Since his childhood Stéphane Marais has translated his own vision of the beauty of models into photographs. With his Polaroid Spectra System, a camera that allows him to photograph faces from extreme proximity, he has taken pictures before and during shoots for more than 15 years. What began as documentation of his make-up technique has developed into a portrait photography of its own. They are spontaneous pictures, sensitive snapshots that reflect Marais’s way of seeing and leave room for the viewer’s associations. The faces are made up, yet look almost touchingly naked, unguarded. Marais’s Polaroids have a breathtaking intimacy; they testify to the trust and complicity between model and photographer.