The first time I saw Ava Lure I held my breath as she danced her graceful heart upon her soon-to-be-discarded sleeves as one of the members of Pandora & the Locksmiths (fb, tumblr), a collective of burlesque dancers, musicians, and vocalists. Every single time from then on it keeps getting better: more emotion, more grace, more connection, more fire.
I was flattered when Ava contacted me about doing a shoot with her. She said: “Hey Ned, I have been pretty inspired by this image for a while and wanted to see what you thought about it.” And that’s how it all started.
We headed out to Sasamat Lake, a place I head to on those incredibly hot days in Vancouver when I needed some water to jump into, which has this slightly weird but totally awesome cement pier that goes across the lake. The perfect place to dive in from and also the perfect location for THIS.
We timed everything almost perfect. When we got there, we were the only people on the pier and this lasted for most of the shoot (except one very long line of kids from a summer camp). Just as we finished the last set and I was changing into my swim trunks to jump in, we were immediately surrounded by about 10 people!
Oh summertime, how good you are.
