Redundant, right? :-p
[description: a nude man seen from behind, views his own reflection in a mirror]
A holdover from this past holiday season. Really an outtake from the Home For The Holidays set. I don't know what it is about this mirror. I shot "The Mirror of Truth" [broken link] in it twice, and this could have been number three, except I didn't actually think about it that much at the time. So it's just a normal mirror. But mirrors are fascinating things. I can imagine primitive cultures becoming superstitious about them. All they do is reflect the world as it is right back to you. But the ability to look at one's self, to see what others see when they look at you (albeit reversed) - it's like a conduit for the uniquely human(?) trait of self-awareness. For better or worse. As a self-portrait photographer and exhibitionist; as an anxious introvert prone to feeling self-conscious; it has a lot of power and meaning for me.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Monday, January 9, 2017
Treadmill
[description: a nude man in jogging shoes runs on a treadmill while erect]
A few more outtakes from last year. (You see where this is headed, don't you? -_^). Running on the treadmill is one of those things where the trial and error nature of photography is magnified. It's also, therefore, one of those themes I've wanted to revisit, although often times life gets in the way, and these things get pushed on to the back burner. These photos aren't so bad, though. I love the sense of action in the first one. And as for the others - what's the point of staying in shape if not to be able to admire (or let others admire) the fruits of your labors? And if there happens to be a sexual element to that, so what? The world keeps on turning.
A few more outtakes from last year. (You see where this is headed, don't you? -_^). Running on the treadmill is one of those things where the trial and error nature of photography is magnified. It's also, therefore, one of those themes I've wanted to revisit, although often times life gets in the way, and these things get pushed on to the back burner. These photos aren't so bad, though. I love the sense of action in the first one. And as for the others - what's the point of staying in shape if not to be able to admire (or let others admire) the fruits of your labors? And if there happens to be a sexual element to that, so what? The world keeps on turning.
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Stark Winter
[description: starkly lit nude portraits from front and back, against a wintry window view]
These shots are actually from last January. Sometimes I'll take a picture that I feel has promise, but I won't be a hundred percent satisfied with it. So I'll stash it away, to give myself more time to think on it, and a chance to maybe go back at some point and try the shot again, to see if I can improve upon it. I may still yet, but it's been a year, so I think that even if I did, it would be more like revisiting a theme (which I like to do) than setting up a reshoot.
As it is, these shots may just be outtakes, but I do believe there's something in them that makes them worth sharing. Whether it's the stark lighting of the on-camera flash that leaves nothing to the imagination, the contours of my body, or the contrast between the full body exposure and the frigid view of a snowy winterland through the windows just beyond...
I have to trust my artistic instinct sometimes. I don't psychoanalyze the reasons why I like what I like, or when I think something is interesting. I mean, I do - but when I'm sitting down philosophizing, not every single time I have to make a decision about what's good and what's not. If I feel that there's something in an image, I'll run with it. Doesn't matter if it's something compositional, more conceptual, purely sexual, or a complicated combination of things. "Shoot 'em all, and let the censor sort 'em out!"
I'd hate to have that voice of self-censorship in my head, second guessing my instincts, telling me, "that's too sexual," or some such. There can be a lot of artifice in art, but often times it's strongest when it's reflecting the truth - particularly truths that people don't like to confront. That's when art serves a purpose beyond just being pretty pictures.
But I do try to present those truths in ways that I would hope makes them more accessible. Yes, we are animals with a raw sexual desire - and you can demonstrate that through vulgarity. But desire should be appealing, not repulsive. That is, in fact, what a lot of people are recoiling from. Well, I'd like to invite them to look again, and show them the link between eroticism and beauty.
These shots are actually from last January. Sometimes I'll take a picture that I feel has promise, but I won't be a hundred percent satisfied with it. So I'll stash it away, to give myself more time to think on it, and a chance to maybe go back at some point and try the shot again, to see if I can improve upon it. I may still yet, but it's been a year, so I think that even if I did, it would be more like revisiting a theme (which I like to do) than setting up a reshoot.
As it is, these shots may just be outtakes, but I do believe there's something in them that makes them worth sharing. Whether it's the stark lighting of the on-camera flash that leaves nothing to the imagination, the contours of my body, or the contrast between the full body exposure and the frigid view of a snowy winterland through the windows just beyond...
I have to trust my artistic instinct sometimes. I don't psychoanalyze the reasons why I like what I like, or when I think something is interesting. I mean, I do - but when I'm sitting down philosophizing, not every single time I have to make a decision about what's good and what's not. If I feel that there's something in an image, I'll run with it. Doesn't matter if it's something compositional, more conceptual, purely sexual, or a complicated combination of things. "Shoot 'em all, and let the censor sort 'em out!"
I'd hate to have that voice of self-censorship in my head, second guessing my instincts, telling me, "that's too sexual," or some such. There can be a lot of artifice in art, but often times it's strongest when it's reflecting the truth - particularly truths that people don't like to confront. That's when art serves a purpose beyond just being pretty pictures.
But I do try to present those truths in ways that I would hope makes them more accessible. Yes, we are animals with a raw sexual desire - and you can demonstrate that through vulgarity. But desire should be appealing, not repulsive. That is, in fact, what a lot of people are recoiling from. Well, I'd like to invite them to look again, and show them the link between eroticism and beauty.
Friday, January 6, 2017
Upgrade
I don't want to say proud, but as of this month - January 2017 - I am a new owner of an iPhone. As much as I love technology, I'm a bit of a late adopter. Being on the cutting edge can get pretty expensive, and I don't generally like to fix things that aren't broken. So I'm content to wait until the culture has assimilated a new technology - and ironed out many of its kinks - before I jump on the bandwagon. And cell phones are an innovation I've been particularly reluctant to get on board with, as I don't have a lot of social contacts, and p2p communication is not my strong suit. But you can't fight progress (especially when your old carrier drops you because your phone is painfully outdated), and as much as I don't see the point in paying recurring fees for a service I rarely use, I have to admit it's mighty handy having the internet in your pocket. Other than that, a cell phone is really just a portable camera to me - and the iPhone has a very impressive camera. So, for what it's worth, I'm stepping into the future, and the quality of my on-the-go "selfie" photography should improve as a result!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Transhumanist Sexuality
(Not to be confused with "transsexuality", which is a completely different topic. ;-p)
I've been trying to articulate my particular approach to sexuality - and why it doesn't mesh with mainstream sex-positive (which is what I'd be inclined to call it) perspectives - for a while now, and I think I've hit on an important point.
Humans are animals. And animals are primarily sexual creatures. Propagation of the species is the one crucial goal we have above and beyond immediate personal survival. But existential concerns like that aren't enough to ensure total compliance, so evolution has given us a prime directive to fuck. We desire it, and it feels good (when we're doing it right).
As rational beings, we can approach this undeniable fact in one of two ways. We can give in to the hunger, and copulate like the animals do, or we can aspire to be more civilized, and create deities characterized by their sexual purity, to hold aloft as role models, while shaming those who don't live up to their inhuman example.
It's the red pill/blue pill divide, and if you know anything about me, you won't be surprised to hear that I have another pill to offer you - the green pill [slightly NSFW]. In this context, it means to embrace - not reject - our sex drive, but to do so in a conscious and deliberate manner, using our intellect - in the form of tech-knowledge-y - to optimize people's experiences and lives.
Now, I have heard - most likely in the realm of science-fiction - tales of possible futures and alternate realities in which the human sex drive - ever the nagging obstacle to human efficency and accomplishment - was eliminated. Imagine a world in which the desire to fuck did not constantly distract you from everything else in your life.
And when I was younger - before my proper sexual awakening - I considered this to be a desirable solution to the problem of sexual desire. It wasn't worth the trouble. But then I gradually came under its thrall, and eventually realized that, like any power source, sex can be exploited. It makes us feel good. Pretty reliably.
So what if evolution designed it that way to make us procreate? We're smarter than evolution. We can use science to drastically reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the risks involved with sexual intercourse, including the potential for making a baby - which is an enormous drain on resources (more than most people realize when they're just following their instincts in the back of a Chevy).
That's evolution's joke on us. But who's to say we have to let evolution keep pulling the strings? Even if you're antsy about the science, there's still masturbation - the only completely safe form of sex. Absent the arbitrary construction of shame, human sexual desire is a tool we can manipulate for our own gain - namely personal pleasure. And what's wrong with that?
So I think that if I marry this transhumanist approach with the sex-positive idea that human sexuality intrinsically leans toward the positive side of neutral, simply because it was designed to make people feel good (like, really good), and that the bad parts of it are all manageable in one way or another, I think that I'd be coming close to a formulation of my basic sexual perspective:
Sex is a tool that can be manipulated to make people feel good.
Hmm, I don't like that the word "manipulation" carries such a negative connotation - it sounds like I'm saying that we can manipulate people to feel sexual pleasure (theirs or ours?) against their will. Which is not at all what I'm saying. Let's try this instead:
Sex is a tool that can be manipulated to generate pleasure.
That's better. It sounds more like I'm talking about sex as the object to be manipulated, and not the people who have it. I would add a caveat in there about mitigating the risks and dangers using science (and common sense) - because you know that's the first thing critics are going to ask about - but I want to keep it short and to the point right now.
After all, any tool can be abused and turned into a weapon. The sex-positive approach is the one that aims to avoid this (without avoiding sex entirely, which is like throwing out the baby with the bath water). (Wait, was that a bad analogy? Lol).
I've been trying to articulate my particular approach to sexuality - and why it doesn't mesh with mainstream sex-positive (which is what I'd be inclined to call it) perspectives - for a while now, and I think I've hit on an important point.
Humans are animals. And animals are primarily sexual creatures. Propagation of the species is the one crucial goal we have above and beyond immediate personal survival. But existential concerns like that aren't enough to ensure total compliance, so evolution has given us a prime directive to fuck. We desire it, and it feels good (when we're doing it right).
As rational beings, we can approach this undeniable fact in one of two ways. We can give in to the hunger, and copulate like the animals do, or we can aspire to be more civilized, and create deities characterized by their sexual purity, to hold aloft as role models, while shaming those who don't live up to their inhuman example.
It's the red pill/blue pill divide, and if you know anything about me, you won't be surprised to hear that I have another pill to offer you - the green pill [slightly NSFW]. In this context, it means to embrace - not reject - our sex drive, but to do so in a conscious and deliberate manner, using our intellect - in the form of tech-knowledge-y - to optimize people's experiences and lives.
Now, I have heard - most likely in the realm of science-fiction - tales of possible futures and alternate realities in which the human sex drive - ever the nagging obstacle to human efficency and accomplishment - was eliminated. Imagine a world in which the desire to fuck did not constantly distract you from everything else in your life.
And when I was younger - before my proper sexual awakening - I considered this to be a desirable solution to the problem of sexual desire. It wasn't worth the trouble. But then I gradually came under its thrall, and eventually realized that, like any power source, sex can be exploited. It makes us feel good. Pretty reliably.
So what if evolution designed it that way to make us procreate? We're smarter than evolution. We can use science to drastically reduce, if not entirely eliminate, the risks involved with sexual intercourse, including the potential for making a baby - which is an enormous drain on resources (more than most people realize when they're just following their instincts in the back of a Chevy).
That's evolution's joke on us. But who's to say we have to let evolution keep pulling the strings? Even if you're antsy about the science, there's still masturbation - the only completely safe form of sex. Absent the arbitrary construction of shame, human sexual desire is a tool we can manipulate for our own gain - namely personal pleasure. And what's wrong with that?
So I think that if I marry this transhumanist approach with the sex-positive idea that human sexuality intrinsically leans toward the positive side of neutral, simply because it was designed to make people feel good (like, really good), and that the bad parts of it are all manageable in one way or another, I think that I'd be coming close to a formulation of my basic sexual perspective:
Sex is a tool that can be manipulated to make people feel good.
Hmm, I don't like that the word "manipulation" carries such a negative connotation - it sounds like I'm saying that we can manipulate people to feel sexual pleasure (theirs or ours?) against their will. Which is not at all what I'm saying. Let's try this instead:
Sex is a tool that can be manipulated to generate pleasure.
That's better. It sounds more like I'm talking about sex as the object to be manipulated, and not the people who have it. I would add a caveat in there about mitigating the risks and dangers using science (and common sense) - because you know that's the first thing critics are going to ask about - but I want to keep it short and to the point right now.
After all, any tool can be abused and turned into a weapon. The sex-positive approach is the one that aims to avoid this (without avoiding sex entirely, which is like throwing out the baby with the bath water). (Wait, was that a bad analogy? Lol).
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Moderation
Religion preaches moderation, not prohibition. Too much of anything is bad, including not enough - which is just too much of its absence. Abstinence is the opposite of indulgence; both are unhealthy extremes. As Roger Daltrey once sang, "a little is alright".
There are personal exceptions to this rule - it turns out that even moderation should be practiced in moderation for a completely balanced life. For example, if you're a recovering alcoholic, over-indulgence may reasonably be remedied with abstinence. As someone who does not live by the motto, "I'll try anything once", I'd be a hypocrite if I said there was anything wrong with deliberately choosing to indulge in or abstain from certain things for certain reasons.
Mostly, this is a collective philosophy, to be applied in response to exaggerated, black-and-white thinking: in which things are either all-good or all-bad; that if something is good or bad for one person, then that must be true for everyone; that to partake just a little is to go off the deep end; and that there is no such thing as indulging responsibly.
Moderation is the key to a balanced life.
There are personal exceptions to this rule - it turns out that even moderation should be practiced in moderation for a completely balanced life. For example, if you're a recovering alcoholic, over-indulgence may reasonably be remedied with abstinence. As someone who does not live by the motto, "I'll try anything once", I'd be a hypocrite if I said there was anything wrong with deliberately choosing to indulge in or abstain from certain things for certain reasons.
Mostly, this is a collective philosophy, to be applied in response to exaggerated, black-and-white thinking: in which things are either all-good or all-bad; that if something is good or bad for one person, then that must be true for everyone; that to partake just a little is to go off the deep end; and that there is no such thing as indulging responsibly.
Moderation is the key to a balanced life.
Sunday, January 1, 2017
New Rising Sun
Happy New Year! Winding down from the holidays always takes some time. It's nice to have a week to relax (for those of us who get that sort of thing), once the majority of the stress from the holidays is behind you. But even that isn't always enough. Going into the new year, you have to balance the tying up of loose ends with the promise of new opportunities on the horizon.
My photographic endeavors planned for the new year include a long-awaited opportunity to play around with infrared photography, and a trepid determination to learn how to use an off-camera studio flash, to improve my skills and move one step closer to the professionals. Not that I will ever be anything other than an art photographer, but anything I can do to make my art photographs look even better (and to perhaps draw broader attention to my knowledge, experience, and passion for photography, in the ultimate hope that beautiful people will someday come to trust - if not desire - me to photograph them) is a definite plus.
It may take some time for the fruits of those labors to ripen, but keep your eyes peeled, for you the viewer stand only to benefit from these experimental endeavors, all in good time. Until then, stay tuned for my annual selection of some of my best photographs taken over the course of the last year - coming soon!
My photographic endeavors planned for the new year include a long-awaited opportunity to play around with infrared photography, and a trepid determination to learn how to use an off-camera studio flash, to improve my skills and move one step closer to the professionals. Not that I will ever be anything other than an art photographer, but anything I can do to make my art photographs look even better (and to perhaps draw broader attention to my knowledge, experience, and passion for photography, in the ultimate hope that beautiful people will someday come to trust - if not desire - me to photograph them) is a definite plus.
It may take some time for the fruits of those labors to ripen, but keep your eyes peeled, for you the viewer stand only to benefit from these experimental endeavors, all in good time. Until then, stay tuned for my annual selection of some of my best photographs taken over the course of the last year - coming soon!
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