STILL SIMPLE

HOT ICE

I don’t recall her name, but I’ll never forget her presence. She was essential to the shot—patient, radiant, confident. She was the pulse behind the image—poised, radiant, and mythically still.. Just amazing.

The theme of lips isn’t mine alone. I was lucky to work under one of the greats in cosmetic advertising, a master of using a woman’s lips as visual signature. That influence stayed with me.

This image came to me while shooting a Leo Burnett project for the Philip Morris account. I’d auditioned a model specifically for this concept. The agency understood what I was after and sent someone who was genuinely excited to make it part of her portfolio.

I pulled in a makeup artist and a couple of hands to keep the ice flowing. Others drifted in—friends, crew, collaborators—hanging out, enjoying the production, but more importantly, helping the model feel safe, seen, and supported. That energy made the shot possible.

This image began as a conversation. I was explaining the concept to a friend—Stewart, the golfer from my portrait series—when he said, “I know the perfect woman for this.” The next day, she called me directly. Her words: “I’ve always dreamed of being photographed as art.” That sealed it.

We assembled a small crew—five or six people, each playing a role. Hair and makeup. A water-pour guy. A towel girl to keep the model dry between takes. Two assistants loading film, shooting Polaroids, keeping the rhythm alive while I directed her into position.

The water came from a small bucket suspended on a boom arm, rigged with a rocket arm to hit the ice exactly where we needed. Did it work every time? More or less. Sometimes the ponytail lost shape. Sometimes the lift didn’t land quite right. But you keep working. You keep your model safe, supported, and inspired. That’s the ritual.

By the end, I’d burned through 70 to 100 sheets of 4×5 Ektachrome. This was pre-Photoshop. The blue effect came from dropping out the black in the film—pre-flashing each sheet with just enough blue light. Figuring out how much was its own journey.

Today, you could replicate most of it digitally. But you’d still need a model willing to lift a 15-pound block of ice over her head, hold it until the camera fires, lower it gently, reset, and do it again—for three hours. That’s the kind of energy you can’t fake. That’s the kind of image that becomes myth.