He said I was a fraud... with Luis R.

Luis R was one of the guys who entered the Elska Lisbon project at the last minute. I found him on Planet Romeo in the morning, and that evening he'd be coming to our hotel, the gorgeous and intimate Casa Amora. We hadn't much time to chat but I pointed him to the Elska website, asked him to bring some different clothes, and told him that he'd need to write a story from his life in Lisbon. I also emailed him two sample stories, one from Marc Y (from the Berlin issue) and one other in Portuguese that hasn't been published yet. He didn't have many questions, which maybe should have raised some alarm bells, but I figured he was just an easy-going guy, and I was too body to take much notice.

When he arrived, we shot him in my assistant Andriy's room, the Fernando Pessoa Room (each room at the guesthouse is named after a different artist, writer or poet and contains some of their works inside). I felt that the very black-and-white aesthetic of the room would go well with some simple black-and-white shots, particularly with a guy with such a black-and-white hair/complexion.

As we shot, it became apparent that he'd done this before. The way he so easily moved from one expression to the next, the fluidness of his body movement, his attention to sources light... all of this suggested he'd modeled in the past. So I asked, and he said he had indeed modeled professionally. Of course we tend not to use professional models in Elska, but I didn't know he was one 'til we met.

Anyway, skip ahead a week, and he submitted four lines for his story (not the 300 words all are asked to do). I hated to complain, but I had to tell him that he'd need to write more. Also, the story wasn't the right style at all, just a sort of "hi my name is Luis and I live in Lisbon" sort of thing. In response he said he would not write any more, that what he did was sufficient. So I said that I unfortunately wouldn't use his photos, to which he said I was a fraud. Models, eh?!

Just kidding. Models are lovely.

Elska Boy: Luis R.

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Photographer: Liam Campbell

Issue: N/A

#LisbonPortugal