From 2010, never published.
black and white
Don’t lie, you at least thought about it several times.
The pandemic isn’t over. Plenty of people are still quarantined for at least a week following exposure to COVID-19. If you’re locked in with a partner or playmate, then you have sufficient distractions. You can hold a conversation, or argue over what to stream next. If you’re by yourself, though, the options are less, and if you don’t keep yourself busy that line of insanity inches closer with each passing second. Hobbies are only good as long as one has supplies. We learned last year the dangers of eating everything in sight. How does one stay busy?
You know-how. We’re not going to pretend that masturbation isn’t a regular activity regardless of what else one might be doing, but online sales of vibrators and other personal pleasure instruments have skyrocketed the past two years as we’ve looked for new and exciting ways to keep some form of pleasure in our lives. This is part of who we are, a natural expression of pleasure that begins before we’re born. There’s no reason to be shy or ashamed in admitting that.
Instead, let’s celebrate the beauty. Let’s celebrate the freedom that comes from being in control of your own body. Let’s celebrate the wonder of deriving pleasure from yourself, for yourself, without needing the complications of another person. That’s not saying that relationships aren’t nice, but being in lockdown by yourself isn’t necessarily a complete negative.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18458″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Unwinding after a long day at work
Watch This First
Friday night after a long week at work. It’s pouring rain and the chill in the air leaves no question to the coming winter cold. A warm bowl of soup. A hot cup of tea. You’re relaxed and cuddled up next to the person you care about. You take a deep breath and relax. Life may be far from perfect, but at this moment it’s at least comfortable and that’s saying something.
You’re neither one in the mood to go out. There’s nothing overly exciting to watch on television. Another cup of tea, a little guitar, and you both realize it’s a little warm inside. Shirts come off, blankets come out. You move close together, enjoying the feel of each other’s bodies. You’re feeling good, and you’re both in the mood for a little bit of intimate pleasure. It starts with a soft touch, and then…
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18392″ layout=”contain” columns=”4″]
A chaise lounge provides the perfect place to relax
The Video Version
You’ll want to view full screen with the sound on.
The end of a long day. You’re alone, no one else in the house. A little soft music, a relaxing drink, perhaps a light snack. The clothes you’ve been wearing all day weigh you down. You slip out of them, putting them in the growing pile of laundry. You have a couple of hours before anyone else is home. You stretch out on the chaise, relax, and release the stress that has plagued you all day. The important stuff will still be there later. For now, you need some time for mental healing and this is exactly what the doctor prescribed, or would have if doctors actually prescribed common-sense tactics.
As a society, we spend too little time giving our bodies a break. We don’t stop to think about how the many layers we wear contribute to the emotional weight we feel bearing down on us. We censor ourselves, our bodies, and deny ourselves the quiet, alone, naked time that we need to decompress. There are benefits not only for our mental health but physical health as well. Give your skin a chance to breathe, maybe apply some hydrating lotion while massaging your limbs.
Sure, you may want to be dressed before the kids get home, depending on your family dynamic. In-laws coming for dinner? Yeah, you don’t need the stares. But for now, this moment is yours. Take it. Drink it in. Shed all the nonsense that inevitably builds up across the day. Breathe. Close your eyes. Enjoy the music. You’ve not just earned this moment, you need it. Claim it.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18242″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]
There Is A Penalty For Leaving
Watch full screen with sound on, please
Imagine showing up to a hotel, exhausted and weary from travel. You get the key to your room and open the door to find the maid there, tidying up, fluffing pillows, adding the final touches for your stay. She smiles. She seems friendly.
But after she leaves, you notice things are just a bit off. The towels are a deep red, the color of blood. An array of bandages sit on a shelf in the bathroom. The sheets are ice cold. The chocolates on the pillow are already unwrapped. And “Hotel California” plays on an endless loop through an unseen sound system.
Tired, you get ready for bed. All that matters is that you get a good night’s sleep. The maid appears to “tuck you in.” Just one of the “special” room services the hotel offers. She turns out the light, but you never hear her leave.
Your sleep is tortured by nightmares. You toss and turn. Then, you’re awakened by a piercing scream down the hall. That’s it, you’ve had enough. You get dressed, pack your bag, and get ready to leave.
The maid is standing in the hallway as you shut your room door behind you. “There’s a penalty for leaving early,” she says. Then she smiles in a way that ignites fear throughout your body. Your mind says run but your feet won’t move.
Don’t worry, it’s just a dream. Maybe.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18186″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Punishment can also be fun
WATCH THE VIDEO PERSPECTIVE FIRST
About The Images
We like to think we know the proverb, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” but that would be incorrect. What Proverbs 13:24 says is, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.” What the proverb seems to advocate is a severe form of capital punishment in child-rearing. While that might have been acceptable in 3,000 B.C.E. or so, it’s the type of thing that can get child protective services called on you today. Abuse is not good discipline.
However, some people, consenting adults who understand the risks and consequences of their actions, enjoy having the rod laid to their skin. For some, it is a form of erotic pleasure from which they derive great enjoyment. Sure, Freudian therapists have a field day with all the latent dysfunctionality of such an activity, but at the end of the day, for those who are knowledgeable in the practice and delivery of erotic punishment, there’s no lasting harm, only pleasure.
And when the punishment is delivered by the right person, it can become a work of art. The video and still images are different perspectives so be sure to observe both.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18168″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
No one is ever defined by a single trait
Let’s start here.
“I know her, she’s …”
“You don’t want to mess with them, they’re …”
We all like to generalize. Putting people we know into a single basket makes it easy to decide whether or not we want to associate with that person.
But no one, absolutely no one, can be defined by a single trait. Not only that, the traits exhibited today may not be the properties we see in a person tomorrow. We grow. We change. Just as a person shows different looks and emotions over the course of a set of photos, we can change who we are just as quickly, and perhaps more frequently.
When we ask, “Who Is A Woman?” we have to know that the answer only applies to a given moment, just like a photo only captures a fleeting image. The video uses 18 different descriptors, but they are both accurate and false at the same time. She’s a different person than who she was when the photos were taken. Sure, her hair is still wonderful, she’s still engaging, and strong. But she’s much more as well.
And so are you.
So, maybe we stop trying to put people into boxes. Maybe we get to know a person’s full story, not just the one we see on Facebook. Maybe we accept that people are complicated and that’s a good thing.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18099″ layout=”contain” columns=”4″]
There Is More Than What The Eye Beholds
The old adage that beauty is in the eye of the beholder is, to put it nicely, nonsense. First, some people wouldn’t recognize beauty if it came up and slapped them hard in the face, and most of those people deserve just such a slap. Second, beauty is not static. How it appears to us one time may not be the same as the next. I chose a fast-paced video this week because I want to emphasize just how quickly beauty moves through our lives. One moment it is there, the next it is gone.
Perhaps most important, though, is that beauty cannot be defined because it is never, ever, limited to a constant state. The natural ebb and flow of beauty mean that we can never nail down what it is or isn’t. Not only can we not trust our eyes, but we also can’t trust our emotions, our instincts, or our experiences. What we may see as beauty now may prove to be something quite different to our grandchildren. Likewise, what we find distasteful may, but future standards, be astonishing and lovely.
Ray Stevens once sang a song that was the heart of inclusivity. “Everything is beautiful, in its own way,” he sang in 1970. The song was inspiring and it made Ray Stevens a very popular and a financially prosperous individual. Ray’s right-leaning political views of the past few years have caused him to seem not-so-beautiful to a lot of people, though. Did he change, or did our view of what’s beautiful?
When I come across people I knew growing up, a lot of them say, “Wow, you’ve changed. What would your parents say?” I assume they think my parents wouldn’t approve of some of my actions and my liberal attitudes. I know my parents, though, and whether or not they approved of what I say or what I do, they would still love me. They would still find me beautiful.
Beauty, as the video says, is form. Beauty is substance. Beauty is the essence of nature and the fragrance of love wrapped in a single soul. The young woman in these pictures is beautiful. So are you.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18033″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
We were never designed to sit still
If you’re a parent, you’ve uttered the words. When you were a child, you heard them, perhaps more often than seemed possible. Sit still. Don’t move. Stop fidgeting. Get your feet out of the seat. Why can’t you behave? There’s a reason those orders are so difficult to fulfill.
An under-recognized study in 2016 raises the question of whether it is natural for us to sit at all, especially as much as we do. Cardiologists have been telling us for decades that we need to get up and move often to keep our hearts healthy and the reason is we humans were never meant to be sedentary. Demands that we must, from an early age, sit in uncomfortable seats for hours on end in order to learn are counterproductive. Yet, we can’t get our brains to accept what our bodies desire.
We need to move. Often.
Clothing is optional.
Click on any of the thumbnails below to view images full screen.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17956″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Edit: Working with video on another project inspired us to come back and do this:
You can be nice for a while, but when necessary, you have show your strength
One of the things the misogyny and sexism of our culture teaches is that it’s okay to push other people around, especially women. Stop teaching your children that lesson. Stop acting out that behavior. Stop putting women in a position where they have to whip your ass before you understand that what you are doing is wrong.
After the events of this past week, I’m rather over the convoluted and never-appropriate notion that women deserve something less on any level at any time. They deserve just as much respect, just as much attention, just as much opportunity, just as much funding, and just as much credit as any male in any position, ever. We’re well past the point of it being okay to expect women to sit quietly in the passenger seat and let men do the driving.
More often than not, one doesn’t want to see a woman’s badass side. Relationships rarely survive when she gets pushed that far. Lesser creatures have died. But not only can she out maneuver, out drink, out smart, and out think you, she looks better than you while doing it. These pictures are evidence of that.
Okay, so maybe not all women go around topless or wearing a rope corset while being badass. That’s a minor point. What’s important is that you start showing some respect. Polishing her boots might be an acceptable place to start. Get to it.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17710″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Some people are always relaxed no matter what they’re doing
I tend to be a bit high strung at times, especially when my schedule is too full and something goes wrong. This would be why I’m on high blood pressure medication. Stress and I do not have an amicable relationship. The more I try to relax and not overload my schedule, the more stress fights back by adding things I neither wanted or needed in my day. This is one of those aspects I’ve come to accept as a part of life.
The young woman in these pictures gets stressed as well. I’d be lying to infer that she doesn’t. And I’m sure there are moments when she gets as frustrated as anyone else. The difference is that I never see her when she is stressed or frustrated. She may text Kat, or fuss at her partner, but by the time I get wind of any of it the whole matter has blown over. So, from my perspective, she’s totally chill. Always.
Carefully lit black-and-white photographs do a good job of communicating a level of casual ease, in my opinion. Regardless of what’s actually going on in the image, the tone of the photograph removes the intensity that comes with color. The emotion, even when it’s sadness or grief, carries a sense of resignation or acceptance that color doesn’t quite muster. As a result, when we start with a casual scene from the beginning, what we hopefully achieve is a level of relaxation that is seductive not in its content but in its emotion.
Judge for yourself. Click on any of the thumbnails below to view the images full screen.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17673″ layout=”contain” columns=”4″]
I’m damn sure not happy with the condition of the United States at the moment
My blood pressure is too high. It’s Saturday night and I’ve lost all faith in the two-party system of government. 43 Senators violated their oath of office, completely ignoring the rule of law. There’s no living with such traitorous action. But at the moment, there’s not a lot I can do. There is a lot I will do when the time is appropriate, but for now, I need to find my happy place. So, here it is. You’ll have to click on the image below to see the full version. No, I didn’t cut everyone’s head off. I’m reserving that action for politicians.
[tg_grid_gallery gallery_id=”17642″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]
Sorry, but with all that’s happened this week, I’m not ready. I’m not ready to see people in front of my camera. I’m not ready to sit and edit for endless hours. I’m not ready to put weeks of creative thought into a project. Not yet. I’m not there.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t feel the need to shoot some this week. While I didn’t want to take the camera out in sub-freezing weather, the 105 megapixels on my phone were an adequate substitute. We played. We looked at things from odd and different angles. There are a couple of reflective double-exposures that are interesting. Pay attention to those. The cat in the sink is… one of those things that happens around here. We deal with it.
I don’t have anything else at the moment. Leave a message in the comments below or at the tone.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17592″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Wear a mask, wash your hands, protect what’s important
What we have this week is the second set of photos from a group we shot back in September when it was still, barely, warm enough to be running around naked in the woods. At that point in time, we were fairly hopeful. COVID-19 numbers were down. Schools were slowly starting back. Bars and restaurants were opening. While we knew there was a good chance of a second wave, it was still a while off.
Now, I look at these pictures and wish I’d taken more. Lots more. As much as I’d love to call Ashley and say, “Hey, meet me…” I don’t dare. Coronavirus infection rates are the highest they’ve ever been. As of the particular moment when I’m typing this, the United States has seen more than twelve million cases and just crossed 250,000 deaths. Our daughter, who had been enjoying going to school and seeing her friends, will now be back at home learning remotely starting Monday. All schools in the county are completely closed to in-person instruction. That bars and restaurants haven’t done the same is more cowardice and lack of supportive action on the part of lawmakers than it is any reasonable form of science.
One of the most difficult parts of this past week was making the decision to not participate in family Thanksgiving celebrations, despite them being small. They’ll only include two more people than normal, but they’re people outside my normal bubble and one of them works in retail, exposed to a plethora of people with little consideration for anyone else. Making that decision more difficult is that our youngest son’s birthday falls on the same day. We’ve promised him an additional celebration at home, but it’s not the same. There are no friends coming over for a party, no sharing cupcakes with classmates.
Of all the songs running through my mind right now, perhaps the most relevant is Whitesnake’s 1987 hit, Here I Go Again.
No, I don't know where I'm goin' But I sure know where I've been Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday And I've made up my mind I ain't wasting no more time Though I keep searchin' for an answer I never seem to find what I'm lookin' for Oh Lord, I pray you give me strength to carry on 'Cause I know what it means To walk along the lonely street of dreams And here I go again on my own Goin' down the only road I've ever known Like a drifter, I was born to walk alone And I've made up my mind I ain't wasting no more time
I know I’m not the only one feeling this way. Millions of people who would normally be spending portions of this week with large gatherings of family are either staying home or severely limiting the number of people around them. Across the country, there are more than 250,000 chairs that empty and most of them didn’t have to be. We, as a country, continue to be irresponsible.
So, here we are, on our own, out in the woods, staying several feet apart from each other. We can look at the pictures and enjoy the beauty and, perhaps, for a moment, forget how unforgivingly horrid this year has been on so many different levels. Perhaps next year will bring more opportunities to be more adventurous. For the moment, we are thankful for the time we had.
Enjoy.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17448″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]
Returning to concepts we’ve not done in a few years
No one would be surprised to hear me say that I enjoy experimenting and trying different digital processing techniques; it’s something I’ve done a lot over the past three years. One of the nice things about taking that approach is that I have to worry less about backgrounds and can focus more on light and contrast. It also gives me an excuse to revisit images from the archives when we can’t get out to shoot new material.
Looking over the archives from the past couple of years, though, I didn’t see any classic, black-and-white, nude sets that focus on beauty and pose. In fact, it’s been more like seven years since I’ve visited any classic theme in black and white. So, when I started considering what would be safe to shoot from a reasonable distance, that came to mind. Could we shoot a classic theme while staying six feet away?
The answer is yes, hello zoom lens.
Not that there weren’t issues. When shooting from that distance, adjusting the focal length of the lens with almost every shot, perspectives are rarely accurate. Yes, they can be fixed in post, but that risks raising other issues regarding size and perspective. A little care and a small dose of creativity was still necessary to prevent some of the images from looking warped.
That challenge aside, though, there’s a nice feeling about returning to a style that is comfortable and familiar. We’ve done some other classic sets as well that we’ll share between now and December-ish. Assuming the world doesn’t blow up this next week or something.
Our thanks, again, to Cassandra for coming out and playing with us. We still have a couple more of her sets to publish, so be looking forward to those!
Instructions feel redundant but if you’re new you’ll need to know, click on a thumbnail below to view the set full screen on your device. Enjoy.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17377″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
At least, what’s left of that famous river…
Two things built up my confidence for this week’s trip to Lafayette. First, was that I survived last week’s shoot without catching anything. Protections work. Second, my visit with doctor number 87 did not predict imminent death. Wasn’t too worried about that one, to begin with, but a win is still a win. So, feeling a little confident, I tossed a message at Cassandra to see if she’d be available to shoot and when she agreed I started making plans.
Lafayette is one of those towns I’ve been through dozens of times but only stop at convenience stores along the interstate. Some ten or so years ago, I had a photo hanging at a gallery there for some contest of some kind, but I went directly there and back home. I’d never driven around, getting to know the city nor the university it hosts. Having cleared the day, I took some time and drove around, happy to find that Purdue students were staying inside and that finding a parking place didn’t mean driving in circles for 30 minutes.
Cassandra joined me in the early part of the evening as the sun was perfectly placed in the sky. Quickly enough, street lights began to pop on and the shadows grew long enough we couldn’t get decent natural light without invoking tremendous amounts of noise. Black and white with a touch of grain is fine, but there’s a limit. As for the Wabash, well, it’s at an all-time low, shallow enough one might walk across it in places. Sigh. So much for that “majestic river” vibe.
This is the first of what will likely be three posts with Cassandra. I enjoy the fact that she always comes prepared for multiple looks. As always, click on the thumbnail to view the image full screen. Enjoy!
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17284″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
A rainy Father’s Day didn’t stop the kids from being able to stop by and see Grandpa Bob’s toy.
Father’s Day is one of those holidays that means less to me now that my own father is gone. Yes, we remember him fondly, but we do so on other days as well. As for my own adult offspring recognizing my participation in their existence, that was always a forced celebration so it’s rare now if I even get a text from any of them. I am increasingly of the opinion, given the ubiquity of single-parent families, that perhaps Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should be combined into a single Parents’ Day so to both recognize the effort of parents filling both gender and avoid the immediate depression that comes from having a day that specifically celebrates someone who, for many, was the perpetrator of their abuse.
Father’s Day is still a bit awkward with the younger two. Sure, they call me Dad, but it’s never been something I force on them and pushing Father’s Day on them has the effect of reminding them of the deficiencies of their biological participant. However, they are fortunate to have Kat’s Dad, warmly referred to as Grandpa Bob. The kids love their Grandpa Bob and Grandpa Bob enjoys doing things with his grandkids, especially now that they’re big enough to not require intermittent diaper changes.
Grandpa Bob has always enjoyed aviation but it’s taken on a new enthusiasm as he recently purchased a used Ercoupe, a two-seat craft from the mid-twentieth century that still enjoys a fierce and loyal following. Grandpa Bob is still tweaking the engine and since it was raining, going for a ride wouldn’t have been advisable anyway. Instead, we met Grandpa Bob at the open hangar where he stores the plane.
Are kids and airplanes ever not a good mix? Maybe with infants whose ears object to the change in air pressure. Outside that, there’s not much anything more cool than getting to sit in the cockpit of an airplane, any airplane. Needless to say, they were thrilled. Pictures were required. We hope you’ll enjoy seeing them as much as we enjoyed taking them.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17124″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]
The state of Indiana may say it’s re-opening but downtown Indianapolis is a very different picture.
Yes, I do still have a good camera. Yes, I still remember how to use it. Having not shot anything new since February, though, I had to dust it off and clean the lenses before taking everything out early Thursday morning and venture into downtown Indianapolis. I was itching to shoot something, anything, and after hearing about all the protests downtown and the Arts Council’s project for painting boarded-up shops, I was fairly certain I would find littered streets juxtaposed against incredible murals.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I hit downtown at 8:20 AM, right smack in the middle of what should have been one of the busiest times of the day. Instead, I encountered practically no traffic at all once I was inside the mile square. I parked less than a block North of the Circle. The place was empty.
Sure, there were some construction people doing construction things, but there were no pedestrians, no one rushing to get to work on time, no one grabbing that last cup of coffee before trudging into an office, no police, no lingering protestors, nothing. Almost everything was boarded up but most the boards were still bare and the few on the Circle that had been painted were amateur attempts at prettying-up a hard message: Black Lives Matter. The streets themselves were perhaps the most clean I’ve ever seen them. No sign of the previous night’s protest remained. Even the trash cans had been emptied.
I walked south out of the circle to Washington then west to Illinois. Seeing Circle Center Mall boarded up was surreal. Even more unnerving, though, was being able to stand in the middle of an intersection, multiple times, and take my time framing my shot without having to worry about being run over. Traffic was practically non-existent. I walked on down to Georgia Street where a lone couple sat snuggling on one of the concrete supports. There was some utility construction nearby, but beyond that, everything was quiet.
The one image that stands out in need of comment is the statue of Governor Oliver Morton with what appears to be bird poop squarely down his face. I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate. Morton, on one hand, got the state of Indiana through the Civil War without it being torn to shreds. He fought off white supremacist groups and made Indiana one of the most supportive states in the Union. Sounds like a good guy, right?
Hardly. While he might be applauded for his support of the Union, the methods he used in the process were nonetheless detestable. He illegally borrowed millions of dollars in federal and personal loans to support the state budget because he wouldn’t let the state legislature meet. He hired thugs who beat up, kidnapped, and allegedly killed political opponents. When Confederate troops crossed the Ohio River into Indiana, not only did he illegally call up the state militia to fight them but he had them ransack and burn the homes and barns of any Hoosier family who displayed the flag of the Golden Circle, a group sympathetic to the Confederacy. Perhaps difficult times call for difficult measures, but seeing bird poop on his face still feels appropriate.
Seeing the city this way was a reminder that regardless of what other issues we might face there is still a pandemic to fight. While people out in the suburbs might be reckless and running around without a care, the few people who were downtown were taking matters seriously. Mosts wore masks. They all avoided getting too close to anyone else. And the whole place felt a bit like a ghost town.
I can’t say the following photographs are exciting. If they are interesting it is on a documentary level as we consider where we are and what is really taking place. While it was nice to get the camera out again, I must say that I prefer more lively subjects. I kept looking for tumbleweeds; at least they would have been interesting.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17086″ layout=”wide” columns=”4″]
Get over those old taboos about what you can and cannot put on your walls.
If there is one thing the past few weeks have taught us it is that we never know when our lives are going to be upended in ways we never imagined. Home has suddenly become more than a place where we sleep, visit with family, and perhaps occasionally catch a quick meal or two. Home is now where we work, where we socialize, where we create, where we eat every meal, and where we sit on social media fondly remembering those times where it was safe to go out. At least, we thought it was safe. We rarely gave a second thought to what might happen if we left home.
Now, though, we’re home, or we’re supposed to be, and despite all that talk about opening things back up so that the virus can spread even more, the truth is we’re likely to remain at home a lot more than what was formerly our norm. If we are going to spend more time at home, then it only makes sense that we want home to look more like someplace we really want to stay at more than a few minutes. We want home to be comfortable, fun, inspiring, entertaining, and relaxing. What we’re realizing some 4-6 weeks into quarantine is that our home spaces really aren’t any of those things. The good news is that now we have the time to change that.
For our house, that means Kat painted the kitchen. I can’t claim to have had anything to do with that. While the kids helped her a little bit, and at least one of the cats dipped his paws in the paint, she did most of the work while I was unconscious. She did consult me on the color, but for the most part, this was one of Kat’s moments where she saw something she didn’t like and she solved the problem. She has plans for solving other problems as well if the stay-at-home order continues.
As we’ve discussed completely re-working the living room, one of the topics is where to hang art. This is complicated by the fact that I have more art sitting behind the couch than we have wall space. It’s all framed and ready to go, but you didn’t buy it so now I have to do something with it. This problem is all your fault. Don’t try to weasel your way out of it. Given that the majority of that art involves nudity in some form, that raises a question: can we hang that in our living room?
The short answer is Yes, we can. You can, also. Any prohibitions against doing so died several years ago, actually. We perpetuate them out of an unreasonable fear that we might offend someone or because we have children in the house. Both of those are nonsense arguments. First, few people ever have anyone over to their home in the first place and that number is likely to decrease now that we’ve grown accustomed to social distancing. Second, those who do have people over to their home tend to choose people who have similar tastes and values. Third, children actually benefit from having art of every kind in the home. No, it’s not illegal, we have had multiple assurances on that front, as long as it’s not explicitly pornographic. There are benefits to having nudity in your home, and at least one person thinks children should participate in nude art classes. You can hang nude art in your home!
Eventually, this begs the question, how does one hang nude art in their home. Do you put it up high so the kids don’t see it? Do you put it in a separate room so those non-existent guests aren’t offended? No, and no. Nude art can and should be hung using the same advice given for hanging any kind of art.
- Hang art at eye level so that one needn’t struggle to see it
- Center the art above large pieces of furniture, such as a couch
- Place some on shelves (if you don’t have cats)
- Lean some against the wall (if you don’t have dogs or toddlers)
- Consider a masonry-styled art wall for displaying different sized pieces
- Place the art in a place that compliments the entire wall
See? Not difficult at all! I think the biggest challenge to hanging nude art at home, once we get past the ridiculous concept that there’s something wrong with doing so, is that it is difficult for us to imagine how that might look. So, let me help you out here. Below are some pieces we’ll be adding to our gallery on Saatchi Art, hopefully sometime in the next week or so. I’ll add links to the art when we do. We’ve mocked up different ideas for how the art, all sized at 16×20 inches before framing, might look on a wall. Take a look at these, and then compare how they look on a wall versus the pieces we showed you last week. The biggest difference is that these pieces are all black-and-white.
There really are no excuses. You can hang nude art in your home and if it is something that you enjoy, something that inspires you in some way or makes your space more pleasurable for you, especially now that you’re stuck in it 24/7, then you should hang nude art in your home.
Take a look.
Note: I didn’t bother with changing matte colors in creating these mock-ups because of the time hit. With darker walls, especially, I’m personally in favor of using mattes of a contrasting color. If you’re using a particularly decorative frame, double matting might not be a bad idea. These are all matters of personal preferences, of course. The point is that you can hang nude art on your walls at home.
Just make sure it’s not in the background of your office Zoom meeting. It’s not going to be considered work safe. No point in fighting it. You should probably be using a fake background anyway.
Enjoy! Create! Make you’re home the place of comfort and pleasure you want it to be!
In case you hadn’t noticed already, my processing style is changing and becoming more involved. At least, some of the time. The dichotomy between my love of traditional black and white and fascination with where we’ve taken the Experimental Series is substantial. They are two very different styles of photography serving two very different purposes.
So, what happens when we mix the two? How do we determine which photos get processed in black-and-white or the Experimental format? There are a lot of questions I’m still working out. Part of it has to do with the concept and vision at the time of shooting. When we look at the photos along the wall, it’s difficult, at least for me, to imagine them being processed in black-and-white. The concept didn’t fit. In fact, it didn’t really fit any traditional form of processing. The photos shot in the window, however, would have been diminished had we not left them at their prime form.
When planning a complex concept, though, one has to shoot with some understanding of what is involved in the end process. There, I was lacking information. The first three images from the wall set are pretty much what I had imagined. What disappointed me, though, was the length of time necessary to create that effect (nearly ten hours per image) and the degree to which it didn’t work with every pose I’d planned. I was disappointed and stumped. So, I stopped and walked away from the set for a little over a month.
The intervening time gave me the opportunity to explore and fidget more, finding some combinations that I like for the two remaining poses. Yes, it is ultimately a different style, building upon the first, but there’s enough similarity to hold them together.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate Ashley being patient with me as I’ve worked on these photos. We shot these all the way back in September! It certainly is not my intention to ever hold a set of pictures this long, but in this instance, I think it was necessary.
Enjoy the photos. We’re going to be flying back and forth between traditional and experimental styles with almost every shoot we do this year. I do hope you’ll join us!
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16621″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]
The year 2019 saw a return to high-volume photographic output.
Several years have passed since I shot over 5,000 images across twelve months. This year, with the aid of a new Canon camera and the ability to drive myself places, we once again topped 10,000 frames for the year. In some aspects, it doesn’t really seem like much. Then, I think how far behind I got with processing at times and there’s no question it has been a busy year.
Our processing methods progressed over the year as well. We were able to produce a lot more content in the Experimental Series and looking back at those images now is very exciting. I am more convinced than ever that this is a good direction for the future. In addition to that, I spent a great deal of time developing a higher level of digital art techniques that are especially noticeable in photographs posted in November and December. We’ll be looking for appropriate ways to advance those skills.
One significant event this year was having work accepted into juried art shows. I’ve shunned juried shows for several years, but this year seemed like a good time to change that stance. As a result, I won the People’s Choice Award for the Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Given the success of this past year’s attempts, that will definitely be a direction we will pursue in 2020.
We also exhibited a fair amount locally, but that proved to not be as successful. I am deeply disturbed by the fact that people in the Midwest don’t buy art as an investment when they buy art at all. I’ll be talking with connected people to discuss how to change that matter, but in the meantime, I think local exhibitions may not be worth the expense.
I enjoyed working with some incredible people this week, a cool mix of new faces and some I never shot before. It was especially great to have Pashur House back and have the privilege of witnessing his incredible talent. I’m very much hoping that we can re-connect again this year. Time will tell. I’m also hoping to find many new faces and personalities.
The downside, as usual, has been negative reaction to our work from people who are completely uninvolved and deserve no real voice. One model’s presence had to be completely scrubbed from our site to meet the demands of her new employer whose complaint is illegitimate at best and possibly illegal. Others have had to go by only their first names, a practice we’ve now adopted universally just to avoid any future problems. What can I say? The world is full of ignorant people and we cannot fight them all.
Looking back is fun. Rather than our usual format, though, I thought it would be easier to put some of my favorite shots from this year in a video. The seven-and-a-half-minute video includes at least one shot of every person and event we’ve shot this year. There’s no particular order, but it’s well worth watching to see your favorites. It’s been a creative year. I hope you enjoy the look back.
The late photographer Horst P. Horst had a preference for working with friends over “professional” models. Of course, in his earliest work prior to World War II, there was no such thing as a professional model, so convincing friends from within his social circles to pose was the only option. But even after the war, when the Ford Agency redefined what it means to sit for hours in front of a camera or wear a designer’s clothing for hire, the legendary genius of the lens preferred to work with people he knew well, citing their ability to pose comfortably, take direction more precisely, and carry on a decent conversation.
Working with Katherine Reiling recently reminded me of Horst’s musings. It’s been roughly seven years since Katherine’s been in front of my camera; not that we haven’t tried to shorten that distance on numerous occasions, but schedules and life so often get in the way and maintaining friendships become more difficult as life grows more complicated. So as we met and began the process of taking pictures, there was much to talk about. In fact, had we been taking account of the time talking versus the time shooting, I’m sure we spent nearly twice as much time in conversation.
Of course, having friends who also have experience as models is the ultimate win. While the atmosphere was calm and relaxed, Katherine knows how to pose without needing a lot of direction. I could tell her the shot I was wanting and she was beautifully accommodating in making that image happen. But while experience always makes a difference, so does the ease with which we were able to move from image to image while carrying on conversations about family and travel and heritage and health.
I like having people in front of my camera with whom I can relate and enjoy the time even when we’re not actively taking pictures. For me, the pictures have a deeper resonance and while the depth of that resonance may not be felt by everyone who views them, I am convinced that friends always make for better pictures.
Click on any of the thumbnails below to view the images full screen.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”15663″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
This isn’t at all what I had planned on posting today. We shot a series of photos back in August/early September that I had planned on releasing today but I am still not done with all the editing. This is a pretty time-intensive project and very little margin for error. Somethings are best not rushed so we’re waiting a week or two. Please accept my apologies for that.
I didn’t want to let another Sunday pass without posting something though, so I went back and picked up some images from the early days of digital photography. This was back in 2003-2005 when it was still a challenge to convince some people that digital photography was viable. A lot of people looked at me like I was crazy back then. Most magazines wouldn’t even look at digital submissions. The cameras produced images that were a whopping three and five megapixels deep and cropping was something one wanted to avoid at all cost.
Most of the pictures we took back then have been lost for various reasons and even among those I still have there are several I wouldn’t share publicly. The noise content was much too high. Low-light sensitivity was practically non-existent. Managing contrast was difficult. We tried a lot of different “tricks” and the majority of them didn’t work well.
Still, there are a few from back then that I don’t mind sharing. I actually have a couple hanging on my living room wall. Learning to shoot digitally wasn’t completely like starting all over but there was a serious learning curve and the quality of the pictures is a testament to that.
The announcement this past week that Sony is releasing its new a7RIII in November has me drooling at the advanced features and very anxious to get my hands one (If anyone at Sony is watching, I’ll happily take a demo). When I do, though, there’s going to be another learning curve. Bruce Dorn was right, video is where the future of photography lies and as much as I’ve balked at it the time has probably come to jump in and start learning. That means there’s going to be another round of images that, ten years from now, make me shudder a bit. Everything is cyclical.
For today, here’s a selection of older images. If you’ve been around a while you might have seen some of them. As always, click on a thumbnail to view the full-size gallery. Enjoy.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”11598″ layout=”contain” columns=”4″]
I’m not a fan of weddings, but every once in a while we have to attend one just to be polite. That happened last week. I didn’t so much mind attending the wedding but the fact that with Kat and the kids in the wedding party I was rather stuck wandering around the venue on my own. Fortunately, when we went for rehearsal I discovered that the garden was full of candelabra. Some were designed for tea lights, which makes sense, but others used large white candles, the kind that slowly melts all over the place. Even better, the wax drips had not been bothered. No one had wiped anything off. Rather, they just let gravity do its thing and the results were absolutely wonderful.
So, when we arrived two hours early for the wedding, I filled my time going around the gardens taking pictures of all the candles, among other things. The only challenge was a bright, full sun that cast some wicked shadows at times and at others cast a backlight across the white wax that resulted in a strange halo where the wax was most thin.
We rendered the photos in a very careful LAB monochrome, trying to make the most of the shadows. Trying to bring the highlights under control was a challenge since sunlight bounced off the white wax rather dramatically. Having a diffuser would have helped but I didn’t think to take one. Even using a really high f-stop (f18-f20) wasn’t always enough to keep the highlights in check.
With a bit of work, we ended up with 17 reasonable issues. Some are strong enough we might just make prints available for sale. If we do, I’ll post messages to Facebook. Be sure to follow us there if you’re not already doing so.
In the end, this wedding wasn’t nearly as bad as some. The bride looked lovely, of course, and the groom looked happy and reasonably sober. Sucks that I can’t have cake anymore, but getting some cool pictures almost makes up for that.
Almost.
As always, click on one of the thumbnails to view the full-size gallery.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”11533″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Page 1 of 14
Reading Is Fundamental: Eros Edition
Read what makes you happy.
First, the video
Critical facts and figures are included here
Reading is important. There’s no valid argument against it. Study after study, over 100 years worth of examination, reiterate the value not only of learning to read well but reading often. There’s no substitute for the endless advantages that come from reading. The case has been made for so long, it’s difficult to consider why everyone isn’t walking around with a book in their hands. In a way, you could. Smartphones are perfectly capable of storing and presenting ebooks that you could read anywhere it’s appropriate for you to be looking at your phone. Some ebook apps will even read it to you if you’re driving and don’t want to put it down.
Yet, somehow, too many people can’t read, and of those who can, too few bother. Adults under age 45 are barely reading at all and when they do, it’s something short. The result is not merely a level of incredible ignorance, but a severe danger to the world as a whole. People who can’t read misinterpret street signs, don’t read instructions, aren’t aware of medical information, and miss important life-saving information. The statistics are in the video so I won’t repeat them here.
So, we thought we’d offer a little encouragement. You see, it turns out that reading fiction is one of the best things you can do for your brain, and yes, erotic fiction counts. Go ahead, picture those steamy moments in your mind. Perhaps you might even recreate them with a consenting partner. As you do, you increase critical neurological skills and may even ward off some forms of dementia. The ways in which we benefit from reading are neverending.
And by all means, never miss an opportunity to read with a unicorn.
[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”18263″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]
Share this:
Like this: