Mindy
February 18th, 2007
On the way to Florida. Stopped for the night south of Atlanta. We’ll be in Gainesville Sunday afternoon.
Here’s another photo of Mindy at the farm, taken the same day as the one that is in French PHOTO now. That was a great day of shooting. I haven’t posted any of the photos from that shoot before posting the one from the magazine. I’ll share more of them soon.
Tamara
February 17th, 2007
More Infrared
February 16th, 2007
Uninspired
February 15th, 2007
Happy Valentine’s Day
February 14th, 2007
A busy day for me today. Spent a good part of the morning digging out the car and truck so we could get going. Then I drove around in an unsuccessful attempt to find copies of French PHOTO. The December issue is still on the newsstands here. I’ll try again Friday.
For those who have expressed concern, thank you. All my tests came back fine and the doctor has told me no surgery is needed at this time. So I don’t have to try to figure out how to fit that into my schedule in the coming month or so.
Here’s a shot of Gaea in the room at the Leland Hotel in Detroit last weekend. I have a few more of her from that weekend that I’ll post. I’ll have a bit more to say about the Dirty Show and related topics, but that will have to wait for another, less busy, day. I’ll be spending this evening with my wonderful wife, Emily…no time for more blogging.
French PHOTO
February 13th, 2007
Last night my good friend from NYC, Dave Rudin, e-mailed me that French PHOTO magazine’s Jan/Feb issue had finally shown up in the city and he had some copies. This is the photo of mine that they selected for publication. This is the 6th time in 5 years that I’ve been published in that magazine. But this time is special because they ran this photo as a half page. Nearly all the photos in this issue are 1/8 page, so I’m very flattered that mine was selected to run larger.
Of course, I’m very happy about this publication. I still haven’t seen the magazine, but hope to find copies soon. It usually takes a week or so longer for them to arrive in Ohio. I can’t go looking today because we are snowed in by the storm of the century of the week today.
The model is Mindy. The location is a farm just outside the small town where I grew up here in Ohio. This photo was actually taken within sight of the spot were I took the photo of Charlye Raine among some backlit ferns that was selected for the magazine last year. Guess I’ll have to go do some more shooting this year on that farm…it’s obviously good luck for me.
February 13th, 2007
This is Dave Rudin’s photo that is in the same issue of French PHOTO, used with his permission. The model is Alison. This was shot in the Scottish Highlands. Dave is a great photographer who works with medium format film in black and white. You can see many more of his wonderful photos on his web site: http://www.art2view.com/DaveRudin/ His site is also linked to the right.
Post-Dirty Post
February 11th, 2007
I’m back from my first experience of the Dirty Show in Detroit and I don’t quite know what to say about it. I really didn’t know what to expect, and what I saw was and wasn’t what I expected.
I hesitated to enter my work in this show because I don’t think my work is really in tune with the focus of this show. Having seen the show, I was right about that. Thanks to the prudish values that seem to dominate the surface of our culture, I’m used to being the artist with the most controversial work at any group show I participate in. At the Dirty Show I found myself to be probably the most conservative artist in the show. Not a problem, but certainly a different situation.
As far as the content of the show, I was surprised and in some ways disappointed at what I saw. I’d say that about half of the work on display was excellent. Some was figure work, like mine, not really oriented toward the erotic. Other pieces were serious efforts to make art that dealt with human sexuality. Many were very successful. Some were disturbing. Many were interesting. That half of the show was certainly art.
But the other half of the work there was, well, just dirty. It seemed to me to just be shocking, crude and pointless displays of sexual activity. The work in this half, in my opinion, was largely artless, of poor quality as far as craftsmanship, and had nothing to say…it was simply showing various forms of sex. So, I guess I’d call it pornography.
Not that I have a problem with that. Porn is not something I’m particularly interested in, and certainly not something I want to do…but I also don’t want to see it banned or restricted beyond being kept away from children. I am totally opposed to censorship. The very idea of someone else thinking they are better qualified than I to decide what I should see or hear or read just makes me instantly angry. So I certainly want to go on record as being totally in support of the right of the Dirty Show to present whatever dirty “art” work they want to display.
And, being used to the usual turnout at gallery openings of a few dozen people, the huge crowd at the Dirty Show was fantastic. And who can complain about an art show with lots of beautiful women dressed in little more than pasties and a g-string walking around in the crowd. It was obvious the work was being sold and lots of people were having a great time.
So, will I enter the Dirty Show again? I think so. I don’t think I want to change anything about what I’m doing with my work to align more with what is shown at the Dirty Show. But I think I’ll send in some work again next time and see if they want to include it. It’s a show worth seeing. It’s good that nude work has this outlet where it can be seen. I don’t think I even want to suggest they work at raising the quality and eliminating the work that I didn’t like. It is what it is. It’s well named. It’s fun. If you can go see it, do.
Here’s another shot of Gaea from last week. We shot some new things in the hotel in Detroit. I may post some of those soon.
More Gaea
February 9th, 2007
Here’s another of Gaea from our shoot earlier this week. In a couple hours I’ll head out for Detroit and the Dirty Show opening tonight. Should be a hoot.
Gaining Ground
February 8th, 2007
I’m making some headway in getting all the things done that need to be done. I leave tomorrow for Detroit to experience the opening of the Dirty Show tomorrow night. Should be interesting. Don’t know how well I or my work will fit in to that venue, but I’m looking forward to meeting some new people and watching what goes on.
This is Gaea from our shoot earlier this week. She is the model in my photo that will be displayed at the Dirty Show. Gaea and her boyfriend will also be attending the opening with me. I’ll post more from this shoot when I get back from Detroit.
