Gossip

Fashion

Health

Destiny

Relationships

Travel

Career

Beauty

Green Issues

Culture

Family

Lifestyle

New Mother

Danielle and Frenk: dnf-style

by Leslie Lismore All photographs Frenk kaufmann

It is unusual to meet a model who works both side of the lens, even more so to find a photographer who defends with a passion the rights of models.

In life model and photographer Danielle Kaufmann we see both combined. A passionate model and photographer, Danielle has been modelling since the age of 16, where she took advantage of the experience to learn from the photographers she found herself working with.

At the age of 19, Danielle was running her own photographic studio, modelling and teaching aspiring photographers the techniques she had perfected.

During this time Danielle became acquainted with the types of abuse to which photographic models are all too often subjected, being taken advantage off both physically and financially.

The next stage was to set up as a photographer in her own right, and inviting other models to feature in her work.

At the end of 2005, Danielle met experimental photographer Frenk, and within a couple of months, the couple had decided to share their lives and their work, and the studio dnf-style was formed.

nuts4chic caught up with the couple at their studio.

nuts4chic:
Danielle, - It’s interesting to meet a photographer who works both sides of the Lens. Tell me, were you initially drawn to modeling of photography?

Danielle:
When I started modeling I was not planning to do photography also. It came to my mind when I realized I got more and more interested in what the photographer was doing and why. That’s when I started to photograph myself. So I was initially drawn to modeling but photography is now my main occupation. I also am still modeling but not as much as I used to.

nuts4chic:
How about you Frenk. What got you behind the lens?  

Frenk:
Out of boredom! (laughs)

I was in a negative spiral of work, eating and sleeping and trying to break out. Also I was bad at maintaining social contacts. That all changed when I bought my first digital camera.

I had been introduced to analogue photography in my study years so I had a basis to work with. To change both situations at once I took up model photography where I would be forced to work on my social contact and had something else to focus on apart from working, eating and sleeping. So I bought a digital camera. In fact I bought 4 different digital cameras in as many months because I found my own Walhalla

nuts4chic:
Frenk, you mentioned that your interest in photography stems from an initial interest in dramatic expression and the human body, so in a way you seem to have similar sympathies with regard to your work. Would you say so?

Frenk:
That is true and I use that in my photography. I always have been a feeling person with a slight view towards the black, the depressive. For me beauty is not only about being happy. Beauty can be found in so many more things. Also grief has beauty in itself. The naked body has also always fascinated me. Not the nakedness itself but the ways you can use it to express, to form and to speak without words. I try to find that and get in touch with it. It is my way to see beauty in all it’s forms.

nuts4chic:
Danielle, you have spoken out in the past about the abuse to which models can be subject to. Could you tell us a bit about that?

Danielle:
In photography you have photographers and men just willing to see girls as naked as possible. It is almost like real life (laughs)

Being a model myself I am happy I could always make very clear to photographers where the boundaries were and this way I have managed, during my whole career to spare myself from being abused. But in a market where many many girls dream of being a model you also find a lot of naivety and these girls can be subject to physical and mental abuse if they meet the wrong people.

It would not be the first time to hear from a model that she posed naked even when she felt uncomfortable because the so called photographer managed to convince her it would be good for her career.

Also there are lesser forms of abuse where photographers think they rule and they are the ones to decide what kind of photo’s are being taken etc etc. I am talking here when working on a, so called, 'Time For Print' basis where no one pays no one and photographer, model and, if present, make-up artist work together without paying each other.

In this case all parties have to be able to find something of their selves in the photo’s but lot’s of times it is the photographer who tries to rule all. Also cases of photographers not delivering photo’s to the model or only photo’s they can use for publicizing on the web. When she asks for the images ready for a print she has to pay for it. Those are some the things you see happening in this sector at the amateur level.

nuts4chic:
Do you see the situation as changing in the future?

Danielle:

No not really, because there always will be potential prey and there will always be hunters. But we are trying to do our part in helping as many people as possible. We have created www.modelblacklist.com for that. Here everyone can drop their complaints which we gather and follow up on when needed.

Everyone can request information and we tell them what and how many remarks we have gotten, positive and or negative. The requester can then make his or her own conclusions. These can be model, photographers but also agencies requesting and reported. Also when we work with beginning models ourselves we always try to find out how strong they are, what they think a model should or should not do and we always give her advice in how to distinguish a potential abuser from a serious photographer

nuts4chic:
So how did you guys meet?

Frenk:
I was trying to learn how to be a photographer and Danielle was the experienced model I knew I was not good enough a photographer for yet. However when doing a call for models for one of my projects Danielle replied, saying that she was willing to work with me. Not because I was that good but she liked my attitude. The appointment was canceled two times from both sides but we kept in touch and after two short meetings we got closer and closer. When she finally came towards my town- she lived in The Netherlands and I in Belgium, because she had a hair show near my place and needed a place to stay. You may say, she never left. (laughs)

nuts4chic:
So you work together yet independently now. How does that work?

Danielle:
Easy we change places (laughs) When I shoot, Frenk is already processing the first results. We never interfere in each others work unless asked for. This way we can assure we keep our own identities which results in the broad results of DNF-Style.

nuts4chic:
Are you competitive with each other?

Frenk:
Because we do not interfere in each others work we are not competitive. Of course we have our differences but we do not let them interfere with our result

nuts4chic:
The work seems very experimental. It almost has a fine art quality about it. How do you maintain a balance between your creativity and clients' requirements?

Danielle:

At the time, we only work for private clients, not agencies. All our clients come to us to get the photo’s WE make. They decide in which clothes to pose according to our advice. We help them find themselves on our studio floor without looking like a sandbag. But we decide on the end result. Since our clients come to us because of what they have seen so far on www.dnf-style.com they know what they get and we do not need to do any compromises.  

nuts4chic:
Would you say that there is a point where Frenk ends and Danielle begins in your work, and vice-versa?

Danielle:
You could say that. Frenk is slightly more working towards the art-nude side while I amreally fashion minded. Frenk is strong in body forms, I am strong in portraits. But we do not separate these between each other. I may do nude-art and Frenk fashion as easy and we do. (laughs)

nuts4chic:
Do you find it easy to find common ground when you collaborate, or does someone have to compromise on their ideas?

Frenk:
We do not need to compromise because we leave each other free. Of course we had to get used to collaborate in ideas which has resulted in arguments. But these settle themselves along the way.

nuts4chic:
What are your plans for the future?

Frenk:
We are hoping to get world famous of course, to be able to build a pool behind the villa we do not own yet. That would be the Utopia version of our answer. The realistic version is that we are hoping, one day, to be able to work as photographers professionally. Now we both have day jobs. We are hoping one day to reach the big mags to have our photo’s published in. Maybe an exposition, a museum, who knows. Until then it is hard hard work and we are trying to find a balance between our day jobs, our photography and our lives.

nuts4facts

See Also:
Bach And Bush Flowers
Health_MOT

PMS

Mentally Disabled Children

The Elixir Of Life