be careful.

I can't use too much.

I mean,

it's an artistic exhibition, isn't it? I know, but it's... We've got to be a

little somewhere.

I have to.

I think.

Okay.

When I'm going to do my exhibition, I'm not going to listen to anyone.

You know?

Because. No, look, I get it. But I got it. There's a fine line.

Turn to me. All right.

All right.

Don't move.

That's cool. That's cool. Stay like that.

You look amazing.

Yeah, the place is amazing.

The stuff here, I just feel fucking hell.

I'm so excited now. Me too.

People love you.

We have such an incredible response when we put you on the cover of tweets.

Like, I was... I mean, you're beautiful, but I was sharp.

I have, like, 800K on Instagram, and I'm really not making money off it.

That's crazy. I know. After this, you'll get a million easily.

I just want somebody who can, like, help me, like, decide, like, what the right

moves are.

After doing this whole new move thing and having thousands of girls enter and,

you know, I'm looking at... Even starting a management company, because

girls are so badly managed. You need someone good who can negotiate the rates

for you and stuff, you know?

Hiya.

Oh, pretty.

I think they don't need a filter.

No.

Crop?

I like it like that.

No, maybe a little crop.

Not too much.

Show me, show me.

Oh, like I did so.

Monkey Jess? Yeah. Monkey Jessy.

What is that?

That's you?

It's the Snapchat filter.

Oh, that's awful.

You took it like very professionally on Instagram?

Yeah, you do because you take care of what time you're posting and what you

posting. Well, it's just because it is something that you can make money off

so I try to. Yeah, you can.

And when you do a selfie, what do you do?

You know your angle. You know the best lighting. Yeah. What it is?

When I shoot myself, I always, like, do this side of my face.

And I'll do something if I'm, like, in the shaded

area and then there's sun coming in like this. So you know.

And I'll just do something like that.

Yeah, it's okay.

It can be better.

Don't move. I'll shoot you.

This is your angle? No.

So you know how you look the best.

Would you be able to post an ugly picture of you now?

How do you mean I do that?

Don't you think that all the models around are beautiful?

And there is something different between the top model and the model?

You think it's something on the beauty?

I think it's their personality.

Their personality?

Yeah.

What makes you different from the other?

I think it's hard for me to share a lot in pictures.

I get nervous. You get nervous?

Exposing myself.

Especially on Instagram, I like to create sort of this persona of myself.

So you're going away from yourself?

No. Ah, no? No, I'm still kind of, I mean, it's still like a piece of me, but

it's probably... It's a piece of you. It's more put together than I maybe am

person. I'm a bit worried about that, because I think everybody does that.

We all show the best of us.

I think you should show a bit your dark side a little bit in your Instagram.

Okay. Yeah.

It's normal, you know? No. And you're not going to be like, people are not

to, you're going to be loved much more.

This is a character.

Yeah. And then I go home and I'm a different, like I take it off.

I try not to look at myself in the mirror when I'm home.

Why? I don't know. I don't like.

Being in that model, I'm pretty mode all the time. I just like to forget a

little bit.

I felt like I had to straighten my hair all the time, act a certain way, talk a

certain way in order to get the following and the like.

Even the jobs, you know, you can't even book a job without having at least 10K

followers. So now you're forcing people to delete and erase parts of themselves

who they really are.

I don't want to do it, but I have to do it. I mean, I know it's really important

nowadays.

But it's not a real world.

That's a beautiful location.

Thank you.

All right.

That's cool.

Keep going.

That's great.

That's beautiful.

This is beautiful already.

Beautiful.

Slowly. You really move slowly.

Keep moving.

That's right. Beautiful.

Beautiful.

Stay like that.

Stay like that. Stay like that.

I like that.

I like it. I like it. Do it again.

All right.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Nothing else.

Thank you.

Oh, those are pretty.

It's early morning, huh?

Whoa.

I can't even tell what's happening, like, in the background.

Yeah. It's so crazy.

Ebony has a great attitude. She's grateful.

She really deserves better in her life. So I really support her as much as I

can.

I grew up not in the most ideal situation.

I felt so ashamed of where I came from and, you know, who I was,

who my family was.

And I really felt like no one would ever understand me.

The first boyfriend I had was back in Seattle, and I was 18 years old, and he

decided that he wanted to be a pimp.

So he never pimped me, but that was just what he decided

he wanted to do.

And I helped him along the way sometimes, which is

something that I felt really, really ashamed about.

Like something that I dealt with for a long time, you know, taking young black

women like myself and, you know, having them do degrading things.

And I just realized I was sort of falling into that.

And it was because I couldn't love myself fully. I felt like I wasn't good

enough, you know.

I hated myself for a really long time. You know, there was points in time where

I suffered from really bad anxiety to the point where I just wanted to die.

I contemplated suicide.

I'm not ashamed to share it. Look at where I am. I'm in the fucking Dominican

Republic. You know what I mean? And despite everything, not even despite,

because of everything I've been through, I'm here.

I told my agent to tell the team that I wouldn't want some parts shown, like

a really frontal, you know.

So my agent told them that, and then they said, yeah, it's not like that.

But of course, when David says, oh, walk towards me, and I would have to walk

towards him, and of course it will show everything.

Close your eyes.

Nice. Just gonna move more here. Move more here.

Move more here.

You okay?

Yeah. All right. Move this one down.

Twist, twist.

Keep it like that.

Stay like that. Don't move. Don't move.

Good.

It's okay.

We don't need to. It's not going to look like... She doesn't feel it. No, she

doesn't feel it. No, it's not her.

She's missing imagination. She doesn't tell a story.

You know you have to trust. I do trust. We're not shooting for Playboy. We're

not shooting for anything like that.

You say you do trust, but when I shoot you yesterday, you're not.

Well, not because they don't trust you.

No, it's not because you don't trust me. It's because you're blocking yourself

about something different.

I feel there is something else when I shoot you.

I feel that there is like a fear about someone else.

Like you're not totally here.

You're thinking about the judgment about the other.

Don't you?

Maybe. Maybe.

Maybe it's a yes or no.

You know.

Are you thinking about your mom when we were shooting?

Well, a lot.

A lot. Not just my mom.

Not just your mom.

Yeah. You were thinking about who?

My country.

Your country?

You're thinking about the whole country when you're shooting with me?

No, no, it's... It's a lot, you know. Wow.

Did you know it before to come that you're going to think about your mom and

your country?

I don't think about my country.

Your mom and friends who are not sure about the project, if they see you

beautiful in that sense, they're not going to judge it like dirty.

I feel like when I shoot you, I feel like we dance together.

I feel like I give you a direction, and you give me another proposition, and I

follow your proposition. It's like something beautiful is going on. And we

from your story to my story, something together. And it's like I said to you in

the picture before, it's really you and I. It's like Tim Davis Bellmer. It's

like, this is it. No, it's true. And you choose to come here. It's because you

don't want to be like everyone.

No? So that's why I push.

This morning, she said, OK, she's here for that. You know, if she won't be

that's you.

You decide to come here.

Less than a year ago, David hit me up on Instagram and I was like pretty excited

because obviously I followed him and he'd shot a lot of girls that I really

up to.

He was like, hey, I would love to shoot you, whatever.

So I gave him my phone number and he mentioned that he wanted it to be nude.

Like, if I'm being completely honest, I made up an excuse.

Like, we had a day planned, and I actually made up an excuse so that I

because I was like, oh, I don't know this guy.

And to be in a room one -on -one with somebody that I've never met and shoot

nudes, it could get pervy, basically. Like, it's just so easy for, I don't

guys are guys.

So when the Nude Muses project came along, I was like, cool, this would be a

good way to get to know him and work with him instead of just being one -on

-one.

I had shot nude before, but I never worked with somebody who was going to

me like that physically.

He was like, this is what I want you to do. I'm just going to do it because it's

going to take way too long for you to get yourself into that position.

Putting my body in positions that I didn't know I could be in I was like

him I am so uncomfortable and he was like This is how I need it to be to look

good

They

like that they like that don't look don't look don't look don't look then

good

He literally puts them in all sorts of positions, forces them to do things,

takes them out of their comfort zone.

They start to see what he wants and they start feeling like they're an

extension. Their body is an extension of what he's doing. They give in.

Yes, exactly. They're basically a mission process.

It's going to be all right.

Don't for one minute think.

that he has not thought of this whole process of manipulation, psychology,

physicality, and literally breaking them and then fixing them again.

And they become puppy in his hands.

The way he moves somebody like a rag doll. I didn't know he worked that way.

don't think these girls ever worked with a photographer like David Bellarmine.

In all the years I've worked with other photographers, I've never seen anyone do

that. He falls in love with each one of these girls.

And they are his muse.

Look at Piccato. Piccato had eight muses. He had his eight loves that he

love with, and he needed that.

And he tortured them all.

You go on the floor very fast.

All right, on the floor. I want you stronger than yesterday.

It's not enough what we did yesterday.

You did the choice to come, to do it. I want you now to do it. I don't want to

feel like restriction.

Don't worry. There won't be anything, bad picture showing up.

She got some fears.

And she didn't come with a desire to do it. She's totally

free. So that's it.

Okay.

Do it, do it, do it.

Do it. Keep going.

Get me. Clean up, clean up, clean up. Catch it.

Come over here.

Come over here.

Even there is many people around, we don't give a fuck. I want you to move.

don't care about, like, we're not going to show, it's not going to be shown,

okay? But if you block somewhere, you block the picture, okay?

So just do it.

Lay on your floor, lay on the floor, lay on your stomach.

Lay on your stomach, on the stomach, on the stomach. Okay.

I know that from the beginning.

Like when we were doing the casting in New York, and we had the card on the

desk, and he was speaking about social media, that this girl got good

this girl got good followers, we need good followers.

Often the quantity is the enemy of the quality.

It shows us.

It shows.

My spiritual healer, Alita, has been my life coach for a little over three

years.

She has a lot of famous actresses, models, clients.

She's just kind of really helped to put people on the right path.

What's the doubt that comes up?

I think I have a lot of expectations.

Right. Like, that's what everyone tells me, that I have unrealistic

expectations.

You might want things to happen in three seconds, and that's not how things

happen. I know. That's why I always want things to happen.

So what's your expectation in terms of your modeling career that you're just

starting with right now?

I don't know. I think it's always, like, strive for the best and see what

happens.

Okay, so put that in your head right here in your third eye.

And I want you to see yourself on the cover of magazines.

doing campaigns, walking the runway.

So you kind of step into your circle of power and you connect.

And then you let that feeling move through your whole body. I am

I am making the right choices.

Because modeling is a source of self -expression and beauty.

Okay, sit up.

You going to do a selfie now?

Yeah. Is that what you're going to do?

It's the crazy generation, Jeannie.

The crazy generation.

Matthew, can you talk to him?

Adolescence is complicated on a sentimental level.

Adolescence is complicated on a sentimental level, yes.

But I think that on a sentimental level, it's complicated all the time.

It's not just adolescence.

We're still shy during adolescence.

Yeah, but that doesn't change much.

What? We're still shy all the time.

We're shy all the time. We're reserved for love stories.

It's good.

Are you sure that when you grow up, there's no more challenges?

There's less restraint, yes. There's less fear, but the timidity is still

Even if you have a lot of confidence in yourself,

you still have restraint, often.

It's true, you have to let yourself go sometimes.

To live in love, you have to let it come without thinking too much about it.

Because when you think too much, it's not love.

It becomes complicated.

When you think too much, it's not love.

In fact, it's a bit... It's something hyper -powerful. It's the

most powerful in the world, but it's something more fragile.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's far in the morning, the end of December.

I'm writing now just to see if you're better.

New York is cold, but I like where I'm living.

There's music on Clinton Street.

What can I possibly say?

I guess that I've missed you. I guess I've forgiven

you.

How are you?

It's been a long time.

It's not dirt, it's dust.

It's dusty.

Dirty is not sad. Dirty can be the mind of the people.

Oh my

God,

I'm going to fall.

No, you're not going to fall. Nobody's going to fall.

I think you gotta put your socks on.

My socks off? Yeah, your socks off, yeah.

Come here, come here.

You okay?

I love, I love you.

Voilà. Relax.

Voilà, super.

It's definitely really dirty.

Stay like that.

On that position, okay? Keep the legs like this and you try to grab that on

back.

Stay like that.

That's your leg here.

Whoa! Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

It's okay, it's okay.

It's cool.

Are you stable?

Yeah.

You are.

You are stable, you are stable.

That's nice.

Make it a bit sexy.

That's my genie.

It's not about sex, what we're doing. It's around sexuality.

There is an erotism. A lot of my energy comes from there, from the desire for

women.

But it's also so much love that I have for women that I so much respect it that

I don't fuck it.

I'm in unholy sin.

I demand peace.

Just to get over.

I'll take your daughter.

I've not spoken to David since the shoot. He shot about 9 ,000 images per

It's an insane amount of photographs to go through to pick images.

Rachel has about five setups that are stunning.

We've just got to be very careful with her boobs.

As soon as she's extended enough and pulled back, it's better, but you can't

shoot her head on at all.

They just look like they're just sitting there. They don't look feminine or

beautiful.

David spent a couple of weeks retouching these things and it's not retouched

correctly.

There's red blotches on the skin, there's different colours, there's

that you have to clean up.

I didn't retouch the imperfection of the body because it gives us the sensation

of reality.

If the elbows are a bit more red, it gives something, sensitivity, like

something, you know, like you give a story, you know, about the girls.

If she has a tattoo, that's her story at all.

I don't want to get rid of it. I want it to be much more true and much more

close to the girl, to the personality of each girl.

I had to hire a professional retoucher to go and retouch all these images.

Retouch is like washing.

You retouch every part, you retouch every imperfection.

I think this is a bad reflex to retouch and to try to find something perfect.

When you're talking about the power of a woman, if she chooses to have that

tattoo, the moon here on the side, because she feels like the moon refers

personality, this is who she is. She chose to do that.

It's a choice of her life. It's her story.

So taking off that or changing physically the people, it's a mistake.

Next one?

Yeah, yeah.

Gorgeous. Look at her. You can even see that little tiny smile on her face

there. It's almost like a little tiny bit of ecstasy, like she's just like so

the moment. She's just channeling all that energy. It's beautiful.

I'm actually a little disappointed. I thought we'd have more of a

He's not got involved in the exhibition or how these are presented.

When he says it's his personal project, it's not really felt like that.

It's kind of felt like he's gone out, done the pictures, and then we've gone

created this.

We're creating new muses.

If this was David Bellemare's own project, it would be very different.

It would be much more explicit, a lot edgier.

I mean, it would be a lot like this.

Do you want something kind of a little revealing like that for your wall or

something beautiful like that?

We could pick the real David Bellemare poses, but I think we've actually

elevated what he's done and it's a little bit more sophisticated and

The news that he's shot in the past have always been for himself.

But with this, there is a commercial aspect to it.

We have very little time to get the images edited, retouched and printed

for the launch event at Art Basel.

Art Basel Miami is a collection of various artists and galleries from all

the world. It's important for us to debut the calendar at Art Basel to

establish this as an art project, not just a...

a nude photography portfolio.

The calendars that we're doing come in three editions.

Tier 3 is $1 ,000.

Tier 2 is $10 ,000.

And Tier 1 is $20 ,000.

I've more than put my neck on the line for this. I've invested a lot of

money into this.

I just hope the thing sells, basically.

If it sells and if I find it crap, you know, I won't be very proud.

I would rather have a beautiful, beautiful picture and it doesn't

sell. Send crap picture and it sells.

Oh, my God. He was making this posted picture.

Oh, yeah. I had to post that. I mean, the photo is cool. I mean, it's pretty,

but everyone's just posting it. Yeah, I don't really want to post that on my

social media.

I would rather post something more relevant to me. My followers are going

like, I don't care.

Scroll past it.

But it's in the contract, so we got to do it.

Did you use the caption that they gave you? Yeah. This is a long caption.

We didn't see new music calendar.

Celebration of elegance and romance.

I'm going to bite the bullet and just do it.

Hopefully. Cool if I delete it later.

You look amazing.

Wow.

I don't recognize you with your clothes on. I like this.

I feel like Hugh Hefner.

David, jump in.

We'll position you.

We'll position you.

Okay.

Are you still directing, David?

And don't hit me if you hate it. No, I'm not going to.

Don't get mad at me.

No, they're not

in any order, apart from just together.

I want this one.

Thank you. Thank you, guys. You're amazing.

I am relieved. My mom is not going to kill me.

Where's your picture? I want to get a picture of you. In front.

Let's grab a shot of you.

This is my favorite shot in the whole thing.

Hang on.

Let's get a shot.

That's it. That worked.

Perfect.

20 ,000 10 ,000

Have you seen it? It's right in the front. It's amazing.

The calendar is outside.

You should have to buy one.

He desperately wants one for Christmas.

I'm sure we will order one.

Take a look.

Yeah, take a look. Look at it. Look at it. Look at it.

Tell me what you like, what you don't like.

I trust you. You don't be nice. Do not be nice with me, huh?

You're the only one who have to be true with me.

Yeah?

Right? I love that.

Here we are.

This is so crazy. This is me. Hey, this is my naked body.

It's boring.

I did way more shit than that. I don't want to be a party pooper.

I don't mean to be a party pooper. Hello.

But if you watch the video, you will see that I did a lot more shit than this,

you know?

Like, I don't know who selected this photo, but if you watch the video,

see, like, I was doing, like, acrobatics, you know?

And, like, this is okay, but, you know, there's better shit than this.

I'm a strong model, and this doesn't represent me. I'm totally agree with

I'm totally agree with you.

How are you? Good?

I'm good.

What do you think?

Are you happy? Yeah, I'm happy. I'm, like, surprised.

I mean, there is one picture that will disappear.

I don't know why.

I tried.

Yeah, but, I mean, in fact, like... Hi, Ebony. Hi, how are you? How are you?

Good. I had some surprise, but I didn't know.

To show you her picture, huh?

I love that picture of you in the mud, for sure.

No, I know, but he just felt like it was too much open, so... Yeah, it was not.

Yeah, but your photos are stunning.

I don't like them.

She gave so much energy, all day, all the way along, and then she's just

thinking.

I think it's a mistake.

I don't think it's a proper representation.

As much as new music is going for me, I'm giving to them, too. So I feel like

has to be an equal exchange. This is my passion, and I work hard to give

everything that I can give. So it's like, you know, I want to see that

represented. I'm surprised at you, you know. I didn't know.

I didn't know.

I think no matter what, though, she's so beautiful and captivating in both of

those shots. I do,

I do.

You can't please everyone. We agonized over every picture. There were so many.

It was a very, very hard decision to do this, you know? So I don't know what to

say to her.

Yeah.

There's nothing to come from.

Some fucking bullshit.

I'm about to go home.

I believe that Lumius was going to be my personal project, but no, it was not.

I think I did the maximum what I could do.

It is a real journey when you start to work with someone and you're looking for

something beautiful.

But if it's dream life, you feel like you can be everywhere and you are

in the same time.

You ask me where I was two weeks ago, I can't tell you.

Like I was in Paris.

or New York.

Most of the people got, like, families, the house, the dogs.

I don't have that.

It's not easy.

You're not here, you're not there, and you're living your life and your loves

through your phone.

I'm a father, but I don't even have time for that.

No, you don't look like it.

Super.

Do you like it?

Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I like it.

And here we go.

There.

Thank you.

There was never a time that Janine told me she wanted to be a model.

Our family's more conservative.

We're not into modeling.

Yeah, we're not into our looks.

We're more on how we can project ourselves by intellect.

When she told me about it, I have no idea then what new muses was.

I googled David.

I googled new muses, then I saw the pictures.

Then I texted her, Janine, you're going nude.

Yes, mom, it's new muses.

Oh, I silently prayed, dear God, please don't let her be in the new muses.

I like this one a lot.

You're so thin.

You look like a malnourished kid.

I almost cried when I saw that.

This one.

It's like you're exasperated. Your aura here is sort of negative.

Okay. Don't you itch with the sand?

No, it's clean.

But it's sand.

It's rough on the skin.

No, Ma. It's like scrub.

There was this picture in Snapchat.

Well, it was frontal. You were covering up your breath. That was BTS.

That's what I'm worried about. Yeah, I mean, it's just that... Those behind

-scenes pics, how sure are we that it's not going to be released in public?

I mean, this is the cyber age.

You can't just delete it.

Like I said, it's in the net.

No respect.

Well, just in case, you have to be ready for it. I have to be ready for it.

I really love nude art, nudity in art. For me, like, nothing provocative about

it, if done correctly.

Here's your tea.

My dream for her is for her to be a doctor.

But then, after the lights and the camera, a lot of things change.

And the reason why she really pursued modeling is that...

You know, popularity.

And I think, secondly, the money that goes with it.

So it sounds so bad. I don't think so.

Is that all why you're really struggling, even though you know you can

money in a snap in this career, and you still pursue this and worry every day

for rent or if you're going to book a job?

It's more than that, because if it's just that, then I think I can do

else.

There's always more to a career than just money or fame.

Every day I have to prove it again, no?

Every day I have to give more than 100 % of myself.

If my life disappears like that, like my photography, if I disappear in

photography, if I do something different, I don't think I will be

don't know.

I have a million followers on Instagram now, but I'm not, like, making any

significant amount of money.

It's definitely harder to monetize when you have a bunch of guys following you.

Let's see, my percentage of male to female is...

Oh, it just got worse.

It was 80 -20 men, now it's 81 -19 women.

Hopefully with YouTube, I can catch more females' attention.

Brands want to see those female followers.

The ladies are the ones buying the makeup and the clothes and stuff like

So today I'm going to film a video of my top 10 favorite beauty products of the

whole year. I want to show people that I am not just a girl who poses topless.

That is like absolutely not what I want to be known as. And that's not all I do

at all.

I'm a real person.

I'm not perfect. I'm weird and goofy.

And people can relate to that.

The thing that I'm struggling with is that now that I'm actually doing it,

a lot harder than I thought it would be.

What's up, you guys? So I just posted my very first video on YouTube ever. I

have no idea what I'm doing, but you should go check it out.

Modeling, to me, is oppressive. I feel like a slave.

And I feel like a slave because I'm wearing somebody else's.

label i have somebody else's label on my back i'm selling their clothes for them

and i'm making pennies to their dollars you know i'm eating top ramen and i'm

putting steak on their plate somebody somebody at the top of a big corporation

somewhere is getting a billion dollar check because of the images

with my face on them that are being used to sell their products

I don't need to be a model.

I don't want to be a silent mannequin.

The director TED Talks here at

University of Nevada, we sort of connected on a platform based around

the fashion industry.

I was in the industry just to be in it, and it was the scene, and it was go to

the parties and shake the hands and meet the people and put on the clothes and

put on a smile.

I can't do that anymore.

I can't repress myself to try to fit into something that somebody else wants

to be.

The fashion industry does not only reflect beauty standards.

It's a reflection of the current state of our democracy.

Do not simply say black lives matter.

Make a black model the face of your campaign and not just next to or

to a white model.

Put a model in a hijab on the cover of American Vogue.

Put a Latina model on a billboard in Times Square.

Make an Asian model your brand ambassador.

It's about using our collective voice to reshape the way we think about

ourselves and the way we think about one another.

Thank you.

The perception of a calendar is a pin -up calendar. And we haven't created

We've created an art piece.

The reason why we did this calendar wasn't so much a money -making exercise.

It's a brand -building exercise.

But I'm disappointed.

Yes, the actual cost of the product doesn't even compare to the amount of

and time that we put into it.

I'm surprised. I thought we'd sell a lot more.

Huh?

It's such a fine line with nudity and how it was presented.

Yeah, like that, just shake your hair out.

You know, what is vulgar? What is artistic? How do we want to push this?

Was I willing to take risks on this first new music calendar?

No, I wasn't. There was too much at stake. To me, a girl with her legs

wide open, her vagina literally right there, that's not artistic.

If you want to shock someone to get a reaction, which is clearly what he's

for. then that's what he should pursue.

But it wasn't for me.

If we do it again, would I shoot this calendar?

I'd like to. I think I could do a great job.

Does anyone want to buy my pictures?

I don't know. Does anyone want to buy David Bonham's pictures?

Doesn't look like it.

The reef is to be boring.

What remembers the people is a certain impact on the picture and something they

don't use to see, which is still something beautiful.

And this is what I was willing to do, and I did it.

I think now is the time to do it.

I'm going to show a picture that I never saw before.

How are you?

Good and you? Very well, very well, very well. Happy to see you again.

After more than 24 years of photography, it's time for me to show my personal

work.

I'm very shy about it, but I think I'm going to do it.

We take time. Every year I'm postponed.

Every year I'm postponed since a while.

But I think this time is going to be a good time.

Lately I've been doing some artistic new projects called New Muse.

I saw it. You saw that?

Yeah. Very nice, very beautiful girl, very beautiful project.

But it is not a real artistic expression for me. They stay too wise on the way,

you know.

Not really, like, finally, like, artistic.

I would say they try to sell.

Finally, we make the project at the end something beautiful, but miss content, I

think. It's missing, I would be a bit strong to say, it's missing both.

What I want to do for what I do in my book is personal. I produce myself my

book. My limit is going to be mine.

And just looking for the limit.

I feel a woman is one

curve, like I can't catch it, and if I want to appropriate it, maybe I have to

create my own curve, or maybe I have to cut the curve.

I'm looking for a way to shatter beauty.

I try to create something different, to create a new shape.

Fragments of the body.

I feel like it's a level up to just posing the girl.

It's weird.

It can look awful, very awful, but if I can find something beautiful there, I

like.

I know what kind of images he wants to run in his book.

I know certain photographers that go that route and what

happens to their career.

People have these track records. You can see this. This isn't a new thing.

I think he's treading in very dangerous territory

by doing that.

The risk would be to do another Airbreeze book with a beautiful girl.

It's good to see for some photographers, but it doesn't give you anything new.

So I think I'm going to try to give something I feel, something I love.

I was a picture who touched me, my fantasy.

Now I'm on the road to do it, and I'm very happy about that.

It's kind of scary, you know.

It's a bit provocative, but okay.

You think I'm pervert? No, I'm not, because I'm going to show you what I do.

It's not perversion.

Maybe pervert is some fish who sees somebody different who doesn't.

show what he's doing, who is hiding his intention, who is hiding something from

the other.

Actually, I don't hide, I show you what I shoot.