I was contacted by Keeley Steele, an artist and former model of mine. She and her husband had bought an old commercial building in a run-down part of Charleston, West Virginia. They had opened a great little restaurant downstairs (the Bluegrass Kitchen) and had plans to renovate the derelict upstairs into an art and performance space. Keeley’s larger ambition is to jumpstart a SoHo type renewal of this old neighborhood. To attract attention she decided to do a nudes show and asked me to contribute. Instead, I was intrigued by the city and the old building and asked if I could come to Charleston and shoot in the building before renovation began. I asked her to find some people from the neighborhood to pose and then I would make large (30x40) prints that would be hung in the spots they were taken. When I arrived in October 2005 I found that Keeley had recruited nine or ten people from the neighborhood to model, most of whom had never done anything like this before. They were just the most fantastic people to work with. It was a great experience. You can read about it on this link: www.dailymail.com/story/Life/+/2006020843/Model+citizens/