Actually i remember you (NK) speaking in an interview regarding a shoot where it seemed you were floating, with pretty much every frame being wholly satisfying. This sence of the picture taking process being so finely tuned you can almost do no wrong is,I belive,to do with the photographer/model dynamics more than anything else. There can be any number of other factors we associate with photography excelence(great exposure/focus,great styling,exciting lighting) present but if the photographer/model dynamic is not there although the photos may indeed look great and the viewer may think there was a great buzz on set,the truth is the kind of adrenelin a photographer feels(If theyre lucky) will not have been felt. To take this further i believe the dynamics can be finer tuned so that the model is more engaged in the shooting process,thus pushing the exchange further. It has worked for me and as a result I put an unusual amount of time and communication into the casting.

maybe the point is to stop thinking about getting further. stopping (here : photography). like resistance, like tantra. withdrawal and observation is when you see, but don't do and it's an amazing adrenaline rush. that's all i do for the longest time now: is look with greedy eyes. i just hope i'll have the courage to spill out the emotions that's building up -- eventually. but you (nick) already have that. step away from camera, get another person to take pictures (just saw kipenberger -- funny that room with all the painings of his assistants which he trashed, as well as the commissioned work by a sign painter). through another person you can channel a completely new amazing thing. hey, i'll do it. but that's not the point. i think letting yourself not do the thing you love most is a great excersise.

another thing i wanted to tell you:

if you never think of yourself as all that great a question of becoming better should not be on agenda at all. because one should always be able to get better if he/she isn't the best.

Oh Nick , What is it you want ?
An out of body experience ? A perpetual state of grace ?
You take great pictures , you're successful and you're rich ,
now stop being greedy and fishing for compliments.
The nice people in this forum have better things to do than
to keep bolstering your ego.

Hi Nick,
if your question is truthful, then all i can think up (after i looked at older inspiring & imaginative photos, some were yours truly) is work work and more work. take your time to have your cup of tea and smell the roses until you come up with the idea (the idea has to come in leasure time and not in haste) and then work like a madman. that's what i know and i know it works.
all the best and we love you for all you've done

I find the question asked by Nick both incredibly interesting and incredibly worrying at the same time. I guess you never reach a stage where you are completely satisfied with what you are doing, possibly being the reason that drives you to keep doing it. The ultimate quest for perfecrtion? I know Avedon on his death bed had desperately tried to get up to finish a large portfolio he had been shooting for the NY Times about America and the state it was in, he felt that finishing the portfolio would complete his life, closure to some extent. Tragically he never did. I think if you don't question how you can be better then you've failed to some extent. It's very interesting however that certainly one of the most respected fashion photographers is questioning that principle.

I don't know what answers you hope to find.

'There is a certain moment during a shoot when the images seem to come effortlessly ,a sense almost of flying,that all the physical is of little or no importance.......'

'how to go further?'

I recognise the state that you describe. They are transcendental moments, and over the years the question I have sought an answer to is 'how to prolong that state?' Or how to summon/return to that state at will?

Merleau Ponty described a phenomena he called 'embodied perception' which is kinda the opposite to what you described maybe it could be called 'disembodied perception'. It is fantastic state of consciousness to be in, to leave the body behind and be a pure perceptual spirit. Shades of Aldous Huxley and his 'doors of perception'

Finally, in what way do you mean 'how to go further?' Prolongation, access, intensity.....?

"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."
Walker Evans

"Some pictures are tentative forays without your even knowing it. They become methods. It's important to take bad pictures. It's the bad ones that have to do with what you've never done before. They can make you recognize something you hadn't seen in a way that will make you recognize it when you see it again... I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them."
Diane Arbus

"I have heard Edward Weston say that he strove to eliminate all accidents from his work and I copied his striving. I submitted to that discipline by which one earns the elimination of all accidents. I have made enough pictures so that now I see like a lens focused on a piece of film, act like a negative projected on a piece of sensitized paper, talk like a picture on a wall. I have even been so presumptuous as to try to tell others how to see, act, and talk likewise. I know fairly well how to eliminate accidents from my photographing, and, paradoxically, in so doing I have also learned that the happy accident can be cultivated!"
Minor White

"Of course, it's all luck."
Cartier-Bresson

I believe the question lies within the experience we leave to others. One will be a "better" photographer by giving those people that we surround ourselves with goose bumps on a daily basis. Instead of handing the shutter release/camera off to some else [however brilliant of an idea!], try staring at your skin and watch the goosebumps develop, make people aware at that moment, you are experiencing something out of this world. It could be a photographic subject, a lover, or a child, perhaps a pet. No matter what it is, its amazing and beautiful! Thanks for asking the question......

I also think, words do this question no justice. It frustrating not to be able to verbalize my words without imagery attached.