Shot for The Times Review magazine. Always like photographing black girls as either silhouettes or on black backgrounds. Fantastic to light as their skin never burns out against the light no matter what or how much you hit them with. We made this girl up with added black make-up, with fifties statuettes and all those cheap naff portraits as an inspiration. She said she's always wanted to try make-up that darkened her skin even more and when complete said the make-up made her feel 'less naked.' I assured her by telling her I could still see that she was! The magazine liked the shot, 'in principle' but decided that a coffee coloured girl would be more acceptable. I told them I didn't want to shoot that, so a fashion photographer produced the final bland result and my super-black fifties-inspired masterpiece never saw the light of day!