My name is Darja Dasha … I’m also known as Precious Little … It’s my modeling persona … I know it sounds a little cutsie … but it originated from … since I’m a fan of forensic files and cold case files.. It’s just from the saying whenever they’re talking about a case and there’s precious little to go on… so.. just to get that out of the way” I am originally from Estonia … I was born there and then my family came to America as political refugees.. We made our way by foot through all the countries between there and Italy … since we were fleeing political persecution … we were sponsored by some lovely diplomats in Italy and we were able to come here with our St. Bernard … my two siblings and my mother and father. I grew up primarily in Texas … so I’m a bit of a southern girl … as you can see … a bit of a Texan flare… and then I grew up in the pacific northwest in Washington state… San Francisco bay area … Los Angeles  and now lastly I’m in Chicago Illinois … I came here for art and music and love … like any sappy artist … As far as my modeling background … I got into it probably when I was 18 years old and I was engaged at the time and like and like any good fiancé he told me it was … prettyish … to try modeling… I didn’t do it for that reason … I did it … sort of experimenting in life to see what’s out there … I had been on my own for a long time … I didn’t really explain that … since I was 14 years old … just working full time … supporting myself … I had a lot of complicated and hard adventures in life … but not really where I got to explore my personal identity more … so I began modeling and I met some cool artists that did things more in the vein of film photography and figure modeling and film manipulation … In addition to working regularly I did the shoots … I sort of got to the point to where the paid shoots were sort of boring me to death … you know … glamour … commercial … pretty stuff … you know… “sexy”… “innuendo” … that kind of jazz … I quit doing paid modeling work and just started finding cool underground artists that were sort of offbeat to work with and that’s kind of where my present portfolio came from … I can’t really explain it … the reason for the work because a lot of the work I do is on trade basis … It’s mainly trying to see if you can realize a concept … It’s a personal challenge to see if you can make something remarkable that inspires people … leave some kind of decent impression on the earth … something with more depth … where maybe you can sense something emotional as well … so that’s sort of what I’m always striving for … just taking things to a higher level… that just means more to me … As far as fetish modeling goes … Well I don’t really particularly … I guess … like approach work with that in mind … But I have worked a lot with PVC and vinyl … rubber … latex … I know for a lot of people … you know … it’s obviously  sexualized work and there’s sex appeal to the materials because it’s body clean and all those things … for me it’s honestly always been a visual aesthetic approach to the work … that’s why I love to work with it.. PVC being one of my favorites personally .. And as far as Harry and I collaborating … we met and became best friends … (laughter)… was because he obviously paints … and has models and does shoots for reference … and for his work … which is very beautiful and minimalist … and material like PVC really show up well … The photos … just with the shine and everything and for you to be able to see the details … But … I guess just unlike … like I said … a lot of other models … my approach it’s … I don’t … I mean I guess I do have a personal fetish for PVC and latex … because you can wear almost nothing in the winter and it will keep you warm … (laughter) … I do love the way that PVC feels and obviously how you look in it … It can be more commanding … its sort of the kind of  garb that just has these other things associated with it especially in goth and industrial cultures … fetish … BDSM … bondage … all that jazz … But for me it’s mostly aesthetics … just my love for fashion … The way things are cut and the way that they are photographed … how you can present it … I guess I don’t really perceive myself that much as a model … It’s more of being an artist … It’s always interesting interacting with people that don’t understand exactly why you’re doing it … It’s sort of an innate an inclination … just an expression … It’s just an extension of your personality … A lot of my work is considered surreal … not really reality based … but for me it really is just a representation of my personal style … the way that I think … the way that I do perceive the world … or how I wish the world around me was more alike … for me my life was incredible painful … actually pretty horrific to be honest … reflecting on it I wish it wasn’t mine because it’s to hard to imagine that someone can go through all those things and still be ok and have a regular nine to five job and function like a normal person in society … for me art is a form of escapism because I guess I just want there to be something beautiful … representative of my life … because for me it definitely hasn’t been remotely ideal … it’s been incredible painful … It’s sort of a personal challenge … just trying to bring something to live … how do I say it … something in life that redeems itself … that it has value… There is a lot of beauty in the world … I find it incredibly fascinating how you can bring things that aren’t physically tangible… they’re just thoughts… feelings… emotions… and that you can make them physical… visual… auditory…and things that people can see … witness … hear … That’s pretty remarkable … obviously … logically … it makes sense how it works but it’s still kind of cool … Collaborating with others is something … I don’t do it very often … (laughter) … anymore to be honest … I’ve done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of shoots … pretty much now my approach is … I wouldn’t say … I’m a classical beauty … I wouldn’t say I’m the best makeup artist … hair stylist … editor… whatever … but… the reason I learned to do all those things was because I just needed more control over the end results … because it’s a huge investment of time … It’s my personal feelings … something I’m trying to communicate even when I’m working with someone else … so the execution has to be there … has to be good … has to be something that I’m satisfied with … though you’re never 100% satisfied … I can be relatively happy with something … sometimes I’m impressed with my collaborations with other artists … that’s great … Presently I don’t work with other people too often … I just come up with certain concepts and try to find the right tone for it … casting talent is very hard and it’s hard working with new people because you don’t know their track record … I’ve had a lot of shoots in the past where I’ve invested a lot of time and money and the results where very disappointing … Sometimes in fact people would make me cry because they were making me feel like I was a beast (laughter) … just because I didn’t know what they were doing with the lighting … or what not … It’s all an art … every single element when it comes down to it … I definitely love just getting to know people and having the personal experience … maybe forging a friendship … that just gives it more depth and meaning to me and personally I think the better you know people you develop chemistry together … I think that’s sometimes where you just get that extra magic … that makes something epic. So, as far as the work … obviously … The whole world knows I have done a good amount of nude work … and thats ok … because I’m European … so I’m completely comfortable with that … (laughter) … And in my culture … It’s … I suppose more the norm and it’s more broadly excepted … So I’m comfortable with it … I’m one of those individuals that’s lived a lot … I’ve had a lot of misadventures … I have a lot of scars … I don’t have any self esteem issues with it … I’m completely comfortable with it … And with doing … with doing work nude … just because you’re just a tool … and then you’re conveying emotion and trying to tell a story … For me it’s always about a story … It’s not about … Or at least for me it shouldn’t be and I don’t want it to be where I’m just a subject and I’m just pretty … that’s just not good enough for me … I have to be able to communicate something greater … So I think definitely women that are comfortable doing nude work and maybe some other unconventional things such as bondage work … fetish fashion that sort of thing … It’s definitely is an insight into your being … and what not … because obviously you are very comfortable with yourself so there’s a huge comfort level and I don’t think you’re as concerned about being judged and what not because that’s your presence and that’s your identity and it’s just a form of art I guess I don’t really think about empowerment … or what not … as much as that’s just who you are … you either are or you aren’t … Sadly whenever you do modeling … It’s obviously a visual thing … you put yourself out there … every single inch of you … It is interesting to see how people perceive you and approach your work … and how people judge you without knowing you … People don’t really know me at all … maybe they develop animosity towards you because of personal insecurities … Generally people think since the artwork looks so good… somehow in their mind that they imagine that somehow you are privileged … the people do all these things for you … you’re not as intrinsically involved in the creation of this work … that you’re superficial … maybe you’re not as intelligent as other people … There definitely a lot of negative things that are associated with it … I’m not even going to say at this point that I’ve battled with it because I honestly just don’t care … I’ve been insulted a lot … people make remarks about your body … your scars … I’ve been told to eat burgers so many times … (laughter) … but you can’t really take it personally because if the right people and the people who are meant to … will see it for what it is … I consider myself to be a relatively normal person … I guess others don’t … (laughter) … there’s obviously a stigma associated with being a model … So … social networks … I definitely have a lot of accounts … (laughter) … I have two facebook pages … one for modeling … two facebook profiles … twitter account … deviant art … lot’s of others … different portfolio sites and what not … So obviously its a intra-reality … I don’t know … for me … a year ago I definitely used to be a lot more active on it … for me … personally I don’t really use it as a thing for reaffirmation from people that have to have so many likes in order to feel pretty … or whatever … it just doesn’t … its not what I’ve ever used it for … I think social networks are cool in a way because you know obviously … you can reach people world wide which in other ways it would be a lot slower or it wouldn’t happen at all … so it’s great for that … another thing … I like things like twitter because it’s not really the sort of thing where you interact with others as much … you have the option to … but I like it because you can  basically show others what your personality is like … you know … your quirky thoughts … you share what inspires you … what you love … it sort of has a chain reaction … it effects other people as well … so … it’s kind of cool … you can just broadcast things and you don’t necessarily have to have a response … I used to be a lot more active on everything … a year later I’m sort of privatizing my life more … I’ve never been the sort of person that’s been good at promoting things … even though I’m really proud of a lot of my work even though I kind of feel it’s a bit looked over … (laughter) … also because I’m really bad at telling people to look at my work I guess … Well … anyone that really knows me … or that works with me they … for some reason … I don’t know why … but they think I have a very positive attitude … (laughter) … which is really funny because I’m actually a bit darkly … I have a really morbid sense of humor … once I get comfortable with people I’m really obnoxious … but hopefully more in a charming way … (laughter)… I just love to make people laugh … Life is hard … The whole thing with modeling especially when you do anything that’s related to fetishism … you know … people think you’re a deviant … or at least they hope so … but I’m actually an old fashioned girl … especially in relationships … very romantic … pretty old fashioned in my relationships … I only have eyes for that one person … that’s it … I’m good … I just focus on everything else that I love in life … I do like to get to know people initially one on one … just because … sometimes when you’ve lived so much and there’s so much to you people aren’t going to understand you until they’re able to interacted with you one on one … I don’t think in life you really should have to explain yourself … we all have our own right to existence … but that’s how I personally am… I guess other people perceive me as … I don’t know … just a weirdo … (laughter) … I am confident about the things that I love and things that I do because I work so hard at it … I put so much into it … whether it’s money … energy … time … research … For me I approach modeling like I do anything … writing… Now I’m also working on music … I’m completely involved in it … I think people do see a degree of confidence in it … but I think people misinterpret  that as arrogance as well … and when you do weird work like any off-beat artist you’re generally misunderstood … so … I guess you’ll have to tell me how you perceive me … (laughter) … just going from the paintings that you see and the photos to seeing me talk to you … (laughter) … in my candid glory …