Unbearable lightness of coincidence???

Those who follow this blog know about two of my friends here, Carla and Valya (follow these links to read my Proust interviews with them).  Valya modeled for me in June and helped me follow my art in a new direction.  Carla is a long time friend of this blog. 

The coincidence - Carla's old alias was UL or Unbearable Lightness which comes from one of  her favorite books, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  She used this alias for years at her blog, What We Saw Today.  This morning, Valya published a post with the title Unbearable Lightness of Being along with a photo of her posing in an amazing yoga stretch position that communicates strength, flexibility, and grace all in one.

As a part time scientist, I believe in "pure coincidence" as well as the opposite of it.  For now though, I like seeing two parts of my life intersect, however briefly and potentially coincidentally. 

Double Post - Magnum Photos of the Male Gaze

Outie

Found a gem at Slate.com.  Click on this link.  These Magnum Photos are amazing in many ways including examples of men appreciating the beauty of women, but also the awkward objectification of the moment.  

Avedon Bonus Post

Here is a good documentary titled, American Masters - Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light divided into 9 parts on YouTube.

Here you go.

Here is a link with all nine videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebridge#p/u

Inspiration

Untitled
Photo by Edoardo Pasero

Sometimes I need to be reminded to keep it simple. I found this at the Art Nudes blog, the work of Italian Edoardo Pasero. Here is a link to my favorite series of his, Half Life.

Double Post - Robert Frank

A few months ago I wrote a post about Robert Frank.


Here is a radio story about him from NPR. I agree, he changed photography.

Big Changes

Photo by Patrick Barta

I just read a story that Samoa is going to change the direction of traffic on its roads to match the UK system of driving on the left. Many Samoans are protesting and fear the accidents once the change comes about.

I've driven in England, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. It took me awhile to get somewhat comfortable with driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car, shifting with my left hand. Every morning I had to remember to keep left as I started out. Thankfully, there was a sticker on the dashboard that reflected an arrow pointing left onto the windshield in front of the driver. I enjoyed the change, except when I was lost in Dublin and frustration grew and driving skills diminished.

This was a huge change to a core instinct. I knew I had to adapt because I was visiting a country where this was the norm, the tradition, and part of the culture. I now wonder how it would be if we had to make a similar change to Samoa.

Imagine if you had to make a change to something so basic and instinctual in your daily life. How would you feel about the change? How would you feel about those that pushed the change upon you?

I think some of us would transition with ease while others would struggle for many reasons. Maybe acceptance and transitions come through flexibility.

In a recent comment on a blog, the writer mentioned showing his old Sony Walkman from 1980 to his 13 year old son and his son could not believe that "it was credible piece of technology." Compared to an iPod, the Walkman is pretty crude.

I am in the process of going digital. Before 2008, all my serious photography was captured on film in my Nikon SLR or my Hasselbad. I mainly shot black and white, developed and printed it myself. Now I use my Nikon DSLR and have not touched film since 2007. I am learning how to use Adobe Lightroom and hope to learn Photoshop as well.

This change from film to digital is a core change for me. I miss the smells, sights and sounds of my darkroom. I love the detail my Hasselblad captures and the prints I made from it. Those things are part of my core photographic soul.

Now, I am enjoying the speed and efficiencies gained through digital work. Once I get a photo edited to my liking, I can make one print as easily as a thousand prints. That was not easily done with film. There are many other gains as well.

I am not sure if I will go back to film. I think I will use it again though because it is the most sensual form of photography since it is analog and tactile. As for driving on the left side of the road, I would rather not.

Bizarre Searches

I haven't checked my blog's performance on Google Analytics in a while. After seeing a few stats, I decided to see what are some search terms that lead readers to this blog. There were 203 unique searches leading to my blog. Many make sense. Here are some of the funny ones, the awkward ones, and even a scary one or two and my comments on them.

• Sensual Experiment Help ( I like that one... count me in for that experiment!)
• Model Mayhem See Through (See through what??? Ohh that "See through!")
• The avatar sexiness model mayhem (no comment)
• Sensual (pretty happy that one worked for someone to find my blog!)
• "how people look at art" ( I ask that question all the time)
• Private music of wicked words ( I want to hear that song)
• Anne Geddes (arghh.. my photographic nemesis!)
• Asian Massage (oh yeah... I forgot about that post)
• awesome short film paris car speeding (great movie!)
• becoming a masochist (that one hurt!)
• body painting men think 7 seconds (umm.. no clue on that one)
• crotch shot in hamlet 2 (so absurd it is funny)
• how to trigger sensual feelings from a memory (I want to write a post about that!)
• masturbate 2257 (2257 is not sexy to masturbate to)
• obsessed with sex (yes)
• pubic hair resurgence (DR.L WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!)
• sensual gay black and white photos (I would take them and post them here!)
• sensual intercourse pictures (I would take them too!)
• sensual poems he fucks me (not too sensual)
• sensual scraps (very intriguing idea!)
• sensual zen in washington dc (it was a good trip)
• slow sensuous sex movies (interesting idea... maybe not porn.. would be great to see!)
  
• threesomesmmf (heh... none of that here)
• when a partner says, "I ache" (never thought to do a search on that)
• "8th grade" "d cups" (that one creeps me out and is pretty fucked up.)
  

Anyway... interesting searches.

I need to get this type of divorce too!

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager. -

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If Man Landed on the Moon Today - Bonus Post

Makes me miss Walter Cronkite and when the story was the news, not how we reacted to it.

Double Posts Today

I felt I had to get both these out today since they refer to July 4th yet are worthy of their own space. Actually, I guess this makes it a triple.