There was a knock on the door of my Times Square hotel room. I'd been anticipating a shoot with a 5'1" Canadian actor who'd been plying her craft way off Broadway for the last few years and even though I was more familiar with 5'10" fashion models back in '00 I'd agreed to shoot her based on her emailed zed card.

She was even shorter than I expected at 4'11". Models lie. But she was pretty and gregarious and we walked all over midtown Manhatten and eventually ended up back in the hotel room. At some point I put her in the bed and while my back was turned she started playing with herself. Whether she did that for the camera or for herself I still don't know. I made this picture - my first ever of a woman masturbating - then threw a sheet over her and made some more that I've shown. I just scanned this slide for the first time.

It's not terribly sharp, probably reflecting my state of mind at the time, and it was made under fluorescent bulbs, making the chrome green. I've corrected for color a bit here, but there's no correcting for focus. In any case, this was the start of it all.

Monica was in the U.S. on a student visa and eventually repatriated to Canada. She's been acting and doing voice-over work for the last several years in Vancouver. She used to call once in awhile and talk to "Uncle Don" in the sexiest husky voice in the whole fucking world. I've gotta get to Vancouver and look her up again one of these years.