Mere days after my last blog post wondering about how one of the other sets I shot with Holly Randall turned out, I get a nice message informing me that the set has just gone live, along with some shiny sample images! The rest of course can be seen in high-res shiny glory over at my page on Forver Vamp (link warning: site also contains adult content).

Photography: Holly Randall
Latex: Westward Bound
Boots: (aren't they wonderful!): Ellie Shoes

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In other news, I arrived back in London this afternoon after being away in the US for the best part of a year. I'm so excited to be back! The first thing I did was go to a pub and order steak pie with mashed potatoes with gravy. hehe. I've already planned out food for the next few days, including English breakfasts, curry on Brick Lane and Sausages n Mash (though sadly no longer at S & M Cafe which seems to have gone out of business while I was away :( ).

I'm back for 5 weeks and shooting pretty much every day apart from 1 day each week I've saved for catching up with friends and working on some art commissions etc. It's going to be crazy busy. I'm also doing a fashion show this Saturday at the Torture Garden birthday ball for corset designer Bibian Blue. I'm so happy to be working with her again, we've created so many amazing images together. My show outfit is really outstanding, I'm so hoping we'll be able to fit in a photoshoot with it!

Following on very vaguely but not really from yesterday's post, I shot a little while back with famed erotic photographer Holly Randall.. Holly is best known for her super glamorous images and usually shoots much higher levels than I do so I was pretty flattered that she liked my look enough to shoot some softer latex pinup and nude work with me for her new 'Forever Vamp' website (warning: although my set is just latex and nudes there are also explicit adult images at the link).

Holly was just opening her new studio (Noveria Studios) when we did this shoot; it's a pretty impressive space with tons of set areas and super cute furniture that I want to steal for my house. We shot a few different sets and I noticed the first one has previews available now for your viewing pleasure (full set in high-res available on Forever Vamp" ;)).

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Photography: Holly Randall
Bodysuit and spats: Lady Lucie
Shoes: Fabulously Fetish

The last 2 images we went into a different area of the studio to do some natural light stuff as a change to the studio lighting. I'm always fascinated by how different I can look with different lighting setups. The studio pics for this set were quite moody and my skin almost looks tanned in some of them (I remember fondly Holly being excited to play with more creative lighting for our shoot because she didn't have to 'worry about lighting my vagina'. lol). But I'm back to my regular pale in the natural lighting.

I can't wait to see some of the other stuff we shot too! Especially this set.. how cool is that chair! And my outfit, if I do say so myself! hehe. Curious to see the video clips we did to go with each set too (there is a fun behind-the-scenes preview on the site here). I feel like I'm still learning with video work (well, compared to stills anyway).

A little while ago I did a shoot with adult film star turned photographer Kimberley Kane to be published in VICE magazine, originally conceived as a junker designs fashion story but then not long before the issue was due to be published I was asked to write a piece about myself called 'My Hollywood Story', detailing how I ended up in Los Angeles. In my case this is a pretty long and complicated journey that had to be edited down quite significantly for the final editorial, so I thought I'd post the uncut version here. It's probably one of the more personal 'about me' things I've ever written.

I noticed VICE are now promoting the editorial as 'the women of LA's adult industry tell their story', which made me raise an eyebrow somewhat - I don't consider myself to be in the adult industry and when I shot I was under the impression it was a fashion layout. I know all but one of the other girls modelling happen to be adult performers, and it makes a more attention grabbing blog title, but it's bad journalism (not to mention the lame suggestion that porn is all women do in LA).

I have to laugh though, since I moved to LA I've made a lot of lovely friends who happen to work in porn and I've attended so many porn-related events now I'm sure there are many people who assume I work in the industry too. I do love drawing explicit images; I wonder if that counts? XD

Anyhoo..

Ulorin Vex - model and illustrator, recently immigrated to the USA and living in Los Angeles, CA.

Looking back on my life so far, I still occasionally can't get my head around the fact that I've ended up where I am, living in Hollywood, with a successful modelling career under my belt and my dreams of becoming a professional artist starting to become a reality.

I grew up on a council estate in the North East of England, with a family who I loved but had very little in common with. My parents have left the UK once in their entire lives and very rarely leave the small town I grew up in. My Dad was actually born in a house only one street away from where they still live today. I remember even when I was pretty young that I had fears of being trapped in that town forever. I wanted more than that. I've always been in love with the idea of travelling and seeing all the places I had only read about.

Although I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life at that point, I knew I had to do something to get where I wanted to be and school seemed like the best option. At age 18 I left home to study for a Biology BSc (hons); I was the first person in my whole family to ever go to University. Back then I was under the impression I had to do science, no-one could make a living doing art.

Uni turned out to be somewhat of a culture shock for a working class girl who had grown up in a very overprotective household. I was ridiculously shy and socially awkward beyond belief. It was during this time that I started to think about modelling. Seems strange for someone who was too scared to even ask directions to the lunch hall, but in the back of my head I always had this feeling that this was not who I was supposed to be. I started modelling not long before I graduated, initially as a hobby to express myself - in front of the camera my persona was totally fearless and free; I loved it.

After graduating, instead of getting a so-called 'real' job I decided to move to London to become a full-time model. It was perfect really, I'd found something I loved doing and made me money whilst allowing me to travel and work on my artwork at the same time. At the start I travelled all over the UK for photoshoots but then I started getting more and more bookings in other parts of Europe. In 2008 my modelling images were noticed by singer Emilie Autumn and I was asked to join her as a backing performer on one of her European tours. It was at that point I decided to put all my possessions into storage and live on the road full time.

I visited LA several times during those gypsy years, initially to visit a fashion designer friend (Mildred Von of Mother of London) and also to shoot with some of my favourite fetish photographers. It was during those first visits around 2007-08 that I met photographer Allan Amato, who hired me for a workshop he was running. Lets just say we got on like crazy! Fast forward a year to 2009 when Allan decides to come to Europe for a vacation, we meet up in London and hang out together non-stop for 3 weeks straight. Many transatlantic flights followed but was the catalyst for my eventual move to the US in June of last year.

Now I'm living here permanently, with the love of my life and surrounded by more like-minded people than I ever thought could exist. There seems to be something about this place that draws a certain kind of person. I've spoken to so many friends who all have crazy unlikely stories of how they came to LA and we all feel like this is where we were supposed to end up, I love it.

I did cut if off rather abruptly at the end as I felt it was already starting to get too long, but there it is!


Photography: Kimberley Kane
Styling: Giuliana of junker designs

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots from Kimberly's blog!



The bathtub shots were so much fun, I'm surprised they didn't use them in the end!

I've had a lovely box of goodies to shoot from Bionic Unicorn for a few weeks now but it's been a bit of a hectic month and I hadn't found the time to shoot them yet (or rather, I had very grandiose plans for shooting that required more than just a quick trip to the studio). I was so pleased with the last shoot I did for them, I wanted to make sure I did something just as pretty but without looking exactly the same.

I have several different styles to shoot but I think my favourite is the tribal inspired stuff (though it's a close tie with the crystal designs I have yet to shoot!). Quite different from the steampunk style items I modelled last time but just as gorgeous!

So anyhoo, I'd been thinking about how best to do the tribal designs and had a few different ideas involving bodypaint/warpaint or crazy feathery hairdos but hadn't quite made up my mind. Then a few nights ago Allan got a last minute booking shooting in the Mojave desert at 6-7am; I couldn't really pass up on the opportunity to tag along and make use of one of my favourite locations. So in return for being a human lightstand for Allan's shoot I got to jump in and shoot one of the jewelry sets :)

Click to make 'em big!




Photography: Allan Amato
Necklace & earrings: Bionic Unicorn

Alas, I forgot how ridiculously cold the desert is at sunrise (especially after being stood still holding a light for 45 minutes before I started shooting, wearing only shorts and a tshirt. haha). Not only did my lovely hairstyling efforts get completely blown out before I even started, my hands were so numb I could barely hold my makeup brush, so my plans for facepainting and bodypainting did not happen. Still, Allan is a genius and we managed to take these lovely shots in about 6 minutes, in between my jumping up and down trying to keep warm.

I had a shoot a few days ago with photographer Star Foreman, modelling some of her huge collection of vintage clothing. I've admired Star's work for quite a while so was pretty excited about this shoot. She is perhaps best known for her cover and editorial work for the LA Weekly, though I first saw her images via my friend Nickie Jean who has modelled a lot for her.

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( loads more under the cut... )

Photography: Star Foreman
MUA: Chelsea Moreno
Hair: TBA

I love Star's colour treatment, it's kind of like old technicolour movie but oddly futuristic at the same time. The inspiration for the hair/makeup was the character Effie Trinket in the new Hunger Games film, with pastel colours and eyebrows totally blanked out. They're so different from most things I've done before (which after almost 7 years modelling doesn't happen very often!), it was a really nice change. I think I might have to add more vintage clothing to my wardrobe for a change. Still love my latex though :)

I'm having a small clear out and have a few latex bits and pieces for sale if anyone is interested. Everything is in excellent/as new condition and has only been worn briefly for a few photoshoots. Prices are in US$ and include postage within the US. International shipping will be a little extra. Offers accepted if buying more than 1 piece.

Questions etc please comment here or email ulorinvex@gmail.com

( details under the cut )

Last weekend I modelled for Perry Gallagher and Micheal Helms's first Erotica Workshop of 2012. I modelled for their previous one last August but I think I didn't get round to posting any of the images here. I haven't seen anything from most of the photographers from last week yet but Paul Albert just sent me so many that I couldn't resist posting them already! We shot together a couple of times throughout the day both inside the house location and outside, I really love the shallow depth of field in these.

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I have to admit I found this second workshop much easier for outdoor shooting; I remember back in August it was so sunny I had trouble keeping my eyes open long enough to take photos (not to mention the need to apply sunscreen every 15 minutes! lol).

These are some of my favourite images from the previous workshop that I didn't get round to posting earlier. Coincidentally these were shot the day after the images from my previous journal entry (for Mother of London). I loved Noogies hairstyling so much I blasted it with hairspray and managed to keep it for the shoot the next day :D





Images shot by (first to last): Micheal Helms (headress by Bubbles & Frown), Bluetickfoto, Joesph Francis and Armando Rosales

It's been another crazy couple of months but I'm finally up to date with my website, which had suffered several months neglect since I began immigration to the USA. Speaking of which, I still have one or two more things to be done before I am officially a US resident but the end is in sight! Just hoping it will all be done in time for me to return to the UK in May. Really looking forward to being in London again, with it's most wonderful of all public transport systems! lol. Particularly looking forward to going to the Torture Garden birthday ball. I think by that time it will be almost a year since my last TG!

I took a couple of weeks off from shooting recently to concentrate on some new paintings I'm working on. I have a lot of exciting stuff going on with my artwork at the moment; can't wait to share it all! It's hard to stay away from shooting for too long though, I've been asked to model for so many cool projects lately.

I was really bummed last week when I was supposed to be modelling for the new Mother of London line (and long awaited web store!) and the makeup artist didn't turn up. I always bring a backup makeup kit with me for emergencies at this was the one time I didn't. I truly can't get my head around why anyone would agree to do a photoshoot and then just not turn up? I've heard it happen to other people before but I guess I've been pretty lucky this was a first for me. So afternoon totally wasted, but more disappointingly for me I wasn't able to make the rescheduled date so don't get to model the new stuff. Boo! ><.

But I guess there will be more things coming up. And oddly enough I was just moping over the whole affair yesterday when I received in my inbox some images from a shoot I did a few months ago wearing a stunning Mother of London dress. I love them so much!

Photographer: Allan Amato
Dress: Mother of London
Hair: Noogie Style
MUA: Anthony H Nguyen

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One day I shall own this dress!!

I have so much more stuff to write about, but I'll save it for the next blog. Time to get back to regular updating! :)

I'm thankful that in the areas I mostly work in people are excited to send me the images after a shoot to let me see how things turn out, but on the occasions I do more commercial work for big clients rather than smaller companies there is no expectation that I will be sent anything from the shoot. I usually find the images myself eventually; I pay close attention to the things I am booked for and their vague publication dates and have mastered the art of finding things online.

But it also happens that I am often booked for things such as magazine editorial shoots where the photographer, designer or somebody will happily send me the images if I ask, on the condition that I'm not to post them anywhere until the publication is out. So I end up with folders of images on my laptop that I'm super excited about but not allowed to share with the world for a little while. I usually have some idea of how long I will have to wait but it has happened once or twice now that, for whatever reason, I have absolutely no idea and just have to wait and hope someone will tell me. So, for my first post of 2012 I'm starting off with 3 year old shoot that has previously never seen the light of day or computer screen. I was sent these images only a few days after the shoot in March 2009 (!), told not to post them as they were going in a magazine and then I never heard anything else about it. I would usually ask someone after a few months if I haven't heard anything but this particular shoot was right around the time that I moved to London, put all my possessions in storage and started travelling around Europe for the best part of a year; I guess I just totally forgot about it!

But anyhoo, to cut a bit of a rambling story short, I found quite by accident (when googling for a particular piece of fanart that couldn't find on my hard drive!) that the shoot had indeed been published in the American Gazelleland Magazine in Spring 2010. It's a pretty cool magazine that I've actually been published in once before, with an image shot coincidentally by the same photographer!

I'm glad I get to finally share these, if only for how awesome the outfits were! My DragonballZ vs Queen Elizabeth hairdo is pretty share-worthy too :D

Photographer: Peter Ashworth
MUA: Bea Sweet
Hair: Christian Landon
Clothing designer: Marko Mitanovski (Lady Macbeth collection S/S 2010)

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First look



Second look



I may have been going a bit overboard with my crazy-pose. It sometimes happens when I'm feeling theatrical! haha.

Thanks to the magic of journal tags, I remind myself that I did a behind-the-scenes blog of this shoot here: http://ulorin-vex.livejournal.com/193775.html#cutid1. The designer's website is definitely worth checking out too.

Just got these pics back from a shoot I did a month or so back at Studio Servitu while Danger Ninja photography was in town. I've had these lovely outfits from Pop Antique on loan for a little while and have been enjoying the opportunity to play stylist with them! This time I wanted to try something a bit androgynous but crazy-colourful (for the first look anyway). I love Danger Ninja's bright/pop style (and of course Morgan is amazing at the makeup! :). Great team!

Photography: Danger Ninja
Makeup: Morgan Panter
Clothing: Pop Antique
Hair & styling: Ma-self

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In other news, the immigration thing seems to be going ok, though a bit stressful in terms of crazy expensive. I have to go and have a medical exam tomorrow. Not sure why that's a requirement? I had my mum send me scans of all my old immunisation information in the hope I wont have to pay to have innoculations I've already had. Still can't/don't want to get my head around the fact that you have to pay for anything medical in the USA.