Kiss me, muse!

I don't have any idea about the kissing habits of where you live. Here in Spain (sorry, Catalonia...) people are kissing all the time. I meet totally unknown people and they put their hand on my shoulder and kiss me. Strange situations. I never know if two or three times are expected. You know, I hate strong perfumes, the chemical smelliness of hair spray and styling foams, the thick layers of makeup with its powdery dust that penetrates my nostrils and causes me to sneeze and sticks to my cheeks. I'd prefer some more distance. Often.

But I wanted to talk about the kiss of the muse, which is a rather figurative expression for what happens, when an artist meets a person that inspires his creativity in a magical way.

Kissed by the muse. Photo: Yana

The muse that accom­panied me during a much too short time, however, started her magic on me with the longest and sweetest kiss ever. She kissed me softly one enchanting afternoon on the beach and I realized that it was midnight when our lips separated.

At that time I had no idea about that this magically beautiful and tender being will con­vert in such a most important and influen­tial part of my life. I was laying at the beach and all I knew was, that my dream girl was kissing me, while I was literally kissed by my muse.

You know, it is very nice when a human enters in your life to whom you feel a strong connection from the beginning. It happens very rarely.

As a hetero it is even nicer when this person is of the opposite sex and you feel that you're not the only one of the two who wishes to abandon themselves to the sparkling erotic tension. Beautiful things happen in life! Sometimes.

But when this creature, that seemed to appear from nowhere, got virtually infected by my enthusiasm for art and photography and, although she had never modeled before, agreed to reveal her beauty in front of my camera, things already began to get a bit surreal.

An angel fallen from heaven? Daniel Bauer and his muse, Yana.

That's when I began to think that an angel has fallen into my life.

Her presence inspired me. She became the focus and subject of my creative work. While I influenced her development as a professional photo model, she radically influenced my visions.

Towards the end, on the peak of our relation, there was no more photographer and model. There was a team. While we sometimes discussed heavily about photographic (and all other) topics, during the work of a session our ideas complemented another in a fluid and magic manner. She was my muse.

When this happens, as a photographer, as an artist and as a man, you feel like living in heaven. But she was no angel.

And just as she appeared only some couple of years ago, she disappeared again. While my muse flew away, her influence stayed with me and the inspiration she caused still afterglows.

Sensual games, playful creativity. Yana and Daniel Bauer.

It was the second time in my photographic life that I knew a woman that was much more than a model for me.

And as they say, of all good things there are three. So there is still hope. Until another wonder happens I try not to loose the positive energy with which these few years of love and procreative cooperation have filled my soul, my heart and my brain.

Sometimes I sit on the cold and empty beach at night, see the never ending line of approaching airplanes in the dark sky and dream of a fairy that levitates thru the clouds. And I tell her: kiss me, muse!

(The private photos of this post were taken by Yana according to her ideas, while we still were a couple in love. It's the first time, the photo­grapher appears naked...)