Chapter 9

Tuesday morning started the same way as Monday although they lounged around in robes between fucks pretending to study. By lunchtime they had again sated their immediate needs and actually managed to get some real studying done. Around 3.00 Suzanne headed off to meet some friends and Andrew wandered over to Tony’s shop. As he and Stacey were both busy serving Andrew just waved and wandered through the back to the darkroom. He set everything up and then developed the four rolls of film he had shot in Paris, mostly standard tourist stuff. There was a full roll from the top of the Arc d’Triomphe and another from the top of the Eiffel Tower. The other two were a mishmash of different shots but included six or seven of Heloise at the Louvre. Andrew was in about half of the shots, mainly with Manon but also in a couple with Heloise. They were typical holiday photos. Tony came through as he was hanging the four long strips of negatives up to dry. He had made tea so after helping tidy up the two of them sat in the studio catching up.

“Maggie will want to tell you all about our weekend exploits and will want to hear about Cambridge as well, so I think there will be a lot of repeating of tales.”

“She is never bothered about the Army stuff.”

So Andrew talked about the OTC, the most he had ever explained what he did every week.

“So you passed the first level?”

“Yes. It was pretty straightforward, basic fieldcraft. I don’t know how realistic it is, compared to any kind of ‘proper’ Army training. The Permanent Staff are all regulars, but I always get the sense that it is, I don’t know, made easier somehow. I have been around enough camps over the years to have heard a lot of tales about Basic Training. What I went through this year is a pale imitation of that. But everyone has to do the basics. Going forward the emphasis is on leadership and command, which I am looking forward to.”

Andrew’s ubiquitous shrug punctuated the end of the sentence.

“I remember that you were starting to run workshops in the evening. How has that gone?”

“Not too bad actually. Still a bit sporadic but I now run three classes a week but at first it was only one a week. But I also rent out the studio to other photographers and two of them run classes as well. In fact one of the them will be here shortly, he does a class from 5.30 to 7.30 tonight. The other class is right before mine on a Monday night. I do my class between 8.00 and 10.00 and Paul is 5.30 to 7.30. But it is six more hours the studio is used.”

“I thought you had sessions booked in the evening?”

“Yes, but it was hit and miss, this seems more regular, more steady. Instead three photographers have the studio reserved for them from 9.00 until 4.00 one day a week. They pay a small fee to reserve the day and then the usual fee if they actually use the studio. If they are not going to use it they call the night before. I wondered if they would cancel all the time but they all use it maybe two thirds of the time. Yeah, that is about right. Two weeks out of three. Colin was here this morning although he was done about 2.00. So the studio is in use a lot. And the more it is in use the more people come through the store getting film or chemicals, using the darkroom, the whole thing is coming together.”

As always Andrew was impressed by Tony’s entrepreneurial nature.

“What about the glamour club on a Friday?”

“Still every other week. It is one of the things that we will talk to you about when Maggie gets here.”

“Does she still model?”

“Much less now, but let’s wait for her.”

Tony took the cups upstairs to his flat and when Stacey called through for him, Andrew went instead.

“He’s upstairs. Can I help?”

“Yes, you are even better. Can you get that down for me please?”

Andrew reached for a packet of filters on the top shelf.

“Shit, you didn’t even have to stretch.”

Stacey shook her head as she put the purchase into a bag for the customer.

“You on break from university?”

“Yes, I got back on Saturday.”

Andrew knew Stacey enough for light, superficial conversation but didn’t really know her very well.

“How are you? Are the kids on break yet?”

“Not yet, the end of next week.”

Stacey had three children, a girl of eight, and two boys six and three.

“This job is ideal for that. I have been doing extra hours for Tony all winter and will take time off for the two weeks of the school break.”

This was all trivial and mundane, just a short social chat, but Stacey was also looking uneasy, almost embarrassed which Andrew didn’t understand. He was saved by the return of Tony. Although this seemed to increase Stacey’s flush. 20 minutes later it was temporarily forgotten by the arrival of tornado Maggie. The hugs were getting ever fiercer.

“It is good to see you. Have you grown again?”

Andrew laughed.

“No. Are you shrinking?”

In response Maggie hefted her tits at him.

“Does it look like I am?”

She and Tony cackled at Andrew’s instinctive blush.

“It is good to see that I can still make you blush. You have paraded me naked all over Scotland yet you blush at the drop of a hat.”

Her laughter increased.

“Mind you, you like me dropping my hat and bending over, don’t you?”

Someone had taken their ‘let’s embarrass Andrew’ pills that morning.

She pulled him in for another hug.

“It is great that you are back. I am all excited in case you can’t tell.”

They retreated up to the flat and while Tony pottered round the kitchen making dinner for the three of them they chatted and caught up. Tony rather set the tone for the evening.

“Are you going to model for Andrew this evening once Paul is finished downstairs?”

Maggie looked at Andrew and he shrugged and nodded.

“Go and change then. You know your skin is marked after wearing underwear all day. The lines and marks will fade over the next couple of hours.”

Maggie came back through in her robe.

“We have a lot to tell you. Can we wait for Cambridge stories?”

“Sure. I have some interesting tales of my own to tell you.”

“Ooh, excellent. Okay, where to start? So remember the photo session with Naomi? Tony Brown Photography submitted the last three rolls to all the British men’s magazines. Someone bought them, although they haven’t published them yet. Naomi was really pleased and got additional work out of it. What she also picked up from just listening while at the other studio was the idea of trying to get them published in Europe. There were a couple of really explicit European magazines lying around and she was able to take them. She sent Tony the addresses and so he submitted her pictures to them as well. They also sold, and have been published already. Naomi is figuring out if she wants to work in Europe, and what it means.”

Andrew looked confused. In response Maggie pulled a magazine from the pile on the dresser and tossed it over to Andrew. When he opened it his eyes widened in surprise. For the first time in his life Andrew saw a picture of a couple fucking. It was illegal to publish pictures depicting that in Britain, it had been declared obscene and such magazines could not be sold there. As Andrew leafed through the magazine he saw that there were no tame shots. Everything was spread wide, or dildos or two people fucking. Basically it started at where British magazines stopped.

“Wow.”

“Exactly. Naomi has the chance to work overseas but it is totally different to posing here in Britain. She is excited for the chance but nervous to actually do it, understandably. Anyway, that is for her to decide. What it did was get Tony’s name known to the different publishers. Unfortunately, it also highlighted how there are no other models like Naomi in the city.”

The chat paused for a couple of minutes while Tony plated the dinner and they sat and ate. Maggie carried on.

“I have been advertising for new models at the various camera shops and studios around town. Seven women gave me a call and five of them ended up meeting me to talk about it further. I got Tony to create a small album for me of the progression of shots. Mostly we used Naomi’s session that you shot but it started clothed and ended up with you perched between her legs. All five of them were excited at the idea but the reality of the pictures really freaked them out. Everyone seemed okay with lingerie even the shots where they were nude but carefully posed. After that it was clear that the reality didn’t match up to their imaginations. It is the same with the camera club women.”

Andrew sat and listened to all this in silence, demolishing the large plate of food in front of him. Tony added his thoughts.

“Most of the models that pose for the different local camera clubs are like Maggie. It is a laugh, some extra money. Between limited skills and experience as a model combined with the limited skills of the photographers it is a fun amateur hobby for everyone on both sides of the camera. I think that the women who have the temperament to be nude models all head south pretty quickly. We can both think of three or four women who moved to London to try and break into the industry. Naomi is unique in that she has stayed here, she wants to stay close to her family. What all this means is that Tony Brown Photography is not going to end up as a supplier of photos for British or European men’s magazines. There just aren’t any models.”

Andrew shrugged. What they said made sense. He did smile at what Maggie and Tony’s reactions were going to be to his tale of Paris.

“Okay, Naomi is unusual, at least in Edinburgh.”

“Yes, but we wanted to talk to you about the other five models. Three of them were standard 18 or 19 year old women just like I was seven years ago. Nervous but excited to try modelling, to be photographed naked. All three of them have started on the camera club circuit and are getting into it. But that is not what we want to talk to you about. It is the other two. There is a huge gap in ages as the other two women are both well into their 30s. You know one of them already, it is Stacey.”

Some of Stacey’s expressions started to make a little more sense to Andrew.

“They both work in camera shops, that is how they saw the advert. They have seen round the edges of the sessions for years. Stacey has seen me and the other models turn up on a Friday night and knows what sort of modelling session it is. So anyway, the two of them are intrigued about posing. They are excited and yet reluctant all at the same time.”

Andrew was listening, it was interesting but so what?

“Stacey is prepared to pose but she wants you to photograph it. She thinks it will be too weird if Tony did it. She knows you and is comfortable around you, but isn’t going to see you every day.”

Life with Tony and Maggie just kept getting weirder and weirder.

“That would explain why she looked so out of sorts earlier.”

Tony nodded.

“She knows that we were going to talk about it with you when you got back.”

Andrew shrugged. He liked Stacey in a ‘don’t really know you’ sort of way. He guessed it would be tame compared to the session with Naomi, or some of the recent shoots with Maggie.

“Okay, let’s set it up and see if she is really going to go through with it. I have my doubts but we’ll see.”

Maggie clapped her hands excitedly.

“I thought it would take longer to persuade you. What are you thinking?”

“About the time. How little time I have to see you guys. I am on the train south two weeks today. I understood what you were trying to do with the glamour photography but it was never my passion, and now I worry about the time as well. So if Stacey wants to try being a model and get down to her underwear then great. It is a different kind of posing, but it is the same thing as with you. Letting her experience something different, see herself in a different light.”

“It was interesting you mentioned time first. Why?”

“I will tell you about last week shortly but I got back here on Saturday. I have seen my family and some friends already and I want to spend time with the two of you as well. But I have business meetings all day Wednesday and Thursday and part of Friday. And another day of meetings next Tuesday. I also have plans for Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night. So when something falls through like lots of extra glamour sessions then I am not upset. I think something like the shoot with Stacey is 50:50 at best.”

“You are pretty busy already. Why are you heading south so soon? You will be here only what? Two and a half weeks?”

The next hour was a repeat of Sunday evening. Andrew explained his modelling for the students in Cambridge and then for Hermès in Paris. Tony’s smile got wider and wider and Maggie was bouncing around like Tigger on a candy floss high.