nude photography

Art  /  Current Issues  /  Photography  /  Social Commentary
Here We Go Again On Our Own
November 22, 2020
Here we go again on our own

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″]

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Art  /  Photography
Classic Themes Of Simple Beauty
November 1, 2020

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″]

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Art  /  Nature  /  Portrait
The Joys Of Nature
October 11, 2020
charles i. letbetter

Even when the weather is cool and damp, a natural setting makes for great photographs

Carefully distanced photography isn’t always as easy as I want it to be. If I use a long lens, which allows me to keep sufficient distance between me and my subject, focusing takes longer and sometimes means missing a shot or two. If I use a shorter lens, which is necessary for certain angles, I may end up getting closer than I’d like. Finding that perfect balance remains elusive with every shoot we’ve done this fall.

No more so was that true than with this week’s set of photographs. Ashley, our model, is a friend. We’re accustomed to chatting back and forth as we shoot and proximity isn’t an issue. This shoot found us both being a lot more careful and quietly paying more attention to what the other was doing. The distance affected her choice of poses and as we focused on angles and light direction our conversation had less banter and more construction. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but it is different.

Air temperature was a factor as well as the level of moisture. Neither of us need to be ill and running around in cool, damp air is a good way to catch something one doesn’t want. Despite waiting until afternoon to shoot, there was still a chill that kept us from being as comfortable as we would like. Copious amounts of petroleum jelly were put to use and still there were chill bumps to address in final production.

So dominant was the feeling that it was about to rain that we made it do so, in post production so it would actually show up in the photo. While I’m not big on spot color in a monochrome image, our natural production process pulled out the pink of the rain coat and I decided to run with that look. Yes, I could have stripped out all the color, but somehow the pictures feel better this way.

We’ve another set sitting in wait and we’ll show you those when the weather gets too uncooperative to shoot anything new. Ashley’s always an exciting model and spending time with a friend is an extra bonus.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17334″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]

As always, click on any of the thumbnails to view the image full screen. Enjoy!

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Art  /  Personal  /  Photography
Pressing Pause
August 2, 2020

Sometimes one needs to stop and evaluate where they’re at before continuing

This is going to be my last entry here for a while. I’ve tried to keep up and produce something interesting every week through the pandemic, but I’m at a point where I’m not feeling the least bit inspired. So, I’m leaving you with a set of images in which I literally hit the pause button in the middle of processing. None of these are genuinely finished images. Some still have rough edges, others lack detail, a couple are obscured. They represent how I’m feeling at the moment in many ways.

I’ll start reposting when I have new material or manage to come up with something I find at least marginally interesting. I’m not hanging up my camera, mind you, but for the moment it’s not safe to ask anyone to shoot and without new material I’m feeling uncreative.

Here’s to better days and new pictures.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17225″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]

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Photography  /  Portrait  /  Social Commentary  /  studio nudes
In A Room Where No One Sees
July 26, 2020

Dreams give us the ability to experience what we know may never come true.

Late at night, after the kids are tucked in bed and fast asleep, after the laundry is done, after the dishes are washed, and the bills are paid, she wanders into her bedroom and sets her phone on the dresser. She removes from the back of a drawer something she’d bought once, years ago when her dreams might have had a chance, when there were opportunities on the horizon, before reality dragged her to a place she never imagined.

She puts on the costume of something she never was then reaches over, plays her favorite song, starts the video recorder, and begins to dance for someone she’s never known. Giving a brief yield to her latent desire, she dances for someone who cares, someone she can trust, someone who values who she is, a person who won’t beat her into submission, a friend who won’t betray her, the one who says, “I love you,” without reservation.

She imagines the lights. She feels the smoke. For a moment, she is not in the dingy, cramped 8×8 bedroom. She pours what little energy she has left into the voluptuous ballet she imagines, the private choreography intended only for the eyes of that one soul, the one person who has never let her down. She feels free. For three minutes and 47 seconds, she slowly turns and dances, and dreams of seducing someone who she has never known.

Then, as the final strains of Eden’s “Dirty Blonde” fade into the quiet night, she turns off the video and deletes it from her phone. She puts on a faded t-shirt and the closest pair of sweatpants she can find. Turning off the light, she goes to bed dreaming of a different life; one where she is loved.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”17204″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]

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Advertising  /  Art  /  Current Issues  /  Photography
It’s All In The Marketing
May 24, 2020

Government leaders can’t make people leave their homes to return to large group gatherings. Feeling comfortable in public is largely a matter of marketing.

We, as a society, have arrived at that point where we have to start making some choices that have the potential to be life-altering if we’re wrong. Government leaders, looking at declining tax revenues and a crumbling economy, want businesses to re-open and with that a return of large-group gatherings, such as eating indoors at restaurants, sporting events, art galleries, and more. Cities, especially, have already lost millions of dollars in tax revenue which means less money for things such as infrastructure repair and public safety. The longer businesses stay closed and groups are limited to the smallest of gatherings, the public agencies we look to for basic required services suffer. This isn’t a management issue, nor is it a political one. Reduce the purchase of goods and services and public revenue is going to slide.

The challenge is that even when places do begin to open, many of us won’t feel comfortable going back out in public at the same rate as we did before, and when we do, we’re likely to take more precautions. For me, personally, there’s not a lot of choice. My doctor made it very clear to me that I need to still stay home as much as possible, use extreme care when I do have to go out, and to limit who I’m around. That means I’m not going to be taking any new pictures of people for a while yet.

What’s true for me, however, is not necessarily true for everyone else and a lot of people don’t have a choice about whether they go back to work. While they can still take reasonable precautions, they face an increased risk factor every time they go out.

14 civic organizations, including the Indianapolis Arts Council, have put together a survey to gauge where you’re at with this whole re-opening thing. When are you likely to venture out? What precautions will you still take? This survey is very important as it will factor heavily in determining public policy for Indianapolis. Click here to participate in the survey.

#ReStart Survey
Take the survey!

The survey is open until Friday, May 29. If you live or work in the Indianapolis area, it is important that you let city leaders know how you’re feeling about the whole start up thing. We always gripe about no one listening to us. They’re listening more carefully now than perhaps ever before.

I am still convinced that, for the greater majority of people, how comfortable anyone feels going out is largely a matter of marketing. If we see pictures of people out having fun even with health restrictions such as wearing masks and staying six feet apart from each other, then we are more likely to have a positive attitude. If all we see are news stories about increases in Covid-19-related deaths, then we’re more likely to keep our happy little asses at home.

The time is ripe for trying something new, in my opinion, and one of those concepts is the ability to make art mobile. The technology has been there for quite some time now to be able to wrap images onto vehicles of pretty much any shape or size. We can share our favorite pieces of art just by driving around!

The problems, however, are many. First, those wraps aren’t cheap. Wrapping a mini-van or SUV, for example, is going to run around $5,000. Not exactly pocket change for most people. Then, you’re going to want to change the wrap every once in a while, so each time you do the expense is incurred again. Then, if you don’t produce your own art work, there’s the matter of paying license fees for the use of the image. Those can range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per use.

My problem, aside from the fact I don’t have $5k to drop on wrapping a vehicle, is that the images I would want to use are not exactly what one might call safe for work, or general public consumption. I can just imagine the accidents that might be caused by me driving down the street with an art nude on the side of my vehicle. Our society is simultaneously both horny and prudish enough for the sight of a pair of bare breasts to be considered a public safety hazard.

Still, that doesn’t stop me from imagining what such wraps might look like if they were actually placed on vehicles of different styles and sizes. Fortunately, there are plenty of bare vehicle templates available for me to use. So, of course, that’s exactly what happened. We played.

There aren’t a lot of pictures here because, let’s face it, the concept is steeped in folly and wishful thinking. This isn’t going to happen. However, given as I am to fairy tales, we developed a handful of images to share with you. So, take the survey and then enjoy the images below.

Hatchback
Van Wrap 1
Van Wrap 2
Van Wrap 3
MiniVan Wrap
Long Van Wrap
Back Wrap
SemiWrap
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Art  /  Photography  /  pop culture
Yes, You Can Hang Nude Art In Your Home
April 26, 2020
Yes, You Can Hang Nude Art On Your Walls

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.

By Our Stripes
By Our Stripes
Missing The Point
Missing The Point
Not Missing You
Not Missing You
Try To Focus
Try To Focus
Without Care
Without Care
Lost In Shadows
Lost In Shadows
Not Waiting
Not Waiting
Exhausted
Exhausted
Morning Feeling
That Morning Feeling
Holding It Down
Holding It Down

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!

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Art  /  Photography  /  studio nudes
Taking Nude Pictures Is The Best Experience
January 26, 2020
charles i. letbetter

In a photo-op-oriented world, the best experience comes from taking those pictures without clothes.

To say that society sucks the life out of life is an obvious statement worthy of a dramatic eye-roll. Our puritanical tendencies have led us, collectively, to do some really stupid and mindless things such as Prohibition, banning possession and use of hemp, allowing health-care to be run by for-profit companies, and putting limitations on who, where, and how one loves. Such inappropriate rules have ruined millions of lives over the past 150 or so years (none of the rules I just listed existed before then). So, as much fun as it can be to poke at everything Millenials are doing differently, I can’t say I blame them for putting exhilarating experiences ahead of more traditional things such as buying homes, going in debt to attend grad school, getting married, having children, or committing to long-term employment for someone who doesn’t appreciate their effort. Don’t blame them one bit. I wish my generation had thought of that.

When we think of great experiences, we most often think of things that involve travel, seeing great sights around the world, experiencing different cultures, different atmospheres, and different philosophies in action. I can’t discourage anyone from doing any of those things. However, I fear one enthralling experience doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it should: Taking nude pictures. No, I’m not talking bathroom selfies. Taking pictures of any kind in a bathroom, your own or someone else’s, can only come under the heading of “future regrets.” I’m talking thought-out, well-conceived, planned photoshoots that capture a spirit, an idea, an expression, a statement, or an emotion that cannot be relayed any other way.

For those who take the plunge, the experience is exhilarating. Perhaps more importantly, though, is that shooting nudes demonstrates a level of personal strength and independence that wasn’t present in previous generations. I have been amazed at the poise of models such as Karlie Kloss, Emily Ratajkowski, Arizona Muse, and dozens of others filling fashion’s pages over the past decade. What’s even more impressive, though, are people completely unrelated to modeling, sports figures, dropping their clothes to appear in ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue the past 11 years. Sports stars from Indy Car driver James Hinchcliffe to golfer Greg Norman to the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, Odell Beckham, Jr., Venus Williams, and the Indianapolis Colts Offensive Line, among dozens of others, have dropped everything and shot nude for the magazine. Why? Not because it’s sexy, but because it shows the incredible physical and emotional strength of these athletes (and often a great sense of humor as well). Posing nude makes a statement that goes beyond what any of them can say in their respective sport.

One also gains a sense of freedom in posing nude. Not just freedom from breaking antiquated social norms about what’s acceptable behavior, but freedom from inappropriately imposed authorities and everyone standing on the sidelines saying, “You can’t… ” Posing nude allows one to make their own statement on their own terms. Sure, we provide a number of the concepts we shoot but come to me with a strong idea that makes a statement you want to make and be sure we’ll do our best to shoot it.

The two sets of images in this week’s collection are the last of several photos that were shot back in October. It was one of those incredible experiences of friends doing something together (you’ll remember Cassandra’s set with Mercedes which is viewable here) that was fun, totally unrestrained, and filled with excitement. While most of the pictures can’t be shared on social media, they still are fun to share with friends and one was accepted to a major art festival later this year. As experiences go, ones like this are invaluable.

Our thanks to Cassandra for being patient as we waited to post these separate from the others. More than usual, we strongly recommend viewing the images full-screen on something other than a phone in order to see the detail in the image. Click on any of the thumbnails to enter full-screen mode.

There is no experience that can match shooting nude photographs, especially with a professional photographer. Please, don’t hesitate to contact us if you’re interested.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16638″ layout=”wide” columns=”2″]

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Art  /  Photography  /  studio nudes
A Comparative Study Between Windows and Walls
January 19, 2020
windows and walls - charles i. letbetter

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″]

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Art  /  Experimental  /  Photography  /  studio nudes
Experimental Series: Bound In Chains
January 12, 2020
Bound In Chains - charles i. letbetter

Bondage concepts are popular but when we trade rope for chain it takes on a new dimension

Even though it’s only been two weeks since we posted a new set of pictures, it feels as though it’s been a month. I’ve been sitting on these for what feels like forever and am excited to finally be able to share them with you.

These were shot back in late October, but the origin story goes all the way back to August when one of our neighbors who had lived here for over 40 years decided to move to North Carolina. Among the many things she discarded was a box of rusted chains. I’ve been in this profession too long to let a prop like that escape so I snagged the box assuming that it was medium-weight tow chain. I put it in storage and waited for the right concept.

One of the issues with rusty chain, however, is that they can cause problems if one has any kind of cut or skin abrasion. The appropriate precaution is to make sure that whoever is going to handle the chains has their tetanus shot up to date. Not too surprisingly, not many models have needed to think about that one, so it took a moment before we found Cassandra who, to my delight, was up to date on her tetanus.

Then came the surprise of actually unpacking the chains and getting them ready. Did I have one length or two? What size were the hooks? What were my options? Low and behold, they were tire chains!

For those too young to understand, tire chains are designed to wrap around a set of tires to provide traction in snow and ice. They usually come in sets of two or four. In our box? One. Granted, it was a very large chain for a good-sized truck tire, but there was only one.

Suspending the chain and wrapping it around Cassandra proved to be fun and entertaining. As you can see in the pictures, she swung on it, hugged it, became completely immeshed in it before we unfastened it and let the weight take her down.

The end result is dramatic and erotic and enticing all at the same time. We still have another set from Cassandra waiting, but these were too exciting to hold back any longer. Click on a thumbnail to view them full screen.

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”16086″ layout=”contain” columns=”2″]

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Art  /  Photography  /  video
Our 2019 Year In Review
January 5, 2020
charles i. letbetter

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.

https://vimeo.com/382773879
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