I have worked for more than five years as a professional model in the fetish scene and I absolutely love my work.

First, there are all the different styles, predilections and pleasures you can find in the fetish scene — everything from wearing latex, leather or Spandex to indulging a weakness for extreme heels, tight corsets, bondage or masks. This colourful mixture of possibilities makes the scene so interesting for me. It's never boring and every passion has its own flair!

Second, there are fantastic people in the scene. I have never met so many open-minded and tolerant people anywhere else. These things are what make the scene so attractive for me.

Together with my partner, photographer Norman Richter, I have built up the website www.unique-artwork.de (aka www.susanwayland.com). On this site we live our passions, especially for latex. We want to show the beauty of this material in all its erotic, fetishistic and artistic aspects. Through this, I can show my real passion, love and life.

I enjoy the special and varied roles I play in every photo shoot. But at the beginning of my modelling career it was not that easy for me to identify with so many different characters. It took some time and involved practising and learning a lot about myself, my skills and my weaknesses and how to handle them.

Now I'm really proud that I have found a way to switch through different personalities [smile] and have learnt the best facial expressions and body language for each type of shoot. Slipping into different roles such as naughty, sweet or devilish girl with sexy outfits and special make-up has certainly helped me identify with our recent shoots.

To begin with, I worked mainly with Norman as my photographer. He is the one who knows me best, knows how far we can go, what I'm able to do, knows my skills and how best to motivate me. He believes a lot in my skills as a model, which gives me unbelievable power. All in all we are a perfect team!

Together we can criticise our own work constructively and I must admit sometimes we are more critical of our own photography than we are of others’. It's like another fetish of ours, to want to be perfect in every way!

‘Sometimes we are more critical of our own photography than we are of others. It's like another fetish of ours, to want to be perfect in every way’

However, comments from friends, who are mostly more objective about our work than we are, are always welcome. We are both very thankful to all those friends and supporters who believe in our work.

As I became better known, I began having opportunities to work with other very good photographers including Peter W Czernich, Roman Kasperski, Martin Pelzer and Martin Perreault, and also with talented designers like Bodycult, Patrice Catanzaro, Fräulein Ehrhardt, Savage Wear and of course Latexa, for whom I have been the ‘Face of Latexa’ since 2006.

During this time I’ve met and made friends with some great models including Bianca Beauchamp, Darenzia, Masuimi Max, Emily Marilyn, Ancilla Tilia and others too numerous to mention. Every photographer, designer and model has their own personal style and I admire everyone for who they are, what they do and what they’ve achieved with their own individual work.

Over the years, I’ve seen many models whose stars shone for only a short time, and others who are still working very successfully. I think to be independent in this business, it is important to find your own way, and be honest to yourself and the people you work with.

For me the most important rule of the job is to have fun while you’re working. Have your dreams and try to achieve them as much you can.

It's really important for me to know who I am and what I want to do and achieve. When I started modelling, I was first doing it only for fun, but quickly my passion for the work grew and gave me a warm, good feeling. I started modelling professionally while I was still studying for a state qualification in German language and literature studies and German History, and that became really hard to handle.

I often asked myself whether I should not stop studying and concentrate on my modelling work, which would have been the easiest way. However, my friends helped me find the energy to work harder than others did — even though it was for something that I sometimes really hated [laughing] — and hey, I got it. At the end of 2007 I graduated and I can now do my modelling with pride as well as passion!

I never want to stop in my life because I love to work on new things and experimental projects. That's the reason I've planned a lot for the future! Norman and I have some very nice projects planned. I'm looking forward to working more with other talented designers and photographers. And I want to create many interesting and artful shoots and to perfect my make-up skills.

We will see what will happen with these various plans, but I'm sure the most interesting projects will get the time and energy they need to become reality!

‘We will see what will happen with all our plans, but I'm sure the most interesting projects will get the time and energy they need to become reality’