// Behind the scenes. A photo and the story behind it!

Imagine setting off into total darkness through a narrow opening deep beneath the surface. Everything is unfamiliar. Every touch, smell and sound raises a new question. You have no idea what you will meet if you venture farther inside. Will you get stuck? Fall into a shaft like in a film? You do have a headlamp. But it reveals only enough to answer one question while creating another. Was that a spider — or a bat?

I believe a beautiful artistic nude series is more a matter of psychology than equipment. To demonstrate that, I bought Olympus's cheapest entry-level mirrorless camera, the PEN E-PL7, together with two tiny Lume Cube lights, and invited an old friend to model. “Is it natural for you to have people standing naked in front of you?” We were already on the motorway when, after several minutes of silence, she broke the quiet with this question in a trembling voice.

Quite often, having your photograph taken is unavoidable — even if you hate the idea because you believe you look terrible in pictures. There are situations where a photograph is simply necessary, and it matters that it is a good one. A CV for a new job application is a perfect example. Our heroine, Linda, thought her situation was hopeless, so she decided to trust a professional photographer. Needless to say, Linda is a beautiful woman: attractive, decisive and intelligent.

I stood there rooted to the spot, confusion written across my face, without even enough energy left to be annoyed. After a deep breath, I shut out the outside world and searched my memory for a similarly awkward situation, hoping it might offer a solution. I found one without having to go very far back — it had happened only a few months earlier. That time I had merely been assisting.

Raise your hand if you've never dreamed of having beautiful nude photographs taken of yourself. Would you actually dare to do it? Of course not. I, however, jumped straight in. There can be a million excuses: • I don't know a photographer I would trust with this. • It must be expensive. • I would never dare to undress. • People will think I'm a slut… But perhaps the main reason is always the same: I don't think I'm beautiful enough, and I'm afraid of the result.

What would it feel like to be a model for a day? To have two or three professionals bustling around you, arranging rebellious strands of hair and folds of clothing so that everything looks its absolute best? For her 13th birthday, Borka's mother surprised her with exactly this kind of professional photo shoot. She gave her not only the joy of the experience, but also tangible memories in the form of the finished photographs. Borka is a cheerful, smiling young teenager.

Dominik is a young, handsome and determined man whose natural qualities often catch people's attention. Several photo series had already been made of him, but none truly showed his versatility. Júlia is an attractive, ambitious young woman. Behind her charming, reserved appearance lives a woman with many different faces — and we wanted to bring those facets to life through photography.

To understand why I love and use the M.Zuiko 17mm PRO, 45mm PRO and 75mm 1:1.8 lenses so much, we need to look back a little. It was late at night and I was standing on the stage of a Ski & Snowboard Festival. Beside me, the DJ was driving the atmosphere into a frenzy; below me, the crowd was lost in the music. I had an M.Zuiko 45mm 1:1.8, an M.Zuiko 25mm 1:1.8 and my favourite creative tool, the Olympus PEN-F.

“Dear Olívia, My name is Tamás. I am forty years old. A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to have a professional photo series made of myself. An acquaintance recommended Norbert, and he recommended you. I would like to find out who I am — and what kind of hairstyle and clothing suit that person…” Those few lines marked the beginning of our journey together.

It is 9 October 2016. Yesterday I photographed Mikayla in New York. We had planned street photography, but the weather was not on our side, so we turned her apartment into a studio. She is twenty-one, an American citizen and a professional dancer who would like to model one day. She has lived in a dormitory since she was fifteen and will finish her studies next year. Before I begin any shoot, I always talk with the model — and for me, anyone who stands in front of my camera