A big, angular box. Almost like a container on wheels. A bit ugly, but also iconic with its painted stripes. It's a 1976 Vogue II. A good year anyway, because that's when I was born. The car doesn't have to be streamlined. With its 7-liter V8 engine, it has enough horsepower under the hood. It's now a rare vehicle and on German roads anyway.
I was very grateful that I was allowed to choose this recreational vehicle, as the Americans call it, for my photo shoot as part of the TV documentary about XXL campers.
Everything inside was still original. And for me, it was all about the inner values.
Carpeted floor, sofa and armchair, kitchen with table and even a bathroom at the far end. All this on around 18 square meters. Plus this color scheme: brown and beige tones that always go well with tanned skin in photos. And because there are windows everywhere, the light is perfect for taking photos.
So it felt very special for me to take photos in this environment. The only unusual thing was that there was a TV production and we weren't undisturbed during the shoot. It's difficult to get into a flow when you're constantly interrupted, have to give interviews in between or have to repeat a situation so that it can be filmed from a different perspective.
When you see the photos, you forget that the vehicle is actually in a workshop. I was reminded of a Seinfeld episode in which the owner of a dry cleaner secretly wears a fur coat, which has actually been handed in for cleaning, to an evening event. But don't worry: the owner of Vogue was informed about my shoot and agreed to it.
When the big camper van was driven back into the hall, I was allowed to ride in the passenger seat. It's an amazing feeling. The vehicle's suspension is extremely soft. You glide gently over every bump in this almost 50-year-old vehicle. And you're not sitting in a plain car seat, but in an armchair with armrests.
The cockpit has an incredible number of buttons that aren't even labeled. Even back then, this motorhome had features such as electrically extendable steps and, of course, a large air conditioning system. I was just wondering why this wasn't actually switched on during the shoot. Because Medea worked up quite a sweat in between.
In the photo of her kneeling in the corridor, she has real beads of sweat on her face. They fit so well for the retro vibe that I didn't retouch them out.
It always takes an incredible amount of effort for me to ask for such special locations. I'm just a bit too shy and writing to strangers to ask if I can do a nude shoot with them isn't necessarily easy either. It's easy to feel like a fool because you're often not taken seriously at first and, well, the whole situation is a bit strange.