Belgian-based photographer Pé Pieters has had a long career in the advertising world.
As a creative outlet, he photographs models in natural light.
He carefully creates a setting and the model seems to be an unsuspecting part of it.

"Aesthetics. Freedom. Self-confidence. Keywords in my work.
Embracing life, outside the comfort zone.
Naked, yes, mostly. Nowhere sexual but oh so seductive
Naked, absolutely. Everything loose but never exploited.
This is my art.
This is how I pay tribute to the wonderful creature called woman".

Issue 10 of Unattired Magazine featured Pé with this interview:

Hi Pé, thank you for doing the interview. Could you give us a brief history about how you got into photography please.
"It all started about 20 years ago. I’m a graphic advertising designer and have always drawn a lot. While customers and clients determined day in and day out what is beautiful and what something should look like, I needed to withdraw into my own little world from time to time. A creative outlet. At first mainly in drawings.
I actually always drew female models, using photos from books or magazines as inspiration. Then I started taking photos myself as documentation. Every now and then I noticed people liked my photos very much. I also got much faster results than the drawing work, surely with the introduction of digital photography and self-printing. So, my drawing slowly came to a standstill and now I’m only photographing. But I never intended to do this professionally. Then it would become routine and no longer an outlet.""

Can you please tell us how the idea for your images come about from conception, location, styling?
"I rarely work with a very concrete theme or image or predetermined composition. This often leads to disappointment with yourself or the model when you just haven’t achieved that one image. The shoot may feel like a failure, while you have made beautiful images. So, I let the model improvise with the location and let the circumstances largely determine what it will be. I can come up with a hint or a guideline on the spot should it get stuck, but in the case of Kaluuna everything came naturally."

Can you take us through the process of how you go about setting up a photoshoot? What is the first thing you focus on? Theme? Location? Model?
"I don’t have a set procedure or anything. Sometimes the idea that came from the model, sometimes it is a location that automatically determines a theme...
I do try to exchange a mood board with the model in advance, so that it becomes clear what atmosphere I want to achieve."

What is your current camera setup for photoshoots, and does it change depending if you are on location or in a studio?
"I work exclusively with a Canon digital SLR and usually only have one lens with me, an 18-135mm. I may be an anti-advertisement for the aspiring photographer. I don’t use expensive lamps, I have an affordable camera and only one lens, haha. I’ll make the difference in post- production. I convert my work in Photoshop with a custom curve that is not completely monochrome but has a very slightly sepia undertone. It gives a delicately deeper shade. I must also confess that I often give the model a little more contrast or lighten it than the background."

Your work is presented both in black & white and colour, which do you prefer, or does it depend on the final image you have in mind?
"I prefer the monochrome. It’s less in- your-face, has a little more mystery. Although some images ask for colour, especially when the result seems to lose some details."