My photographing nudes began with a commission for The Standard Hotel in LA. They were starting a magazine and asked me to shoot a series of female nudes. The idea appealed to me because there aren't many nudes in the mainstream that I've encountered and am instinctively drawn to. And it was an opportunity to communicate my views to a large body of people who might not necessarily go to art galleries or have access to that. I love feminine beauty and want to construct a mood of leisurely sensuality and casualness as though the images were taken by a lover. I want to imbue them with an aura of nostalgia for a personal history. But not the desire for a happier time and place. Maybe it's a buffer against the ugly world that we live in, but I find it alluring, and I always have. This project is not about finding the right face or expressing a style or an attitude about life. I construct tableaux evoking a mood of tenderness and trust. I have images of my self that were taken in this capacity and I thought it would be interesting to try and achieve that effect with others. The challenge to me is to convey a palpable sense of intimacy while capturing women with both a sense of authority, and vulnerability. I know the aura and the mood of what I want to convey and the models, who are all women that I respect, expand that and give it a truthfulness.