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"She designs modest fashion that doesn't look modest—hijabs that make statements, abayas that turn heads. He's the photographer she hires for her lookbook and suddenly every shot feels more intimate than it should."
"Look at me like you want the clothes."
"I don't want the clothes." He lowers his camera. "I want to understand them."
My photographer—Samir, referred by a friend—shoots fashion like he's documenting souls.
"They're just fabrics."
"Nothing is just anything." He raises the camera again. "Especially not what you create."
His portfolio convinced me.
His eyes confuse me.
Every shot he takes sees something I didn't intend. Beauty I didn't know I'd designed.
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Make my work look better than it is."
"I photograph what's there." He shows me the screen. "This is all you."
We work late.
Adjusting lights, perfecting angles, me changing outfits while he sets up shots.
"You should model your own line," he says.
"I'm the designer, not the model."
"You're both." He photographs me in my own creation. "You're everything."
The lookbook becomes personal.
Shots of me. My hands on fabric. My vision made visible.
"This is intimate," I say.
"Fashion is intimate." He moves closer. "You dress people's bodies. I photograph people's truths."
"What's my truth?"
"That you want to be seen." He cups my face. "I see you."
We kiss among the garments.
Silk and cotton and everything I've made witnessing everything we're becoming.
"Samir—"
"I've wanted to photograph this." He undresses me slowly. "You, without the designs. Just you."
We make love in my studio.
Fabric everywhere. Light catching our bodies like his camera catches cloth.
"You're beautiful—"
"You make me feel beautiful." I pull him deeper. "You see me."
He photographs our life together.
The studio, the shows, the success. Always seeing more than what's visible.
"I have one more shot," he says at my first major show.
"Now?"
"Now." He kneels, camera in one hand, ring in the other. "Marry me. Let me photograph our forever."
I say yes.
Best frame of my life.