CRIMSON RIOT ©️

EMILY 2003

Emily was never just a face in front of the camera. She was a collaborator, and CRIMSON RIOT© would not exist in the form it did without her.

Finding a model willing to be painted head to toe, laugh through hours of an unscripted, spontaneous shoot, and hold nothing back in front of a lens is rare. Emily had that quality in abundance. She was vivacious, outlandish, and completely unselfconscious — exactly the kind of presence a concept this bold needed to work.

There was no brief for how to perform this shoot. No reference images, no mood board, no direction beyond "let's see what happens." Emily simply showed up and gave herself over to it completely — standing still while brushes covered her skin in bold colour, letting her hair be pushed into a wild crimson halo, moving in front of the camera with total confidence in a studio with no monitors and no second chances.

That trust mattered. A shoot like this only works if the model believes in what the team is trying to make, even when nobody can promise what the result will look like. Emily believed in it. She threw herself into the process rather than just posing for it, and that difference is visible in every frame.

Looking back, CRIMSON RIOT© was built on the willingness of everyone involved to try something without a safety net — but Emily carried more of that risk than anyone. Her energy, her fearlessness in front of the camera, and her genuine enjoyment of the process are the reason the images still hold up decades later. The hair was the work. Emily was the reason it came alive.

Thankyou Emily whetever you are.

You were and no doubt still will be a truly unique character