Viktoria in Switzerland, pt. 4

Here’s the link to the images:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZJY1ZGAQt1I7SpUaDfebjogEBbHEatzP

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VIKTORIA IN SWITZERLAND

It was my second to last day in Europe this past July, after a long three weeks of constant rushing, family squabbles, financial stress, and a helluva lot of productive fun. Viktoria (spelled also Viktoriya or Vikra on her various social media), is a stunning beauty that just happened to respond to my messages. I don’t exactly which social media platform I found her on, but I was shocked when she said she’d be willing to take a train from Zurich all the way out to my friend’s small farm near the German border some two hours away. But then again, I guess she’s used to it. And here’s why:

Viktoria is a Ukranian model that hails from Crimea. CRIMEA!! You know, that small part of Ukraine that Russia decided to invade illegally and tried to pass it off as a civil war. Well, this professional model is now without a country, without a stable home.

“I have spent last two years for traveling from country to country, never to stop in place too long,” she said in her accented and sometimes disjointed English. She has a Ukrainian passport that isn’t accepted in Crimea anymore, and she doesn’t have a Russian passport, so she was debating about going through the complicated visa application process just to go to her home country to visit her mother in the next month. And we act like we have problems in this country!

Sharon, my Canadian friend who lives with her Swiss husband in the same home his family has lived in for over a hundred years, is also quite an established photographer in her neck of the woods and was excited to join in on my last shoot in Europe. She had some brief experiences with Russians and was a bit nervous, assuming Viktoria would be the same uptight, snooty personality that so many others she’d met had been. But Viktoria immediately gave us each large hugs when we picked her up at the train station and excitedly asked what the plan was for the day!

Fast forward to two hours late. After having shot in various locations, we arrived at the final destination, a museum of a local carpenter’s wood carvings. The place was hidden in a large thicket of woods, yet was three stories tall and situated on a stream. I couldn’t believe the natural beauty of the area! Growing up on the Central Coast of California, I had never seen such greens of rain-soaked wooded area until I moved to Seattle, but Switzerland makes Seattle look like chump change. 

For this first set of Viktoria, I’m only sharing the stream and small waterfall shots, which is more than a chance to wet your whistle on this stunning beauty. We took a steep set of rock and wooden stairs down to the stream from the museum. The water was downright frigid, but she didn’t hesitate stripping off her clothes and climbing down. As I’ve always stated in workshops, never as a model to do something you aren’t willing to do also, and I, too, took my shoes and socks off and lowered myself the precarious six feet from the bridge down into the water. (It was easier for her because she is about six feet tall, thin, and in incredible shape!) Thankfully it was shallow enough to only be up to my calves, but plucky Viktoria sat down in it, posed, and did anything I asked while I quickly rushed to get as many shots as possible before asking her to get out of the water. Hypothermia is never something you want to leave your models with.

Enjoy this first set, but take heart that there are many more sets of Viktoria coming in the next few months! Let me know what you think!

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 Are you a new fan of Viktoria? Message me and please leave comments! You can always send me your feedback, positive or negative! And thank you as always for your continued support, it means the world to me!

Here’s that link again:

 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ZJY1ZGAQt1I7SpUaDfebjogEBbHEatzP