Romi Muse, a Chilean actress and model who spent years circumnavigating the globe as a freelance artist’s model, before settling finally in Barcelona when she became a mother. This was taken when we first met, on my third visit to the forest.

Lillias Right, an American glamour model and body positivity advocate. In 2015 she and her boyfriend were travelling Europe together and stayed in my warehouse when they came through London. I also took some photos of her notoriously camera shy boyfriend at her request, just for them.

Rose McKenzie, an American photographer, model and writer who I've been friends with online for many years. When we met in person at last she'd been living in Europe for a few months and wasn't sure whether she was going to stay or what she wanted to do with her life and career. She was the first person to use the word 'alchemy' to describe analogue photography to me and the word continues to remind me of her and the weird week we spent tinkering in the darkroom in 2017.

Camilla “Milly” Harding, a British born queer bi-racial actor, theatre maker, writer and drag king. We met through a mutual friend who organised an exhibition we both participated in, and later bonded over our mutual experiences with chronic illness and using our bodies in our art to work through it.

Angie Marie, an American former lawyer turned model, photographer, writer and sex worker who I first met in her birthplace of Las Vegas, shortly after she’d emerged from a mental health crisis that led her to quit law, take up nude modelling and start touring the country to work. In 2017 she made it to the UK and although we’d not seen each other in person in 3 years our conversation picked up as though no time had passed.

Marine Salomon, a French model I befriended years ago when we first worked together on a shoot for a magazine that never ended getting published (the last time either of us ever tried to work for a fashion magazine!). When I had a terrible day job in an office near where she works she would meet me for lunch, and she has been one of my biggest supporters for years.

Sugar Magnohlia, a Brazilian model, photographer and single mother who first contacted me online shortly after David Bowie's death, as we'd both been publicly mourning. She's since become one of my most frequent collaborators and one of my closest friends, and we've helped each other through more than a few personal crises over the years.

Kelsey Dylan, an American model and herbalist specialising in medicinal mushrooms. She travels the world for work but will not fly, instead circumnavigating the globe via boat, train and buses, staying with me every time her boat lands in the UK. She always goes out of her way to be helpful; from helping me haul boxes of photo paper from my old darkroom into my new studio to insisting on cooking meals at home.

Lana Helena Hulenić, a Croatian actress, writer, producer and blogger who reached out to me because she specifically wanted to make nude images that were vulnerable and intimate without being objectified. During our shoot I climbed a tree with her assistance, only to slide out of it on the way down and rip a huge hole in my overalls in the process.

Dovile Paris, a Lithuanian art and erotic model who travels throughout Europe for work. She reached out to me after following my work online for a while, but happened to do so when someone very important to me had just attempted suicide. I was half out of my mind but I arranged to shoot anyway, and her frankness about her own mental health struggles as well as her patience with me was incredibly healing for me. She told me of a slavic folk tradition of roaming forests on the eve of the summer solstice in search of the fern flower, the finding of which brings good fortune.

Grace Jessica, an American photographer and former model I've been internet friends with for years. She took a detour from her family hiking tour of Europe just to meet and work with me, a gesture that meant the world to me.

Ali & Devin of Wild Wolf Leatherwork, a pair of American, queer, sex-positive leatherworkers and analogue photographers I’ve known for many years online but finally met in 2017. We photographed each other one day and on another I taught them how to process their own black and white film, connected through our queerness and our preference for the tactile creative processes.

Sionna Stevens, an American genderqueer artist, cam model, former dancer and an internet friend of mine for many years. We connected on a personal level due to our shared experience with chronic pain. We missed each other when they first came to the UK as I was in the US at the time, but in 2017 our schedules finally lined up and we got to spend a week together. At the time they considered themselves to be 'just' a model, and I spent much of that week encouraging them to see the value in their own art and their own voice, having gone through the same thing only a few years before.

Sura Hertzberg, an American performance artist and model who visited London in the summer of 2018 in the middle of the most intense heatwave we’d had in years. I foolishly went looking for a specific spot that I'd used the year before as we were a little strapped for time, and of course over the winter the landscape had changed and it was completely different. Instead we walked and talked while looking for an alternative, commiserating with each other about the difficulties of sharing our art online and our frustration at repeatedly having to state "I do not make porn. I make art."

Manya Muse, a French fine art model who has followed my work for years. She was insistent that we shoot outside despite the fact that her visit was planned for October, and was enamoured with the deciduous forest, having grown up surrounded by only pines. She kept apologising for her English but we were still able to talk at length about feminism, art and depictions of feminine bodies in the digital age.

Julia Monae, a British model and performance artist who I met because she was working in the café/gallery adjacent to my studio. We got chatting one day about spirituality, ritual and art and it became a routine for me to drop round to talk to her while she supplied us both with free wine.

Kyotocat, an American model, photographer and self-portraitist who hasn’t had an actual home base in years, choosing to travel continuously. I'm a few years older than her and have become something of a mentor figure to her over the years, having taught her how to process her own black and white film and paper when we first met in 2016, and spending long hours talking through her ideas when she passed through town, often staying on my couch.

A self-portrait, one of many taken in The Forest throughout the years. This one in particular came from spring 2019, and my long-term partner joined me as a look out.

Brooke Eva, an American photographer and model who fosters rescued pitbulls in her spare time. We first met very briefly in her dreadful, tiny, Los Angeles apartment when I was travelling across the country with another model. I took a few photos of her then, but it was the end of the day and we were losing the light, and I never felt satisfied with the photos I took. Three years later she came to Europe and stayed on my couch for a week, bought me far too much takeaway and created a mountain of art with me, more than making up for our unsatisfying first meeting.

Rosetta Carr, an Italian bass player, singer, songwriter and dancer. We had rescheduled our shoot once due to a mental health crisis amongst her friends, and when we did get to the forest I shared my own stories of crisis and struggles. We took our time, spending more time talking and smoking than taking photos.