Category: Uncategorized

Haruo Kaneko – Catharina (2017)

As an image, this doesn’t entirely work.

To make sense of the whys: visualize a vertical line dividing the frame into a left half and a right half. There’s a mass of shadow detail in the left half and a mass of highly detail in the right half.

Compositionally speaking this isn’t a terrible strategy. The difficulty is that there needs to be some unity between form and function–the balance between the two halves can only be considered effective insofar as it astutely parses the frame to make things more intuitively read by the viewer. (Catharina gazing to her left is an effort to addresses this shortcoming; however, given the left heavy, off-center staging doesn’t work anywhere close to well-enough to compensate. As such: the viewer only really considers the left 2/3 of the frame.)

What are some strategies that could have addressed these compositional flubs?

Given the left side having a heavy concentration of shadow detail (which we’re going to call positive space) vs the right being so heavily skewed toward highlight detail (which we’re going to call negative space), arguably the easiest fix would be to have Catharina sit in the right most chair and the shift so she’s looking back across the frame. (There’s a natural, subconscious urge to want to see what someone who is clearly looking at something is looking at–whether or not it’s possible to see the thing upon which their gaze alights. This is an astute strategy for directing the manner in which a viewer sees your composition.)

(Also–and I will admit to being extra persnickety in this one instance–given the clumping of positive space offset by negative space, it would seem wise to position Catharina so that she’s adding positive space to counter the compositional difficulties of this given frame. Plus, the plant behind her really does sort of look like it’s growing from her forehead.)

Also: this is neither centered nor oblique w/r/t position of the camera in relationship to the subject. The angle of the line of the slabs upon which the chairs sit is less something that draws the eye and more something that comes across as merely decorative. Given the discrepancy between positive and negative space, this halfway between angled and dead on centered works better the further you commit to either extreme. (Angled makes the more visually interesting composition however there’s a lot more room to make poor choices.)

The reason I’m posting this is less to call out aspects of it that are sloppy and more due to the fact I’ve been thinking a lot about poses recently. (And make no mistake Catharina’s pose here is fantastic.)

What makes it fantastic has several ingredients. Let’s break it down:

Generally speaking most nude photography/digital imagery deal to a certain degree in/with stylization w/r/t posing. A lot of hacky curators are pulling together shows on the female gaze without really giving much thought to the visual grammar of the work and more consideration to whether or not the photographer identifies as a woman.

It’s not just that presenting woman as sexually available is problematic. The inverse–and this is my fundamental disagreement with the notion of the so-called ‘female gaze’ is that it frequently adopts a similar tenor to a lot of fine art nude work made by folks who identify as men–in which there is a diminution of any emphasis on sexual availability and more of an emphasis on something more simultaneously chaste and titillating than more erotic/pornographic material.

There’s also the scores of photographers screaming about how nudity isn’t inherently sexual but then adopting the same stylistics of posing. The point I keep trying to make is that there’s a natural way of moving and being in a space where one is comfortable that what an observer might see could be considered salacious except that the bearing of the body is such that it conveys more of comfort or being completely and unself-consciously at ease. (I frequently lay on my back on my couch naked with one leg stretched out and the other kicked back over the back of the couch. I do it when I’m alone, I’d never do it while I had company over. (OK, that’s not completely true… it would depend on the company but then the company would change the context substantially.)

What I like about Catharina’s pose is that it’s part stylization. the shoulders back confidence vs the way her upper arms frame her breasts. Her hands run down at her feet–and it’s a bit like she doesn’t know what to do with them except that it almost looks like she’s scratching a bug bite of her foot when she was instructed to look to her left. There’s something that’s wonderfully unself-conscious about it, really.

Source: brwax

R. Michael Walker – Melissa Undressing, Red River Gorge, KY (1979)

Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become world class in any discipline has–by now–been thoroughly debunked. Simply from that standpoint of stifling elitism, I consider the kibosh that’s been put on this a tender mercy. Except…

I don’t think the notion that it takes time to hone your craft is actually–in any way–bad advice. If a young photographer/image maker came to me and asked what advice I have for them as far as achieving their dream, my response would probably be inline with what I was told when I first started making photos: lock yourself in your room and read until your eyes burn and don’t touch a camera for five years.

Or, that’s how I would’ve put it until recently. I think there’s a balance between doing and fueling the doing. And the 10,000 hours probably have less to do with conditioning and more to do with forcing you into a give and take relationship with your craft where you realize that sometimes you do it when you don’t feel like it and sometimes doing it when you don’t feel like it is detrimental to the doing. It’s only through trial and error that you figure it out.

Also, fueling your doing is less fulfilling but it’s easier to learn things that may take you much longer to address in your own work.

For example: the above image has crystallized for me a number of things I’ve been grappling with in my own work.

Long story, Cliff’s Notes ™ version–it’s only in the last 18 months that I’ve begun to see photos as dimensional. And by that I mean more than just the separation between foreground, mid-ground and background. It’s more than a little like Lotte Reinger’s multiplane camera–except expanding so the entire space in the frame is represented by distinct planes.

The experience of seeing space as constructed of layers has actually slowly shifted the way I think about composition. It’s still at a point where I’m not so great at articulate it but there’s a very clear feeling of it.

My notion of seeing space as layers of planes relates to depth of field. And generally depth of field has very proscribed uses. The majority of photographers/images makers think of bokeh as a means of emphasizing the subject while still conveying a sense of the subject in space without all the decontextualization that comes from staging things in a studio space. (In fact, it’s arguable that the quality of bokeh is usual measured across cameras and lenses by giving consideration to the bokeh offered by the fastest lenses available in an 85mm–or equivalent–focal length.)

(As a brief digression: if you’ve read anything written by folks who have worked as cinematographers for several decades, you’ll hear them talk about how different lenses are best suited for shots of a particular scale. I’m increasingly realizing that there is actually a good bit of truth to those claims.)

But the point is there’s a tendency to either go for the shallowest depth of field possible–the reason why fast 85mm lenses are considered the bokeh gold standard because they tend to support the shallowest DoF; or, for deep focus a la Group F/64 or Gregg Toland’s work on Citizen Kane.

In my own work, I favor a shallower depth of field but as I’m frequently working in medium or specialty formats, I’m limited by lenses that by and large are only considered fast in large format.

Really, your DoF should be used as a tool to help the viewer know how to read the frame you’re presenting them. The photo above for example: was most likely faster film shot in low-ish light with a mid-range aperture. Note how all the foreground is in focus and the focus starts to go soft at the rear of the tree directly behind Melissa. Note how this forms a compositional wedge from the lower corners through Melissa to the tree. The subject is pulled forward whereas the forest is pushed backwards. (Yes, digital devotees, you can capture your images in raw with everything in focus and then selectively unsharpen in post but it’s never going to look as organic as the above.)

Point is: I don’t think I’ve ever seen DoF used to quite this effect and I like it rather a lot.

Source: natural-beauty-art

ALERT: FOSTA/SESTA — ALL HANDS ON DECK!

I know, I know… I just did a current events post. Somehow I completely missed that this was happening.

In a nutshell–both houses of the U.S. legislature passed bills that punish sites that are complicit in human trafficking. In theory, that’s a good thing. In practice–like most legislation designed to legislate protection for sex workers, this was authored exclusively by non-sex workers.

It’s been very bad news–with swift and immediate blowback to sex worker communities. Head over to Bitch Media for more.

Here’s Vee Chattie on what you can do to spread accurate information/raise awareness/support sex workers (there is a publicly shareable post on FB, so if you haven’t ditched FB, it’s probably not a bad idea to share it to your timeline):

Things you can do to help sex workers in the wake of #FOSTA and #SESTA (non-monetary ideas included)

1. Give your money to sex workers. If you know folks struggling, and
can afford to, throw them some cash. If the workers that you know are
fairly privileged, ask them to give some cash to some less privileged
workers that they might know. Many of us are losing the platforms which
we advertise on and so money is going to be tight.

2. Share your
resources. Do you have a job that gets you discounts? Are you able to
get some extra food on your way out at the restaurant? Do you have some
sky Miles that you can donate to help a sex worker go work in a
different city so they can make up for the deficit? Do you have a spare
bedroom or couch that someone can crash on if they lose their housing?

3. Share sex worker content. Many of us are posting about this stuff
and it would be extremely helpful if you could hit that share button and
keep that content on people‘s radar. Now is not the time to be sheepish
or be concerned about whether or not your friends and loved ones will
judge you. We already get a bunch of judgment and, to be perfectly
honest, if you are willing to share the content about kids getting shot
in the street and homophobia and such, then you should be talking about
sex workers rights as well because sex work is the intersection of all
of those things. These laws are based in racism and sexism and that
needs to be considered and addressed. Also, keep in mind that this bill
has already shut down the sub Reddit and a lot of sex worker only
discussion groups and a lot of us are sitting here with this sword
hanging over our heads wondering when our Facebook accounts are going to
get shut down. When and if that happens, we will need you more than
ever. #slutupandlisten

4. Bug your senators and representatives. If you don’t know how to
contact them, you can text RESIST to 50409 And they will tell you how to
contact those people. When you do, please tell them that the passage of
FOSTA and SESTA is having a devastating effect on people in your
community and you would like for them to repeal it.

5. Listen.
Pretty much every sex worker I know is scrambling right now to not only
make sure their business stays afloat, but also to inform and educate
the people around them because, quite honestly, we don’t know what else
to do. When sex workers talk to you about these issues, don’t tell us
what you think should be done because you don’t know the business and we
are already being talked down to by our clients, the government,
family, and the public at large, so we don’t need any more
condescension. Sometimes we just need an ear or shoulder to cry on. Be
that person. And definitely don’t be the person asking sex workers how
to get into the industry right now. We don’t need more newbie workers
coming in at this time and they won’t make money anyway, especially with
the current climate. We need resources, we don’t need leeches. Please
be considerate of that when you lend a hand or ear.

6. Correct
people when they say negative things or make jokes about sex workers.
Especially when you’re in public. I know it’s uncomfortable, but imagine
being a sex worker in a room full of people, and then someone makes a
joke about how you should be dead, and everybody laughs and nobody says
anything in your defense. I can tell you from experience, its a very
isolating and distressing experience. It’s hard enough to think that
your government wants you dead, but it’s even harder when it’s people
who are your IRL friends and associates. When you stand up for sex
workers, just remember that there might be a sex worker in that room
who, even though they may not ever tell you, will appreciate that
someone cared. A lot of us suffer in silence because we have to do. Try
to minimize that suffering if you can.

6. Share your skills. Are
you a great babysitter and have a couple hours that you can give to a
sex worker so that they can go to work? Are you good at building
websites or know a lot about tech and/or security? Do you teach a yoga
class and think you could pencil in a special class for sex workers here
and there to relax and connect to their bodies? Think about the things
that you are good at and how you can use that to help folks.

7.
Share you contacts. Do you have famous friends with lots of twitter
followers? Do you know lawyers or legislators? Start educating them. Ask
them to talk with their base and retweet sex worker content. ESPECIALLY
if you have friend who may have said disparaging things about sex
workers in the past.

This is what I’ve come up with for now, but
if someone else thinks of more ways that people can help sex workers,
please add it to the comments and I will add it to this post. Also,
there will be articles and resources added to this post as I think of
them. Feel free to add this to the comments as well. Love you.

I’ll add that I’ve heard both Skype and Google are employing AI to scour their respective networks for nudity.

From my own experience: the lab I use for scanning my slides delivers files to customers via Google Drive. I was not able to retrieve 3 files from my last job via Drive–all the files contained nudity.

Point being the implications of this are enormous and although the will be first and foremost disastrous for sex workers (who are disproportionately trans folks and WoC, and addressing that is clearly the top priority), this is going to impact models and photographers too.

Source unknown – Title unknown (201X)

Fascinating maneuver from a godawful angle.

I spent a couple of hours on trying to source this and the first posting of it appears to have been to a now deleted twitter account. The tattoos should be a give away but beyond the fact that the seem similar to Kiara Winters, it’s appears to be someone who is ripping off her style. The stud is–I’m pretty sure–this creepy actor White Ghetto studios uses a lot.

Beyond that I have no clue. Google’s image search is less and less usable with each passing day.

Does anyone perchance know the source–you know for research
purposes (I’d be interested in expanding on this towards a different end,
actually)?

(Please & thank you so much.)

Source: hello-kiss

#1700

Whether or not President Shithole is guilty of colluding with Russian remains to be seen. Regardless, his tenure continues to be sullied by scandal and corruption.

In other words: fire remains hot; water wet.

There are some rather unsettling developments at the margins, however. For example: there is a new executive order banning trans gender folx from serving in the armed force. It’s the same ban as before only reworded to exploit the fact that cisgender people know next to nothing about gender dysphoria and medical interventions related to it. (To be clear: I do not support the U.S. military one whit, however: anyone dumb enough to want to join should be allowed in.)

Also: the Department of Health and Human Services removed resources from its site pertaining to issues effecting lesbian and bisexuals.

At a hearing two weeks ago, the Secretary of the Interior was questioned by a congresswoman from Hawaii (whose parents were held in American interment camps during WWII) about the discontinuation of a funding for a program related to Japanese American history. The secretary responded konichiwa (japanese for “good day”). When chided about the offensive nature of the comment he played the typical bigot card and implied that things are too PC when you can’t even wish someone good morning.

Then there’s the entrance of John Bolton as National Security Advisor. Bolton is an ultra hawk and an Islamophobic bigot. Who has openly rallied for war against both Iran and N. Korea. Effing cute.

On that note and before moving onto the main topic of this post: I’d like to note that contemporary conservatism is nothing more and nothing less than full-throated white supremacy apologia. Full stop.

With that thought in mind let’s shift to gun violence. I’ll get to the mass shooting at Marjory Stonerman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL in a bit. First, you really should be aware of two related but grossly under-reported stories.

First, Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man in Sacramento, CA was shot 20 times by police in his backyard because they thought he was holding a gun. He wasn’t. He was talking on his cell phone. (Compare this with the fate of the MSD shooter.) The protests that have resulted are being overshadowed by this weekends March For Our Lives action organized by Parkland students–but part of what’s at issue here is that there is a disparity between the way numerous cohorts along the political spectrum view and process this issue.

I’ll admit my bias up front. I don’t like guns. And unlike most folks, that’s not because I’ve not been around them/used them. The constitution is pretty clear when it comes to gun ownership–it should be allowed. The difficulty is that “well-regulated militia” part.

There’s also the fact that the historical context has changed rather substantively. When the Bill of Rights was written and ratified, this country was still using freaking muskets–which fired one projectile ever two minutes or something like that. (Given Emma Gonzalez’s 6:20 speech–which is genius on about seven different levels–that would mean you could kill three people if you had really good aim and nerves of steel.)

There’s a fuck tonne of different information out there but it seems that an AR-15 can fire between 100 and 300 bullets per minute. In other words, the founding fathers never could’ve anticipated our current reality. (Also, gun enthusiasts are being intellectually dishonest when they toss around the defense against tyranny argument. The stand off at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX in 1993 was ostensibly over the stock-piling of weapons and anti-government rhetoric. And in that case the government just rolled a tank up to the front door. So if people arguing that their right to own assault weapons is a defense against tyranny–why aren’t they also trying to get access to predator drones, tanks and nuclear launch codes as well? (But more on that in a minute…)

The recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was pretty good at taking the NRA to task. But I’d like to present that as a chaser for this Vice report where a Republican strategist talks with current and former NRA members about the current issues with gun violence in the U.S.

The Vice video is important because I actually mostly agree with the only guy who identifies as a former member. And the rest of the folks seem to at least share common ground. It’s interesting that the two men who are the most rabid in their pro-gun rhetoric are representative of the actual NRA organizational platform.

I just don’t get where we’ve arrived at the point where any time someone mentions the need for increased regulations pertaining to gun ownership, the NRA and it’s crisis actors start spewing about how the government is going to come to take your guns. Really what’s being suggested is a ban on assault rifles–which the majority of highly trained military folks feel civilians should not be able to procure. It would also be great if you know it was harder to get a semi-automatic rifle than it was to get a driver’s license or an abortion. (AJE points out that the lax gun laws in the US are fueling violence in Mexico.)

Specifically with the MSD massacre it’s been interesting to see the visceral fury the right directs at these kids. There was the guy running for state congress in Maine who referred to Emma Gonzalez as a “skinhead lesbian’. Yet, most of the commentary among conservatives focused laser-like along the trajectory of this meme. A couple of things about this: first, I actually confronted several folks who posted this asking them politely if the support Gay Straight Alliances in H.S. Most won’t answer because they don’t and the fact that they don’t disproves their objections on their stated grounds.

However, this meme is also extremely pernicious because it’s victim blaming in that it suggests the problem of gun violence is a problem that only kids can fix themselves and that only by preventing bullying will any changes to gun violence happen. (This is why conservatives are such godawful artists, their message is more important than the medium or any sort of consistency in application of conceptual underpinnings.) Basically, this meme is suggesting that the threat of a white man buying a gun legally and walking into a school and killing a bunch of people is what’s at stake if kid’s don’t stop straight white kids from being bullied. (Make no mistake that they fully support bullying of non-white kids as well as immigrants and LGBTQ folk.)

And to put the kibosh on this BS about arming teacher–let’s not forget Philando Castille, who worked at a school and was licensed to carry a gun and was killed by a cop while complying with his instructions during a routine traffic stop. When you hear anyway upon but especially including the president calling for arming teachers… you should hear it as white male teachers. (As a corollary: consider how the Austin bombing was originally reported. It’s interesting that the culprit is still not being widely termed a terrorist and that any suggestion that this was a result of bigotry is being de-emphasized.)

The lack of coverage over the impact of gun violence on communities of color up to and including Stephon Clark is especially disturbing. But I was chilled by this CNN town hall where survivors of MSD confront craven NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch. I applaud the kids but it’s upsetting the way that both sides keep inviting law enforcement mediation. (On a related note: it’s upsetting to me that even folks that are more liberal seem to be adopting the you can’t take guns away mentality. For example, RtJ’s Killer Mike appeared on NRAtv saying he disagrees with taking away guns. But that’s again and for the thousandth time what is not being suggested here. Banning further sale of assault weapons is not taking away the ones that already exist–even though I personally would support that sort of movement. And I do think that he has a point with regard to folks in places where the police aren’t going to show up in time, if at all. But I lose any respect for someone who dictates that his political ideology on one issue intimately linked to white supremacy overrides filial duty. EDIT: Killer Mike has wisely distanced himself from the interview.)

The problem is that we need to take a good hard look at this nation’s infatuation with guns and then something needs to change.

To close this out, just bear in mind that Ani DiFranco wrote To The Teeth just shy of 20 years ago now. It’s reads as disturbingly prophetic now.