The Expats Women of Milan - why I am obsessed with photographing ladies

Why the heck am I so keen on photographing woman. Always have been. Might I be bisexual or even a lesbian in the closet?

Nah - it’s nothing like that.

At 60 I should know.

Where then does the fascination come from? And look where it took me!

I am being flown to Milan to photograph 10 ladies, because I am the right one for the job.

The subject expats, UK women  married to Italian men. The movers and shakers of the busness and theatre scene of Milan and proud of it.

Some have been married for 60 years, others divorced, others widowed.

They all have survived the Italian patriarchy with bravura. They have careers, beauty and style up to their ying yang, live in beautiful apartements and will never be ready to slow their drive.

Just the demographic of women right for my lens.

When I was 19 I read this book with passion. Susanne Kubelka’s Finally Over 40. Young as I was, just leaving my home country Bavaria/Germany for Paris/France to follow my call as a model and actress I was looking up to a diversity of women older then I was who could inpire me about who to be in 20 years time. It is so hard to imagine when you are young, right? Some youngsters have it all paved out, they have plans. Bless tthem. I wasn’t one of them. I was going to spend my life going where the wind blows me, very much with the flow, making the most out of opportunities and live in general. Like everyone I was looking for joy, happiness, excitemnt and most of all purpose yet making a living. Love what you do, right?

Watching my seniors at least gave me some direction of where I wanted to be or, more importantly, not to be….

And you know what this hasn’t changed. Now, becomeing 60 in a few weeks time I am again looking for that inspiration, the liveliness, the libido in elder ladies.

I guess this is one reason WHY I LOVE portraying women. But I cannot stop my explination here.   

I must add, that in the process of living my life that way I of course have come across just as many stimitulating characters as I came across sad and lost ones.  Often there was no hope, as lives were destroyed by illness, addiction, body dysmorphia, hate, crime, family feuds - you name it. Other times it was as simple and stupid as the infamous imposter syndrome that held a woman down. Not being enough. Not enough because of 1001 reasons, which exists mostly in a woman’s mind. Presumptions. Bad, paralysing presumptions of something that might not even exist in reality.

Supposedly flaws of her body, soul and/or mind dictated to her by her upbringing, bad relationships, society or social media.

Bullshit.

I made it my mission, or better life called me to make it my mission to work against this phenomena and help women to fall back in love with their assets, with everything that’s beautiful about them.

The fight began early and my weapon was my cameras always in my bag. Film & photography. My skill grew over the years learning from the best camera-wizards and photo-studio-handlers around the globe, by being infront of their lense and watching excactly how they work the craft of photography. They loved replying to my curiosity. Not many model/actresses were like that.

I am proud to say that since I helped a vaste amount of women changing their selfperception. I hope to pass a littel bit of the wisdom that comes with it on to my 2 daughters.

When that happens I get a feeling of - mission accomplished. Pure satisfaction.

So yes, I guess this is where my attraction for photographing ladies comes from.

Straight, gay, gender fluid, gender neutral, asexual, trans, all shapes, ages and skin tones - you need a confidence boost finding the woman inside you, come to Mama NUX…

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