“Pretty girls don’t make good models.” Do you agree?

I had a very interesting and informal chat with professional fetish and boudoir photographer Nic Marchant in between shooting rope bondage, suspension and vintage glamour with him at his studio for KFS TV. Between us, we have 50 years of experience! I got some real talk straight from the horse's mouth on Nic's line of business, including:

• How to start taking good fetish or boudoir shots right away, even with little or no experience*
• Film vs digital
• Shooting vs post-processing
• How Nic chooses models to work with (as if I wouldn't ask that question!)

Watch the KFS video of our shoot and interview below, or watch it on YouTube (contains nudity)!

You may also be interested to know why Nic thinks it really pays to be a boudoir photographer... and what he said that nearly made me cry right there on camera! ;) There is also some footage of me posing nude at my photo shoot with him.

 Hanging out with Nic at our fetish shoot.

Musn't let my mascara run! ;)

If you are reading this via email subscription and can't see the video above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

If you want to book a trained TV presenter for a project pertaining to something sexy or unusual, please feel free to email me at contact@anitadebauch.com.

* Hint: “Photographing your girlfriend is a very difficult starting point... I think it’s unfair to expect anyone who isn’t a professional model to just switch it on... You need a brilliant model to make it work.”

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

The Model Interviews: Live on The Photographer Academy. Listen to our webinar for free with this code!

I was recently a guest panellist alongside models Elle Black and Zara Watson on The Photographer Academy webinar where photographers got the chance to ask us questions about the freelance modelling industry in front of an audience of hundreds of fellow photographers and models, e.g. how we set our rates and got to the point of charging what we do, how we feel about group shoots, home shoots, how to get the most out of your shoot, etc!

We were inundated with questions and even though we talked non-stop for an hour and a half, still unfortunately weren't able to answer everyone. However, it is my sincere hope that the material we did cover will be of interest to our sister models and the photographers who hire us.

You can listen to it for FREE by using the code VIP2016 to get a free Academy annual membership using the link below, with no payment details required. Once you have your free membership, you can listen to the recording right away :) I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

http://thephotographeracademy.com/become-member

Once you've got your free membership, you can listen to our webinar here:

http://thephotographeracademy.com/model-interviews-live

What do you think? Comment on Facebook!

I'm dreaming of a punk rock Christmas

I only found out this year that the Sex Pistols did a Christmas song with Phil from Thin Lizzy. So weird.

I was massively into punk and riot grrl when I was about 14 and wanted to be in a band. I can't sing, so I tried to learn to play a Fender Squire with a shoebox-sized practice amp. I was well into it for about a week and practised for a few hours after school each day. I had a clear idea of how the band were going to look, the stage shows, the album art, the music videos and so on, but no actual songs. By the end of the week I could just about play Never Mind the Bollocks from start to finish, very badly, and just kind of skipping the solos. I was so fed up that I packed it in, nursed my bleeding fingertips, and went back to just listening and going to shows.

In retrospect, it's pretty obvious than I'm a visual person- I can quickly create images in my head, come up with ideas for short art films, styling for photo shoots etc, and that's why the idea of being in a punk band attracted me, because I thought I could do all those things with a large degree of freedom from worrying about anything being socially acceptable or commercially viable.

Photographer and stylist: Jimmy Deas | Hair and makeup: me | Skincare: Bareskin Beauty
Shot at Scarlet Door Studio

I'm so glad I found my calling as a model and can now express myself in that way as often as I like. I can't sit down with a guitar and write a song or sit down with a blank canvas and paint a picture, but I can help create photos and videos with styling, posing, expression and understanding of lighting, just kind of directly using my body instead of an essential intermediary tool like a musical instrument or a paintbrush.

Here's that Sex Pistols/ Thin Lizzy Christmas song, for anyone who was wondering. Merry Christmas to all my blog readers and subscribers! :)

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

The 90s is my favourite era for street fashion and music!

Some moody 90s-inspired fashion portraits shot by talented photofervor earlier this month :) I did the styling with Mya Minerals makeup, and skincare is by Bareskin Beauty.

I love 90s alt rock like Nirvana and Placebo, 90s gangster rap like NWA and Snoop, and select electro/ rave from 90s to modern, really, like dubstep and brostep. I think people expect me to be listening Glenn Miller and Doris Day in my car when I roll up to shoots, but it's the 30s/ 40s/ 50s visual style I like, not so much the music! I guess the bands of the day sounded new and exciting at the time, but it just doesn't translate to me post-60s.

Late 90s/ early Noughties music videos are my favourite, too (except Die Antwoord). Here are a couple of classics that I think really capture the flavour of what I like to imagine the decade was like!

What do you think? Please comment over on Facebook!

Interview with KFS TV, on life, love and modelling without a model agency

KFS TV (Kinky Fetish Sex, btw!) interviewed me in my hotel room during my last tour, asking me some TOUGH questions about what I do and how I do it, what kind of body image I'm promoting, and whether I really think that "any girl can be a model".

Click play on the video below to see it!

Ignore the email address at the end of the video- the one you want to "Ask Anita" is ***MAIL@KFSMEDIA.COM***!

On the subject of being a model without a model agency, or if you are interested in beginning, maintaining and furthering your fetish modelling career for free, watch the video through to the end to see how to enter a free competition to win a personally signed luxurious hardback edition of my book, The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling: No Agency? No Problem!

I am about to become an agony aunt for KFS Magazine, so if you have a question about life, love, sex, modelling, style or beauty you'd like me to answer in my brutally honest style, email it now to mail@kfsmedia.com!

Fairy Cave

This blog is brought to you by the in-room wifi at an old-style luxurious Victorian manor I'm staying at in Surrey. I had a great shoot with one of my favourite photographers today, followed by an interview in my hotel room for KFS TV, followed by a three-course solo dinner- as I was absolutely starved by 5pm!

Here are a couple of photos by Rlux from a recent shoot in a cave in Somerset! I came back the following day with a torch to explore it further :D

I love the way the seams in the rock behind me have given me fairy wings.

Two shoots in London tomorrow: the first, me showing a photographer round some of my old London locations, and the second in the studio, which is also being filmed for TV. Then a girls-only dinner with my friends Roswell Ivory and Luci Alice ♥

Right now I'm relaxing with a Bareskin Beauty clay face mask while drawing a candlelit bath in my hotel room. If you haven't already seen it, I explain how I keep my skin clear and healthy while travelling in this video :)

Facebook and Instagram are also great places to keep up with me- they're quicker to update than my blog if I get a quick patch of phone signal between shoots! If you have any questions about modelling, either as an experienced model or as someone just thinking about giving modelling a try, please read this first (available worldwide through various websites)- it's £12.99 well invested as it will save you sooo much time, money and misdirected effort!

Lots of love,

♥ Anita ♥

Free "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling video: Maintaining perfect "model" skin on tour (or on holiday)

Welcome to my first #MondayModelBiz video!!! :D

Scroll down and click the play button to watch it!

If you've read The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling, you'll know that my nutritionist, Juliette Scarfe and I talk extensively about how to achieve and most importantly, maintain (isn't that the hardest part?!) what I call in the book perfect "model" skin.

Hopefully you've enjoyed some of The "Ugly" Girl's Guide to Modelling easy and beautifying vegan recipes, tested some of the advice and are already experiencing great results every day! Even if this is new to you, though, you should be interested in this video I made for you about how to maintain great skin on the road, whether you're a model on tour or getting ready to have the best holiday photos ever when you go away this summer!

Planning your Summer holidays? Our favourite model Anita de Bauch gives us her beauty tips when travelling, including several products from our range, thanks Anita!
Posted by Bareskin Beauty on Saturday, 6 June 2015

Now I'm off to yoga, followed by lunch with my inspirational grandmother (88 year-old vegetarian with decades of yoga under her belt, and still a size 8!), and my cats, Dexter and Lilith! Have a great Monday, beauties!

Anita x

Dark Beauty

One of my favourite magazines, Dark Beauty, has published a photo set I shot with Luci Alice on their website, >here< :)

It was shot at my last Lux Studio Day in Kent (the next one is Saturday 23 May, if any photographer would like to book the remaining slot) and I was thrilled to hear Luci say that it was some of her best work! She is a lighting master!

The leather armour/ harnesses are from Louise McKay, the latex leggings were custom-made by Lady Lucie, the boots are from Fabulously Fetish and I believe Luci said the feathers were from Ann Summers! All my skincare was provided by Bareskin Beauty, and Luci was delighted at how little retouching there was to do (I take good care of my skin!).

I really like how my nipple looks in the last one, LOL. It almost looks like it's been painted on.

I think this is the first shoot I've done where more than one magazine wanted to publish it, but Dark Beauty got in there first! It was fun letting my inner teenage goth out to play, that's for sure. We were even listening to Marilyn Manson while we were shooting! (Sorry if you already saw this on Instagram/ Facebook!)

Being photographed for Louise McKay leather by @lucialicephotography today. #modelling #modeling #photoshoot #fashionshoot #posing #fashionphotography #studiophotography #me #video

A video posted by Anita De Bauch (@anitadebauch) on Mar 28, 2015 at 10:47am PDT

I think today will be spent dealing with the email mountain. I'm glad I spent all of yesterday reading in the garden with the cats, after my shoot was postponed last-minute, as the weather has gone back to grey and cooler today. I want to learn about how to identify common British/ Irish trees, and spring is supposed to be a good time to do it, but I'm going to wait for a sunnier day off to go walking ;)

Latex & "shoe porn" #FetishFriday with Fabulously Fetish and Bareskin Beauty

It's #FetishFriday in Anita World!

New black latex catsuit photo shot and art directed by David Radford at Manse Studio during my trip to Wales earlier this month.

Hi-ho, Silver!

Knee-length patent boots by Fabulously Fetish, catsuit by Murray & Vern!
Skincare by Bareskin Beauty, inc. my new lip butter. I did the hair and makeup :)

Prolly woulda been quicker to ride this horse to North Wales than take the motorway ;)

I drove up there first from Bristol for a full day location shoot with a call time of 8am. GoogleMaps said it was a 4 hour drive so I decided to drive up the night before and stay in a hotel. Thank god I did! The drive ended up being six hours thanks to the entire thing pretty much being dug up. Cue having a rather late-night dinner in bed of kale salad and vegan tom yam soup out of tupperware/ soup thermos rather than going out for dinner as I was far too tired to stir a foot outside of my room until the next morning, when the lovely landlady made me almond milk porridge and a veggie full English (Welsh?) breakfast that REALLY set me up for the day! ^_^

After a chilly but productive day of shooting summer fashion and nudes at pretty locations around North Wales, I drove to South Wales, stayed the night in another hotel (again finding myself too tired to go anywhere for dinner once I arrived- just hot shower, kale salad leftovers, brown rice cakes dipped in houmous, cammomile tea, book and bed!) and then drove to my sold-out Manse Studio Day, at which the "horsey" photo was shot :) If you are a photographer interested in booking me at a studio day, please read my last blog.

Although it added a lot of time onto my trip, I really enjoyed driving around Wales. The drive from North to South at night was most amazing because you could drive for ages without seeing a single light from a house or street light. There was just nothing except the car's headlights, winding round the mountain passes, in and out of valleys, and occasionally through sleepy little villages with long hyphenated names on the signposts. The only other light was from the stars :) Living in England, I always forget that wild places like this still exist in Britain. I would love to live somewhere so magical and untouched.

The drive from the hotel to Manse Studio the next morning was even more heavenly and breathtaking as I had to drive through snow-covered mountains in bright sunshine! It was just glorious to drive through the most stunning snowy panoramic views with the heater and the music turned up high!

I was in an amazing mood when I arrived! and more than ready to jump on a fake horse in a rubber catsuit and pull a range of silly faces for David ;)

Much love,

Anita xxxx

Selfridges' The Masters fashion film

I make a little appearance (nude, of course) in the incredible Selfridges fashion film The Masters, directed by Marie Schuller (the same director who did Oyster and the Bo Ningen video I was in)! It's currently being shown on the big screen in the window of Selfridges flagship store on Oxford Street. Whenever I've walked down Oxford Street I've always thought, wouldn't it be cool if my face was up alongside all these other models somewhere? And now my naked, oiled up ass is instead, and in video form too, which is infinitely better!

I'm at 1:35- 1:51 but you should definitely watch the whole thing because it's awesome ;)

Each designer's capsule collection has its own window at Selfridges with their name and "Master of ..." written next to it. The Stella McCartney window has "Stella McCartney: Master of Modernity" and an artist's impression of my bare leg peeping through the curtain (sorry if you already saw this on Facebook) :)

The exodus from London to Somerset has now been scheduled for 1st September.

I put most of my stuff into boxes, and now I have to keep remembering which box I put what stuff in, when it turns out I DO need them before we move, e.g. opaque tights and woolly socks. In August. Fuck you, God.

We were supposed to be going to the Notting Hill Carnival today but I am being slightly put off by

a) my mate's over an hour late getting here, I'm guessing he must have drowned on the way
b) yes, it is pissing it down
c) all the sound systems are being shut off at 7pm, so no block party! I know! Way to kill off the carnival spirit and reclaim it in the name of pure commercialism *vom*

It's kind of sad because I had an outfit picked out and everything.

Looking forward to living in the middle of nowhere, where the police haven't been instructed to herd people into expensive nightclubs after 7pm.

Was asked to audition as the lead villain in a horror movie, only to discover upon closer reading of the treatment the considerable amount of hardcore porn in it. I agreed with the director that our society is crazy for thinking it's okay to show graphic violence and murder onscreen as entertainment but not graphic sex, but as I explained to him, "you're not asking me to ACTUALLY assault or kill any of the other actors. But you ARE asking me to..." Well, yeah.

Asian Tour flights booked. Really excited to go back to a beautiful, sunny corner of the world and do nothing but make photos for two weeks.

Bo Ningen: 'Slider' music video directed by Marie Schuller for NOWNESS!

This may be one of the coolest projects I've been involved with to date:

a combined fashion film/ music video with Bo Ningen, directed by THE Marie Schuller (Head of Fashion Film at Nick Knight's SHOWstudio) for NOWNESS.

There are a few actors in this video, but I'm the only naked one. No change there, then.

Bo Ningen: Slider on Nowness.com

My laptop is too crap to play the video smoothly, so I can't take screengrabs for my portfolio, le sigh.

I did manage to steal a couple of stills from Marie's Instagram and NOWNESS' Twitter though, mwah hahahaha.

Many thanks to +Bareskin Beauty for the life-saving skincare.

I love this ^ last still. I look like I'm flying naked on the back of a giant psychedelic butterfly :)

Other news:

• Met Twiggy at a photo shoot
• Still working my ass off on le book
• Back into Pilates and green smoothies after too long drinking coffee over a hot laptop
• Shooting in London nearly every day
• Got comped into the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards and had an even better time than expected (Behemoth were particularly good)
• I miss New York and Singapore
• Hopefully having a bit of a staycation next week so will be able to catch up on blogging and updating website :)

xoxo

#WardrobeWednesday with Damian McGillicuddy, Olympus & Bareskin Beauty!

Hi everyone!

I'm writing this on my sofa, in a peach robe, with Lilith purring in it, and drinking almond cappuccino with cinnamon sprinkles from a big china mug. Apparently people like to know these things.

Anyway!

Check out this new photo shot in Finland last month with Damian McGillicuddy using Olympus! I borrowed my boyfriend's tie for this shoot.

I'm quite impressed by just how much you can see my nipple through that blouse. I don't know if it actually looked like that at the time or was enhanced in Photoshop. I did the hair and makeup, skincare is by Bareskin Beauty :) The hair was super easy, I just used coconut oil to slick it down.

Bought some new makeup online today, in fact; I'm gradually converting from MAC to organic pure mineral products. Less talc = less spots. I recently got a bunch of new BsB natural products and my skin looked better immediately after using the Clay Mask and Antioxidant Toner, which inspired me to think, "what else can I do? Improve my makeup case!"

Yesterday's lips =

BsB lip balm + Rimmel Dynamite pencil + MAC Girl About Town applied with MAC lip brush

Here's a little video of me visiting the BsB kitchen in London last weekend, in case you didn't already see it on Vine:

Full day shoot yesterday, spa mineral bath with Thornton's Champagne truffles courtesy of boyfy last night, and full day's domestic goddess activities today. I've already done last night's washing up, three loads of laundry, scratch-made two kinds of soup (Kim Snyder's detox vegan Thai soup, and my own vegan Italian tomato & Chanteray carrot), baked preservative-free vegan wholemeal with coconut oil and BsB Himalayan pink salt, and assembled a huge pile of clothes for mending. I feel super-efficient. Now to see if I can remember how to thread up my digital sewing machine!

 Oh and guess what?

I've officially been modelling for EIGHT YEARS this month.

UNBELIEVABLE!!! Cheers everyone!

PS, does anyone know where I can buy a pair of these in the UK??? They are actually my perfect pair of sunglasses. I think I could handle paying 250 bucks for them if I had prescription lenses put in and wore them forever.

#FetishFriday 'Andrew McMeekin photographs Anita De Bauch': behind the scenes film of a hair fashion shoot

I thought it would be fun to post this behind the scenes film for #FetishFriday, as I thought plenty of my blog readers would like to see a latex shoot actually in progress, but it's also interesting as a hair/ retro fashion shoot. I think the black catsuit was my favourite outfit but I liked the cherry print Marilyn Monroe dress too :)



I was commissioned for this shoot to promote Andrew McMeekin's photography services in Lowestoft, Norfolk- he has a studio above his salon, Robert Owen Haircutters, so it's really convenient for getting your hair done nicely before your portrait session. I posted the photos from our shoot in my blog, here and here :)

This week has mostly been spent organising my Irish Tour in July, which is very exciting as I love visiting Ireland, working with some of my favourite photographers, and meeting new ones. I also want to visit some of the ancient mystical sites this time too, if my schedule allows! Organising so many clients from all different areas, arranging times that are convenient for everyone, and making and booking a travel plan is always a vast amount of work, but worth it for what is produced :) If you're a photographer/ artist/ designer/ hairdresser anywhere in Belfast/ Antrim or the Republic of Ireland, please do feel free to email me about a booking in July at contact@anitadebauch.com. I'm going to be everywhere :)

Other than that, the highlight of my week so far has been life modelling for art classes in London for the first time. I've never done it before as the rates of pay are so low that I sort of couldn't justify doing it. I concluded that life models do it for the feeling of having helped in creating artwork than for anything else, which I sure wish I had time to do for free or almost-free sometimes, but 99% of the time, I just don't. If I'm not shooting, I do need rest days so I don't totally burn out ;) But these ones were quite reasonably paid and I'm so glad I actually took the plunge and did them, it was such a fascinating experience! I really wish I could draw. It was very inspiring and made me want to do life modelling more regularly, if I can.

Another nude booking tomorrow, but with a camera, not a paintbrush, the way god intended ;)

Anita x

Photos from Ecoluxe London's London Fashion Week runway show :)

Home from a jolly trip to Newcastle, Darlington and Middlesbrough, shooting some fun fashion and duo nudes with Kitty Quinzell, a repeat booking modelling for a camera club (I think this is my third time with them now), some lovely colourful rope bondage as well as good old metal, including dressing as a leopard and being locked in a cage, and then having a lovely Indian dinner with my dad, brother and his girlfriend before getting the coach back to London yesterday :) I normally don't mind jumping on a coach instead of a train every now and then (I'm used to long-haul flights in coach so just sitting on a bus for a couple of hours is no big deal) but this was a bit of a grim journey as the bus was just TOO full. I do prefer train rides but can never resist saving £50 by getting the Megabus down from Middlesbrough instead >.<

Me & Kitty after our shoot in Newcastle :)

I had a "day off" today, which has really been spent at a beautician appointment (i'm now halfway through a course of laser treatments on my pits and bits which will stop the hair EVER growing back, how exciting technology is!!), emailing lots of photographers regarding upcoming tours (i'm going all over the world this year, phew!), and prepping for tomorrow's trip to Norfolk, where I'll be doing a grand total of five shoots in three days! and then getting the TRAIN home to London for a full day art nude workshop on Saturday, followed by a late dinner date with Lady Allura's Latex ;)

So I thought now would be a good time to catch up on my blogging and write about my first London Fashion Week runway show! I was really happy to be hired by Ecoluxe London, who put on a catwalk show of nothing but ethical, eco-friendly and sustainable fashion during LFW. It was also the first time Liam got to see me do a proper high fashion show as I managed to get him in on the guest list :)

I posted a little Vine video before the show started. Still trying to get to grips with actually making GOOD videos on Vine, but it's certainly fun and change from just taking Instagram photos :)

I think this is my record for number of outfit changes in one show (six!) yet it seemed much easier than at other shows as I had my own personal dresser to help me :D She was super lovely, as was my MUA who kept running over to powder me and top up my lip gloss. I even managed to walk in my Fabulously Fetish snakeskin slingbacks without falling over ;)

From Australia, Green Embassy (click the pictures for larger versions!):

From New Zealand, Ghost Train:

From the UK, Fashion Cork (I was one of only two models for this designer!):

 

My gloves, bag, belt and umbrella were all made from cork! :D

Also from the UK, Ala Mairi:

 From Lebanon, Nadine Mneimneh:

 

By Stamo of Ecoluxe London:

 Loved the way the cloak billowed out as I walked :)

And some backstage snaps taken right after the show (still in Stamo's clothes):

 Me and my dresser, and me by myself, backstage after the show :)

After the show, Liam and I managed to snag a guest goodie bag (some pretty cool stuff including a re-usable coffee cup that I've used pretty much every day, mineral makeup, and organic lube!) and put away so much of the free wine and smoked salmon canapes that we were the very last to leave. So much for networking :p I've just had some nice new comp cards printed but really need to get into the habit of actually remembering to take them with me to places!

Now I must figure out what to have for dinner. The only thing I feel like is a giant mug of almond hot chocolate in the bath :p my train leaves at 6.25am tomorrow, so no time for a morning shower!