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. 

Two years on...

Valya - 121510

This blog is a toddler.  It is starting to walk on its own and speak simple thoughts.  Since December 15, 2008, this blog has:

• been reborn not once, but twice and been renamed three or four times.
• 371 published posts still accessible
• 60 published posts deleted due to self censorship, poor writing, culling, and other issues
• 123 draft posts that were never published
• 15,070 visits
• 50,558 pages visited
• an average reader spending 2 minutes and 33 seconds per visit.
• visitors from 114 countries
• one evil offspring/brother blog, Hear Me Roar. - A stuttering attempt at validating, defending, and defining masculinity.
• are you bored yet with the "greatness"stats???  I am.

I read last years post, One year on and got bored in the first few paragraphs.  I wrote last year about all the changes in substance, style, yada yada yada.    I am not as sentimental about this blog now as I was a year ago. 

Moi, but I've changed since then

My art has changed in the past year.  I've given up the notion that I want to be another Edward Weston, Ruth Bernhard, or Imogen Cunningham.  You can read more about that here.  I am more interested in mixing it up with a sprinkle of those giants, a bit of Robert Frank, a dash of Bob Guccione (RIP) and lots of my own psyche.  I am less into celebrating the aesthetic art of the form and more into what the context of the moment means.

My two highlights for the year were trips to Rome and New York City.  In Rome I found my spirit.  In New York I found my soul.  Both changed me forever.

Over the years I've made friends along the way, interviewed a few of them, and savored the comments they shared.  Thanks to Carla, Joe, Terrell, Valya, Alex, Z,  and many others.

So, enough rambles.  Here are my favorite photos of 2010.  You may disagree, but all of these are personal, beautiful, and somehow changed me.  Some more than others, but they were important.  Thanks to locations for being open to me.  Thanks to the models for opening themselves to me.

Hit the Road Jack - 

Rome 

 

Wells, Nevada

 Joshua Tree National Park

 New York City

 

 

Las Vegas, NV

California Delta and Foothills 

Models, muses, beauty, and truth

Valya

Moon

Candace Nirvana

Mollee

Andrea

Courtney

 

Congrats to Carla

Campo di Fiori Statue

Blog friend Carla, aka UL and Dr.L, has outed her identity.  So many of us in this area of art and culture hide behind aliases because we are afraid of what may happen if certain groups in our public lives knew of what we created and thought.

Last year I shared my first name, Karl.  In that post, Carla wrote a beautiful and true comment.

Good for you!! I wish I could do the same. It is a disgrace we have to fear exposure as creators of fine art nudes. No, it is not a disease, but it is a passion. 

Today, Dr. Carla Johnson went all in and showed her cards to those who tried to leverage her anonymity.  I think she won that hand magnificently.

Earlier this year I interviewed her for this blog.  Please take a moment to read it and get to know her a little better.  I also recommend reading her fine blog.  She is a true sensual beauty, inside and out.

Piazza Navone

Photo notes - Carla was an inspirational guide to Rome.  I retraced some of her steps and got to know her better through it.  Here are links ( Part 1 - Part 2) to my post about walking in her footsteps.

Others' words.

I am enjoying a clear morning break after days of rain and gray.  I love the dark days and the rain, but the sunny Berkeley morning is nice too.

My friend Valya posted one of our harsh photos on her blog and wrote a great bit of prose that summarizes our work.  I highly recommend you visit her blog.  Her work can be soft and sensual or rough with jagged sharp edges, and everything in between.  Her words are important and used sparingly to keep from overstating the point.  One of my goals is to work with her again in the next year.  She is a true artist.


Alex wrote a powerful post on erotic imagery, pornography, and a potentially new form of racism.  I guess one purpose of art is to push boundaries and expose truths in society.  Too bad some of those truths still live.

Remembering Avedon

Richard Avedon - SFMoMA 2009

Dr. L wrote a great post about the nude in both fashion and art photography and how the lines have blurred.  She mentioned one of my favorite photographers, Richard Avedon.  I've written about him a bit, so I will spare you of my verbose ramblings on him, but below are a couple of great sites to visit.


The Fraenkel Gallery - This is a great sampling of Avedon's fashion photos, including  the famous Natasha Kinski/snake nude. 

Richard Avedon - Dark and Light - Here is the first of nine segments of the great documentary about Avedon. 

Happy Birthday WWST

She will understand - Happy Birthday WWST

What We Saw Today turns three today.  In bloggie world that is... 247 years old.  Congrats to UL for keeping the quality high, the beauty ever present, and the sensual sensibilities celebrated.  Thanks also for being a friend.  It means a lot.

You can learn more about Unbearable Lightness (also known as Dr. Lightness or Dr. L) here.  This is an interview with her.  She is brilliant. 

Clip Show

Not good  enough for consideration, even if it was in Black and White. - Candace

We are ending the summer television drought.  The reruns are disappearing and the new season is beginning.  Dr. L wrote a fun piece about crime shows over at WWST.

I just wrote a post about being demonized for being a sexual male over at Hear Me Roar.  I highly recommend you read the editorial I reference in the post, Why Do We Demonize Men Who Are Honest About Their Sexual Needs?  by Clarisse Thorn.   It explains my point far better than I did.

As for this blog, I am working on the fall (for me) of a photographic god, building a new art community, and my continued studies in photography.  They should be spilling out pretty soon.

It's weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don't even amount to a couple of hours.  ~James Lalropui Keivom

Doesn't that pretty much sum up life as well?  When I am on my deathbed, I won't remember the decades of detritus, I will remember the those bits of life that made it mean something.  Why should photography be any different?

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls!  ~Ted Grant

I disagree.  I could say that when you photograph a person in B&W, you photograph their shape, texture and contours.  When you photograph someone in color, you photograph the life they put into their shape texture and contours.  Someone I know thinks black and white nudes can be art, but color ones can't.  I think these people have their preferences and can live with them.  Their preferences shouldn't be the only preferences for all.

Back from Sin City

Me in the NYC Simulacrum

Spent a long weekend in Las Vegas celebrating our anniversary.  While there I thought of fellow blogger Terrell and his work.  I hope one day we can meet up when I get down there again.  As for this trip, every moment was hot, full and fantastic.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas*

 The is one of the cleverest ad campaigns ever.  It was so effective that the saying is worn out, yet still holds cache both in the hearts of those visiting, and the feeling the city promotes to those of us visiting it.  Nothing happened to me while I was there that needs to be kept secret or compares to the antics of the bachelor party from one of my favorite recent movies, The Hangover.  

I took over 500 photos while bouncing about.  That is not much for me when I am traveling to take pictures.  That is a ton when traveling to celebrate an anniversary.  I intended to try and capture the simulacrum of the city, and in particular the resort we stayed in, New York New York.  Along the way though I found many other parts of the city that made me reconsider it as more than glitz, facade, avarice and vice.  I left this morning with both an appreciation and soft desire to live there. 

I am going to work on the photos over the next few weeks and write about Las Vegas - my interpretations, my growing love for it and the issues I have about it.  Without going into details now though, the people (not just those working in the casinos or entertainment world) were kind, helpful, and very interesting.  Thanks Las Vegans... Veganians, Vegasonians... or how ever you label your selves.

 
* Heard a spoof on it.  "What happens in Reno... is greatly exaggerated."

Side notes -
One major positive of Las Vegas - no asthma.  Even in the smoky casinos I had barely, if any, asthma.
One major negative of Las Vegas - the heat.  For the past month I've enjoyed an SF cool summer of highs in the upper sixties and lows in the fifties.  It didn't get below 77 in Vegas.  It was around 105 yesterday.  It is a dry heat though.  I found that if I followed the same rules that got me through Burning Man (also in a NV desert) I did well.  I grew to enjoy the heat, or at least to function in it.  II moved slowly, drank lots of water, and stayed in the shade if I had to be outside for long periods of time.  I really liked rolling down the car windows in the hot evenings and cruising around the city, bathed in the hot moving air.  On the other hand though, it was a smack down when we would leave a hyper-air conditioned casino and appear in the direct sun on broiling concrete.  It felt like a gut punch.

My Pixel Forest Numbers Were Wrong.

Our friend Dr. L just wrote a post following on my post titled, "Thinning the Pixel Forest".  After reading hers I questioned the accuracy of my first post.

I double checked my facts on the number of photos on the internet and I was wrong.  I got the 10,000,000,000 (10 billion) from a conference lecturer last year.  According to the internet trending site Pingdom, in 2009 there were:

• 4 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (October 2009).
• 2.5 billion – Photos uploaded each month to Facebook. (964 per second)
• 30 billion – At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.

I was wrong.  My 10 billion number was way too low.   The overwhelming part for me is those are the numbers (34 billion) for two sites in 2009.  I will assume then Facebook will get at least another 30 billion images this year, totaling 60,000,000,000 in just two years.

I believe this gluttony of images has the same cause as the gluttony of food in developed nations.  Technology has made the production, processing, and distribution of both food and photos much more efficient, easier, cheaper and individualized.  For under $10, I can easily buy 10,000 calories.  A century ago, the cost of a calorie was much more, even after adjusting for inflation.  The same ease of use and consumption is true for photography.

We have to accept that photography publishing is no longer a medium/tool of the few deemed good enough and important enough to be publicized.  We all could take photos with our little Kodaks a few decades ago, but we had no way to mass publish them.  Most of the photos ended up in shoe box and a few ended up in an album or framed.  With new technology I can instantly publish any image for the world's online consumption, quality be damned.

I can reminisce about the good old days.  They are gone and we are not going back.  We (as a culture) eat too much and publish too many photos.   I can not turn around that global tide of gluttony.  I have to accept that so many will consume too much food and create too many photos.

My power is in what I can do with my own habits.  As with food, I can choose my nutritional and photographic diet.   I choose to ignore the trivial photos (both mine and yours (plural for rest of humanity)) and only consume the truly nutritious and important ones.  As I stated in my old post, I also choose to only publish my good stuff (both writing and photos), in a limited fashion.

After reading a comment from an anonymous reader I am thinking of holding back more photos for future uses that can earn me money or at least form the basis of my life's work.

When you get to the high end photographers such as Carrie Leigh, Kim Weston, Leonard Nimoy, Lucien Clerque etc...you will find that they post very few images.
You know that they are holding back for print, exhibit and collector value.

I've met and learned from Kim Weston.  He is a very generous and kind man.  He also knows a good bit of making sure his art gets to those who truly want it and can afford it.  My art is not at that level yet, but I have to start treating it as such.  If I don't I am just adding to the overly populated Pixel Forest.


NOTE - I just deleted over 70 less-than-stellar posts from this blog.  I have them backed up elsewhere, but since this is their public outlet, you wont have to read or see them anymore.  They live in the pixel forest's burn pile.

To Stephen Haynes - Welcome Back

What is yours?

Stephen Haynes is back in blogo-land (a special corner of the Pixel Forest).  He created the blog Magic Flute Fine Art Nudes which ran until June 14th.  After a break, some rethinking, moving blog locations, and many other activities, Stephen is back with his new blog, Truth and Justice For All.

I missed his commentary on photography/free speech issues, local and national culture, food, art, and many other areas of interest.  He is a damn smart voice in our world and I missed reading his blog.

Welcome back.

Truth and Justice For All
You can also find Stephen's blog, and all the other blogs I find important to me, on the bar to the right -  Some Blogs You Should Really Look At (Which should show up after he publishes his next post)

In Thy Name and Polaroids.

Valya - 072810

I am trying to stick to my promise from my last post.  I will no longer post my writing or photos if they aren't of a high level of quality.  I believe though I should share the best of other writers/artists. 

Dr. L wrote a great post titled, "What's in a Name".  She sums up why our names have little value, yet are of the most value right now.

My model friend Valya posted some Polaroid photos taken by Frank August.  The photos are of two natures.  First, a few are reminiscent of the snapshots we used to document events, yet have an edge of documenting something private.  The second set show how beautifully simple and artistic Polaroids can be.  They are some of the most sensual and beautiful images I have seen of Valya.  Both photographer and model did well.

The ones they chose

I always get a thrill when a model I've worked with uses some of our work for their own uses.  It interests me which ones they chose.  Here are some of them. 

Moon - Model Mayhem
Valya - Valya's blog,  Model Mayhem,
Leila - Model Mayhem,

Porn and Drugs

Classic Modern Leila

Dr. L over at What We Saw Today wrote about pornography again.  She discusses how the vague boundaries of porn makes it so hard to discuss and define.  All of this makes me think porn and drugs are related, but not in the way you may think.

I've written about pornography a bit too.  I've stated that I believe porn can be art, but not all porn is art.  I've made what most would consider porn.  I've viewed porn.  I am not going to define the boundaries between art, porn and erotica since all three can blend a bit for me.  While the content of the pornography varies and can be defended or blamed, I am not writing about content now.  I want to focus on porn usage.  My belief about porn usage is similar to that of drugs.  Neither are good or bad, it is the intention of the use that is "good" or "bad."

Along the way to getting my psychology degree I had to take both Use and Abuse of Drugs and Human Sexuality.  Both were great classes.  Both came with warnings and caveats.  Both courses were held in the largest auditorium on campus, seating 499 people.  Both classes were full. 

Follow the Arc

In the sex class, we were told on the first day that we could not bring friends, family or any other guest to the class unless they were registered.  The professors (one a behavioral biologist covering the physiology of sex, the other a social anthropologist, covering the cultural, historic, and other contextual aspects of sexuality) told us that we would become used to talking about sex openly and seeing explicit imagery in the class.  If we brought anybody from the outside, they would not  be "desensitized" to the this content and may become distressed.  What a titillating hook!  That made me want to attend class even more.  It was a great class where I learned more about human sexuality than the rest of life could teach me.  We always joked that the lectures were good, but the labs were the best!

The drugs course was a tough class.  We had to learn about the different classifications, uses, and outcomes of using drugs.  Twenty-one years later, I think I've forgotten most of that stuff, which is funny since I work for a drug company.  The main lesson I learned was something the professor stated on the first overhead transparency (pre-Power Point days).

Drugs are neither good or bad, it is how we use them that are good or bad.

The Blessed Ludivica Albertoni 1 - Classic Porn?

All pharmaceutical companies have to monitor the safety of their products.  Every drug has side effects and issues.  By tracking each adverse event and determining the risk/benefit of the product in a process called pharmacovigilance, we strive to give the patients and their health care providers the best information to make needed decisions.

Risk/benefit is a very gray area.    Here is a fictional, but common scenario, I have cancer that will kill me in 5 months.  If I take drug X, it has shown to increase survival rates by up to three years.  The major side effects are nausea and joint pain.  There is a toxicity issue that if taken more than five years, the drug will cause serious and permanent kidney and liver damage that is probably fatal.  Those are pretty bad risks, but the probability that I would live past five years is almost nil making the kidney and liver damage issue moot.  As for the nausea and joint pain, I have to decide if the quality of life issues caused by those side effects are worth it to live another few years.   The risk/benefit equation tips toward benefit.

The Blessed Ludivica Albertoni 2 - Detail

Now lets take the same scenario, but make the disease psoriasis.  Psoriasis is a severe disease, but not fatal.  The risk/benefit equation tips toward risk and the drug should not be given.

If we look at risk/benefit for illegal drugs or drugs that can be used for illegal purposes, it gets complicated.  Marijuana has both risks and benefits.  For cancer and AIDS patients, it can help them survive and lessen the symptoms.  For the pot smokers just wanting a great afternoon of watching Threes Company and toking a bowl, the equation is different.  When we look at E, ruffies, heroin, cocaine, crack, vicodin, huffing glue, meth, the risk/benefit equation heavily tilts toward risk.


Good/Bad, Risk/Benefit as related to porn usage.

In Dr. L's post, she mentions that serial killer Ted Bundy blamed porn as the cause of his crimes.  Whether his statement is true and how true it is, his usage suggests a bad use for porn.  I doubt that porn made him do it, but I can't rule out that it had an influence.  With his case, my assessment is bad use, heavy risk.

Many men in committed relationships view porn.  For some it is just a quick tension release and doesn't affect relations with their partners and family.  It is similar to enjoying a beer after a day's work and relaxing.  In that case I would assess it as good use, good benefits.

Stirred 2 (still baffled why you would need wifi at a brothel)

Many men in committed relationships view porn for hours, masturbating with it daily or even more frequently.  They would rather do that than have sex with their significant others.  There could be many reasons they are not seeking their partner (partner is not interested or is unable to have sex, emotional issues, etc.).  If this use of porn is leading to problems and addictions, I assess it as bad use, risky.

Those are enough scenarios, you can look at how it can help couples explore and have more fun or how it leads people into riskier activities in search of the next hot stimulating thing.  All of them are on that good/bad, risk/benefit scale.

So, which is it for you?  Do you abstain from using it?  Are you a recovering addict?  Are you a recreational user?  Do you use it to improve a healthy sex life?


Side not that is barely related to the topic.
My city of 135K+ souls has only two bookstores, both "adult" and neither really have any books in them.  We have Pier One Imports, Best Buy, Home Depot, Petco, Costco, Target, Walmart, Olive Garden, and sales lots for every major car manufacturer, except Ford.  Makes me wonder what our community really thinks is important to consume.  Literature is not on the list.

Culling the Herd and Montana Moments

The Front Yard I Spent Every Childhood Summer In

I had time to cull the blog herd a bit while waiting for my airplane in Salt Lake City.  I follow 43 blogs according to my blogger dashboard,   Many of these have gone TU or private.  It is time to let those go and reduce down to only the blogs I care about and are truly active.

Among the blogs I stopped following is one that the creator writes almost daily.  Sadly though, this writer/photographer's ego and opinions are getting too big and barbed for me to enjoy.  His photos are great, but just not worth the words surrounding them.

Some of the blogs I wiped away were great, but stopped months ago.  I hope the authors are well, but I need to move on.  Good bye and good luck.

I know some of my readers dropped me over the 16 months I've been writing this pap.  Like all things, we fall in love, we grow close, then we slowly drift apart.  Don't worry, I will not heed my friend's advice,  "When in doubt, take it personally. "  It is OK if you stopped following me.  Maybe my writings and images were as annoying as those of some of the blogs I stopped following.

Montana Trip -
I am back home in California now.  Last weekend I left here to drive to my parents house in a car I was giving them.  They need it more than we do and I am happy it has a good home.  Along the way I photographed four towns  in depth (over 800 photos) for my project.  I published a few of the pics from Wells, Nevada last Saturday. 

I am still unpacking both my luggage and my experiences and emotions.  Visiting my parents is both rewarding and takes an emotional and mental toll. I do not want to write more about those parts of the trip, but the photo project parts will appear as warranted.

Boundaries, Definitions, Intersections...

 Leila and Hana

Over the weekend I watched a movie that pushed the boundaries of erotica, pornography, and definition titled, 9 Songs.  It is a short movie about a young couple in England and their sex life through their relationship and over the course of 9 songs.   Both the sex scenes and the icy Antarctic landscape are beautifully filmed.

The scenes grow increasingly erotic, graphic, and by one point shows full penetration and male ejaculation.  Is it pornographic, hardcore, erotica, art?  Can it be all of these?  Can art be pornographic or pornography be art?

This is not the first time these questions have been asked. Bob Guccione's Caligula and John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus pushed these same issues to the question.  Can graphic, actual sex captured through various media rise up to be art? 

Dr. L recently wrote in her blog:

Anyone who has watched porn films, even classics like "Behind the Green Door," will notice the complete lack of authentic emotion. So, for me, high emotion vs. the lack of convincing emotion separates erotica from pornography.

The balancing act, the success or failure to stop just short of going too far, determines whether it is erotica or pornography.

In a comment to her post, I wrote:

That goes back to the classic line that I am going to poorly paraphrase, "I can't define what pornography is, but I know it when I see it." I think this boundary between erotica and pornography varies from person to person and between cultures.

I like your concept of needing real emotion between the people in the photo/video to help make it erotica. I hadn't thought of that, but I think that hits the nail on the head.

When I saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith, staring the ever sexy Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, I could tell there was a real passion between them. Even though it was a tongue-in-cheek movie, their emotions and desire for each other made it white-hot for me. It was real.

After seeing 9 Songs, I've decided that it is (for me) pornography, erotica and it maybe even has artistic merit.  The characters have a complex, caring relationship and their sex is not the usual cliche crap you find in standard commercial porn.  It feels like you are watching two people connect physically and emotionally. 

For me it is the intent of the piece that makes it erotic, pornographic, artistic or all of these and more.  If the creator's intent is to go beyond just shock, awe, and titillation, and to try to put an artistic statement on it, then it is difficult to dismiss as just porn.  I don't see all pornography as being without merit or purposes other than  masturbatory eye candy.  It can be art and erotica.

Since seeing my first Playboys, Penthouses and occasional Hustlers, through the porn videos of the 90's and the boom of porn on the internet, I've seen lots of porn.  During all those experiences, I've seen some pornography that I feel is art.  I believe some of the images I captured of Leila and Hana are pornographic.  I also consider them artistic and erotic.  One of the reasons I feel they are more than porn was my, and their, intent.  I wanted to capture graphic moments that when seen together in a series shows not only the tender and caring relationship of these two women, but also the intense physical way they celebrated it.

Some believe, including me, that subtlety and leaving things to the imagination can be more erotic than explicit depictions.  I also believe  sometimes we need to see the "whole monty."  This is true whether it is sex, war, poverty, domestic violence, and other real life issues.  If we did not see the bodies of victims killed in the name civil rights, fascism, communism, genocide, crime, drugs and other atrocities, we would not have been moved to act.  The same goes for poverty and other tough topics.  They pushed our comfort and made us think of how to react.

All of this makes me believe that what most, including myself, consider pornography can also be acceptable art and important to be created. Is sex that taboo and should we only be limited to accepting violent graphic imagery as art?

Nudophobia - another story

 The Quiet Times

I read an interesting article over at What We Saw Today about the conservative fear of nude art aptly named by Dr. L as "nudophobia."   It made me think of my own experiences exhibiting nude photos.


As I've mentioned in past articles, I had a business.  It was half high-end hair salon and half art gallery.  I was in charge of the art gallery, one of my partners who was a stylist managed the salon, and her boyfriend/other partner managed the business end.

Every month we would switch out the art and have an artist's reception.  In February, we decided to have a mixed media show (paintings, sculptures, glass work and photos) of nudes to coincide with Valentine's day.  None were explicit, some were erotic and all were good art.

I posted three of my nudes and sold one and traded one.  A number of the other artists sold pieces as well.  It was the second best money making exhibit for our little gallery.  The customers liked it, the stylists liked it and I never heard a complaint.  We decided we would do the same thing next year.

A few months later, the local artists community organization sponsored their annual event called "open studios."  Every participating artist put one piece up at the organization's gallery as a token of their work and then held a show at their own studio.  My business offered to host three artists plus myself since we did not have studios to exhibit in.  Two of us had nude works along with non-nudes to show.  I was in charge of hanging all the work which took seven hours.

Lines to Her Heart

The next day I came in and all the nude works were down and a few pieces were haphazardly shifted so that the whole flow of the exhibit was ruined.  I was fucking furious.  I went to my partners and asked,"What the fuck did you do?"

The stylist partner said a couple of the other stylists complained about the nudes and she felt they were not appropriate pieces.  I countered with the fact that the nudes were less risque than the ones we had at the Valentine's exhibit and they had no problems with them.  She then said, "Yeah, but that was a special Valentine's show.  This show is supposed to be about the local art community.  We don't want to offend our staff and customers."  I asked who complained and she would not tell me.

I was so mad at her for undoing my area of ownership and responsibility  at her whim.  I never told her how to run the salon,  how dare she change my work without consulting with me first.  I told her all that.  She said  she had to work there all day and did not want to have to deal with comments.  What comments?  At that moment, I knew the partnership was mortally wounded.  I told her that I relinquished all artistic choice for future shows and would only hang work and sell art.  She said that wasn't fair.

Just typing all this makes me mad about it again.  This time though it makes me mad that the belief by her and others was nude art is only acceptable around a holiday that celebrates erotic love.  Once again, nudity equals sex.

Look at the photo I posted of Candace Nirvana yesterday titled Holding the Moment.  Candace is beautiful.  She is nude.  That photo is not erotic.  It is actually tough for me to look at and I love it for that.  I feel pain when I see it.

Dali and Nirvana 4

With all that bitching out now, I have to share a glimmer of hope.  I've talked about the photography classes I took at the local public community college.  In the studio course, a number of photographers experimented working with nude models.  I had the honor of having the photo of Candace below titled Dali and Nirvana 4 hung in the department's gallery and then in the college library's gallery, where it is currently exhibited.  I am proud to have my name and the title on a little card stuck under it.  I am proud of that little college and its acceptance of nudity and art.


Photo note - I feel this photo from the Dali and Nirvana series is erotic and is art.  I doubt my former partner would have wanted that one hanging in our business either.  The nude photos I wanted to exhibit, but were removed, are the two above - Lines to Her Heart, and The Quiet Times.

Getting to Know You... Mrs

One of the first blogs I started following was Any Fucking Day.  I could spend all day praising its quality writing and photography.  Both are deeply personal and deeply... deep.  Both can be said for the two creators of it, Z and Mrs.

They are a married couple living in a small US city in the east.  If you read it for awhile, you get to know the two creators as intensely private (for very legitimate reasons) observers and thinkers.  They are a unique team.  Z writes, publishes books, and photographs.  Mrs models and provides a complex presence to the writing, images, and overall existence of the blog .   Together, they make an interesting balance of passion, love, pain, happiness, frustration,  and lust as they work together to create art.

Mrs has always been an intelligent, beautiful, erotic and strong-willed enigma for me as I've followed this excellent blog. While it is easy to recognize Z's influence on the blog through his writing and images he shares, it is a deeply rewarding endeavor to get to know and feel Mrs' aesthetic breath shared in the life of their art.  Through her modeling, mood and visceral presence in every post, I feel their collaboration become a complex mosaic of two very strong minds.

Mrs' modeling is complex.  The first thing I noticed was her erotic beauty of course, but after seeing her modeling in so many different environs, you can feel the silent solitude and private world these two artists share.  You can also sense her emotions, feelings and beliefs, though appearing subtle, are strong and formidable.  Through Z's writing and these images you get to appreciate their never-easy, but damn rewarding, relationship filled with every lustful, creative reward and challenge thrown at them.

I was both honored and excited when Z emailed me telling me Mrs wanted to answer my questionnaire.  I feel it is like getting to touch a rich abstraction that I've started to know through digesting and reflecting on all of their photos and writing.

Here are Mrs' answers to my questionnaire.  I love her direct answers and appreciate her sharing a bit of herself here.

1. What is your favorite word? Amsterdam
2. What is your least favorite word? Networking
3. What turns you on? horses
4. What turns you off? crowds
5. What sound or noise do you love? a far away train whistle
6. What sound or noise do you hate? motorcycle
7. What is your favorite curse word? fucking asshole
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? thoroughbred horse industry
9. What profession would you not like to do? sales
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the
11. Pearly Gates? You can return to earth and this time you can have your horse.
12. What is your idea of perfect happiness? life on a small farm with horses and dogs
13. What is your greatest fear? death of loved one
14. Which historical figure do you most identify with? hmmm?
15. Which living person do you most admire? Barack Obama
16. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? fear
17. What is the trait you most deplore in others? self - admiration
18. What is your greatest extravagance? I once spent way too much on a pair of shoes
19. On what occasion do you lie? sick days 
20. What do you dislike most about your appearance? my scowl
21. When and where were you happiest? on vacations
22. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? I wish I had the courage not to care what others think
23. If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be? I always wanted a brother
24. What do you consider your greatest achievement? my marriage
25. What is your most treasured possession? our cabin
26. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? serious illness
27. Who are your heroes in real life? people whose life work is to make the world better for everyone
28. What is it that you most dislike? self-centeredness
29. How would you like to die? with gratitude
30. What is your motto? I hate mottos

Any Fucking Day is a private blog.  Contact Z at mycapote@gmail.com to request an invitation if you are interested in learning more about it.

Part 1 - The Rights of the Model Part 2 - The Rights of Subjects?

 My Little Lady

Very interesting series of posts written by Dr. L and Alex over at What We Saw Today concerning the rights of the model and the acknowledgment they deserve.  While I think both parties need to be fairly acknowledged, will this push move beyond models?

Part 1 

Without the hard work and gifts of the models I've worked with, my photos would be nothing.  I greatly appreciate them and give them the credit I can.  Along with paying their modeling fees, I also send them a cd with the images I find good enough for their own promotional use.  If I ever make a great amount of money off of an image, I will share a fair portion with the model since we made the art

As I wrote in my comments to one of the posts, 

"While sharing the credit for the contributions of both the model and photographer to the final piece is crucial, it must also be decided upon before the art is created. Both sides need to stop making assumptions on where the credit of the creativity belongs. It is important to decide these issues in the planning discussions before the first click of the camera shutter."

Two of the models I've worked with have specified in writing in the model release they want to know where I will exhibit, post or publish any images of the images they appear in.  Neither stated they would limit the usage of the images, just wanted awareness of their placement.  I've always honored their requests because it was the right thing to do and was in the contract.  One thing I suggest to all models and photographers is to make these decisions before the shoot, not after.  To be honest, I would be upset if a model wanted to add restricting or additional rights sharing clauses after the photo shoot.  That is why I will from now on send future models I work with my model release before the session so we can negotiate language changes.

Alex made an interesting comment about painting versus photographing a model.

Let's go back to the world of photography. Most nude photographers regard themselves as artists, and indeed they are, but photography is a very different art form from painting or sculpting. It really relies heavily on the active participation of another person, the model - unless of course the photographer only shoots landscapes or objects or is a street photographer, shooting subjects rather than models.

The input of the model is much more significantly tangible in an art photograph than it is in a painting. The photographic model has every right to be acknowledged, i.e., named. And yes, s/he should be entitled to share the copyright of the image and have rights to its reproduction. All sorts of restrictions can be put in place, of course, so that the image is not further processed or manipulated by anyone else once it is finalised, but share of copyright simply means that the authorship is shared.

There is a part of this I agree with concerning the art model's role in creating the image.  To paraphrase my statement above, my photographs with models would be empty without them and have no meaning or purpose.  They added crucial and very necessary contributions to the shared creation of those pieces

I am not sure how I feel about some of the subtle subtext in this statement that I am reading into it. This statement makes me think that Alex has a different opinion on the artistic contribution, creativity and role of the photographer in creating an image compared to a painter or sculptor.  I could photograph a nude and make a beautiful print of it or I could create a painting from the image, yet it feels like I am judged more as an artist by picking up the brush, not loading the image into the enlarger.  Maybe I am being defensive, but I feel the battle for recognition of photographer as artist is still not over.  Is it because of the ultra-realism of photography? 

I have a question about the rights of models who work with painters and sculptors.  What if a painter created a piece that was nothing like the model posed for, but was a graphic sexually explicit crotch shot painting with the model's face clearly visible and identifiable.  Does the model have a right to recourse?  I think the painter broke the trust of the relationship, but since the artist created a visual moment that did not exist, what can the model do?


Part 2

"... It really relies heavily on the active participation of another person, the model - unless of course the photographer only shoots landscapes or objects or is a street photographer, shooting subjects rather than models."  Alex from What We Saw Today

With the recent technology enabling everybody to take photos, people are taking more snaps of everything, everywhere, at all times.  Will subjects (or the owners of) soon be demanding profits and rights for the images?

I found this page at the National Park Service website about photography permits for professional photographers.  I can understand wanting a permit system if the park will have to provide extra personnel and/or will need to clean up or fix things after a photo shoot.  I am troubled that I  need to get the permit even if I am not requiring any more park resources compared to amateur photographers.  What is interesting that painters do not need these permits.

The most disturbing line (to me) at the website is:

In addition, the National Park Service has been directed by Congress to collect a fee to provide a fair return to the United States for the use of park lands.

I may be getting paranoid and probably will need to move back to Montana and live in the middle of nowhere worrying about black helicopters, but I am starting to think everybody is going to want a cut on anything produced by anybody.  Will there be a time when I will either have to pay a fee to San Francisco for photographing the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, or Coit Tower because I may make money with them?  Will I have to pay Yosemite National Park royalties on images of Half Dome that I sell?

At this point I have to ask, will painters, poets, sculptors, musicians, mixed media artists have to go through the same hoops?