Both Carlo and I are big fans of Game of Thrones, but it was well before the TV series was created that we had the pleasure of photographing the beautiful Esme Bianco. Esme Bianco is the actress interpreting the prostitute Ros in the TV series, and what I do not hesitate to define the queen of body confidence for a lot of reasons.
How we met Esme Bianco
We met Esme Bianco at the beginning of 2010 when she was already quite well known in the UK but not as famous as she is today. She came to us referred by another beautiful burlesque performer friend of hers who had been our muse for a couple of edgy shots and was enthusiastic about what we created for her.
At the time, Carlo and I were still finding our feet as boudoir photographers and were experimenting with different lighting and moods to find our own unique style, and the fact that Esme Bianco contacted us to be photographed by Carlo and I still amazes me. But what amazed me the most was her incredible body confidence.
Why for me Esme Bianco is the queen of body confidence
I distinctly remember when Esme Bianco came to our studio.
I remember discussing make up with her and her relief at our suggestion to stay away from the 1950s look that would have been so cliche’ on her features and her snow white complexion. In reality I now am aware that I what I asked of the poor make up artist was an extremely complex piece of make up, but everything went well in the end.
Esme was lovely, extremely professional, happy to throw ideas on the table, enthusiastic and incredibly confident in her body.
Now, you are probably thinking that being that beautiful helps and I agree with you, but I daily see women as beautiful as Esme Bianco daily and being so overcritical of their appearance that I am often left speechless and sad. With time I have come to believe that it does not matter what you look like because confidence is the best make up you will ever wear.
If you think of Esme’s character Ros in Game of Thrones, she was hardly wearing any clothing in most of the episodes. I am sure even a beautiful woman like Esme Bianco has got her own personal hangups for how much unbelievable may appear to us, but she managed to look perfectly believable and at ease in every single scene. That may show that Esme Bianco is a very good actress, but I know for a fact that she has really a wonderful body confidence.
When we photographed Esme, one of the piece of garments that hit mine and Esme’s imagination was a transparent mac. I thought out loud – and very timidly – that it would have been wonderful to shoot it without anything underneath. Esme Bianco was absolutely casual about it, was up for it, and just did it.
The funny part is that at the time we had not shot many women completely nude, because most of our pictures were about women in lingerie or implied topless, but all of the sudden in front of me I had Esme wearing nothing else than a transparent mac and because of her casual attitude, I did not even realised she was nude. She was so natural and casual about it that she looked effortlessly elegant wearing nothing. She trusted us we would have portrayed her sexy, sensual and elegant as she was.
The bottom line is Carlo and I loved photographing Esme Bianco very much because she was a great muse for our boudoir photo shoot because she made it so easy for us and also she was inspiring so elegant and body confident as she is.
When we say that confidence is all you need to wear we always think of that time when Esme was in front of our cameras in a transparent mac looking effortlessly gorgeous and showing us that being nude can be one of the most beautiful and natural thing there is. And believe me, many women I have spoken to after our boudoir photo shoot posing nude, they say it is initially very frightening, but after the initial worry, a beautiful experience that is incredibly liberating.
Thank you Esme Bianco for being our muse for a day and good luck with your incredible career.