CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

Posted by Harvey Finkle

…….A conventional view of museums might see them solely as institutions that house works of art, and as places for elites to view these works.

But museums are communities.

Besides enhancing our insights into the human condition and providing us with an historic vision of the evolution of our development socially, economically, culturally and creatively, they house activities that go far beyond these roles.

Many activities of a community take place at museums; romance, relaxation, performance, protest, education, dining. In many ways, they are our melting pots, accommodating people of all ages and backgrounds

There was no intention of producing a documentary or photo essay about museums. These photos were taken over time and location without any thought of a unified body of work. The locations include Philadelphia, Paris, Barcelona, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. The time span covers a period of over 20 years.

Posted by McFrop

…..Poor Chucky looking a little worse for wear, but he still has his sleuth hat on and is hot on the trail. I know he’s a little psycho just looking for his next victim, but every time I look at him I can’t help think if we went after the truth with as much vigor and disregard for personal safety the world would not be filled with as much shadow and deceit………..

Posted by Yoko Grosshans

……….I have not modeled since I was in my early twenties. I thought it would be awkward for me, but TW has such an ability to make one feel so comfortable. His professionalism is obvious, but setting the mood with music and making you feel so sexy with words of encouragement is something that will stay with me to this day……..

…….An artist is never far away from his work. While vacationing in Ibiza with his family, TW met Nancy at a night club while she was go go dancing the night away. The following day, they were shooting on the amazing beaches of the Spanish Island. To see the entire sitting and more Erotica from the Tony Ward archives, log on to: tonyward.com

Posted by John Grant

Those of us who participated in the September 12th march on the Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall recall the arrest of Cheryl Biren, along with six others. I remember Biren there taking photos, it turns out, for OpEdNews.Com, a news and opinion blog site. Biren was doing her job covering the event when she was arrested by Philadelphia police.
The AEC is a tax-funded, $13 million experimental store selling the US Army as a brand to kids as young as thirteen. It employs violent computer games (“war porn”) and shooting simulators with human targets to entice mall-crawling kids into joining the military — at a time the economy is staggering from a lack of jobs. The Center is controversial and raises serious questions about how we educate our youth in today’s world and how well we equip them to analyze information in a critical fashion. 

Many of us “free-lance” or “independent” or, let’s go all the way, “radical” journalists regularly encounter the kind of difficulty Biren ran into covering the AEC march, since police departments are more and more taking it upon themselves to decide who is a legitimate journalist and who isn’t. 
When cops decide who and what constitutes a real journalist they end up permitting only those working for the mainstream, corporate media, people with corporate ID cards, pre-arranged police permits, backup staff at the office, expensive equipment, van drivers and someone to get them coffee. Anyone on a tight budget and sympathetic to the ideas expressed by demonstrators at marches like the one at the AEC are seen as loose cannons and, naturally, suspect in the eyes of the police. And since no one in the mainstream, corporate media has much interest in covering such demonstrations — well, you can see the problem.

In my case, I was there and I took some photos. I, then, chose not to challenge the cops and I left as they began pushing people out the doors. My timidity, of course, is precisely what the police approach is meant to encourage. Any reporter who stayed behind to assert their first amendment right to witness and report the arrests was subject to arrest. This is what Biren did.
We see this sort of thing a lot these days; it’s a variant on the Facts On The Ground strategy. Act first — deal with the repercussions later. The police make an arrest to eliminate a journalist, no matter how illegal the action might be, then they drop the charges and employ public relations later. During the 2000 Republican convention in Philadelphia, the city paid out millions in lawsuit settlements for illegal arrests. On January 13, the Philadelphia DA followed this pattern and dropped all charges against Biren – four months after her arrest and an uncertain amount of grief and legal expenses later.

The 1st Amendment outlaws “abridging” the “freedom of the press.” It does not say “freedom of the well-paid, corporate press with police permits.” When the 1st Amendment was written there were no press badges; all the bureaucratic hurdles and mazes came later. 
A.J. Leibling added this famous nugget to the mix: “If you really want freedom of the press you have to own one.” Leibling could not have foreseen the age we live in, but, now, with the advent of the internet and the capacity for virtually anyone to fashion a news blog and get out there and cover news, Leibling’s observation may be more than just a witty remark.
Maybe it’s time for those of us on the left to take a hint from James Bopp Jr., the right-wing conservative lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, behind the recent Supreme Court case that opened the flood gates to corporate money in campaign ads. He calculated the whole thing and designed the case to obtain the decision recently dropped on American democracy like a bomb. He is now about to launch a similar case aimed to eliminate any and all restrictions on corporate funding of political campaigns.

Maybe it’s time we tip our hats to the Bopps of this culture and do some original legal thinking of our own — pull off our own “Bopp coup” in the courts — to establish that the police cannot use prejudice or whim as a basis to decide who shall report on and document their actions and who shall not. As long as a reporter is cooperative, not violent or not actively participating in whatever the cops are focusing on, it should be made clear in law that sympathy for a cause or action being covered by a reporter is not a valid reason to lump that reporter in with those being arrested. 
It’s an important Constitutional question. Can a government police force quash, silence or prevent a reporter from doing his or her job by making a phony arrest? It happens so much these days it has become part of the fabric of our times, and it contributes to the distancing of citizens more and more from the decisions and actions of their government.

As the recent corporate funding case suggests, the current Supreme Court tends to come down on the side of money and power. But the Constitution clearly does not require a reporter be equipped with money or power, or more to the point, to be connected to a corporation. Current police practice in cases like Biren’s amounts to the harassment and silencing of reporters for failing to have the proper political “juice” behind them.
If the democratic vistas of the internet we hear so much about are real, then all a reporter needs to legitimately assert 1st Amendment rights is a pen & pad, a camera and a blogsite. 
To borrow the famous film line from The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.”

Photos Copyright John Grant 

….. After our sitting Monica mentioned in passing that the advertising agency she working for was moving to larger offices in South Philly and that she was considering leaving the company to branch out on her own. I encouraged her to do so…..

It was a good thing she did. Month’s after Ms. Gursky left the company, her former boss Mark Norris and two company employees were shot to death in their new offices during a board meeting shortly after they moved in, by a disgruntled client. According to police reports, the gunmen was under the impression that he was being swindled on a $1.3 million dollar land deal.

…..I first noticed Monica standing outside the studio smoking a cigarette during a break at her place of employment, the offices of Mark Norris, a boutique advertising agency, in Philadelphia. Mark’s offices were right next door to the studio, so I noticed Monica frequently coming to and leaving work.

I knew right away that I wanted to photograph her, so I waited until I saw her boss Mark around the neighborhood to ask him to introduce me to the talented designer at his company. Monica contacted me days later to let me know that she was interested and we agreed to meet for drinks to discuss the shoot in detail.

We carried on well in to the evening and had a good time together. The chemistry and imagination shared during our meeting, created the recipe for a sensuous erotic shoot……..

Monica grew more comfortable as the shoot evolved. So comfortable that she agreed to reveal her natural beauty…….

…..to be continued…….

……Like many of the objects Michael Furman has photographed over the years, photographing automobiles has become a symbol of his perfectionism and unrelenting attention to light and detail. The vision he has created over 30 years has placed him atop the world’s best car photographers.

He has worked and collaborated with many blue chip automotive companies that include; Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, BMW and General Motors to name a few. He has also photographed the Ralph Lauren automobile collection as part of an exhibition and book entitled, Speed, Style and Beauty, the Cars of the Ralph Lauren Collection, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and recently was interviewed by another famous car aficionado, Jay Leno.

TW recently contacted Mr. Furman to ask him a few questions about his successful career.

MICHAEL FURMAN INTERVIEW

TW: You are nationally known as a master of photographing inanimate objects for many years. What made you turn your attention specifically to motor vehicles?

MF: About 10 years into my pro career, I felt the need to specialize, and to do so with a subject that I always appreciated. In fact, I first picked up a camera as a young boy to photograph a car.

2. What is the most unique or rare car you have ever photographed?

Many of the cars we shoot are famous or one-of-a-kind. This past summer we shot one of the six Bugatti Royales while it was in California.

3. You are obviously passionate about your love for photographing cars. Is passion the key to your success?

My great passion is for light. and my subject is cars. I find the cars and their histories fascinating. Being passionate is critical to being successful at anything.

4. Do you have any interest in photographing vehicles in motion?

Not really, I have a hard enough time capturing them when they are static in the studio.

5. Do you think GM will regain its global leadership in the production of motor vehicles in 2010?

I think GM will return as a much better company, producing much better cars. It will probably take longer than just one year. They have a lot of work to do.

6. If money wasn’t a factor which car would you drive daily?

Porsche

7. Which part on a car do you think was the most inventive post 1970s?

The addition of computers. It has allowed for extraordinary improvements in efficiency, safety and features.

8. Which car is Michael Furman driving these days for fun?

My Mini Cooper S.

9. What advice can you offer the student of photography on how to earn a living as a professional, like the Michael Furman’s of the world?

Be very dedicated to your craft. Do not accept “good enough” as your standard. Never be satisfied, and always realize that you could do better.

10. What is the most difficult task in photographing a car to meet your standards of creating a perfect image?

The control of the space in which we are shooting. The car is highly reflective, and therefore shows everything in the studio. Managing that problem is the only way to achieve quality work.

….To learn more about Michael’s work, log on to www.MichaelFurman.com….

…..I was having dinner with one of my favorite German Models, Sandra Bauer at the famous Cuneo restaurant in Hamburg’s, St Pauli district when Emilio walked in. It seemed that everyone in the place knew who he was, while Sandra and I watched Emilio, a tall, handsome, gregarious character give a big hug to the owner of the well known establishment.

Cuneo is the oldest continuously running Italian restaurant in Germany, even surviving the tortuous allied bombings of world war two, when Hamburg was virtually turned into a modern city after the war, because there were so few old buildings left standing.

After speaking briefly to the owner, Emilio went behind the bar to pick up an acoustic guitar. Within moments the place fell silent, as the guests watched Emilio pour his heart out as he serenaded the smoke filled rooms, as he sang traditional Italian love songs. Sandra and I were so moved that we both started to cry. Emilio’s singing does that to you. Singing of course is just one of his many talents. As the evening evolved, we later learned that Emilio was an actor!

Emilio came over to our table to introduce himself, which was the beginning of a life long friendship. Since our chance meeting at Cuneo’s in 1995, I have witnessed the rise of an enormous acting talent who embodies many creative facets, including his fluency in German, Italian and English. To learn more about Emilio’s talent and his acting career, log on to www.emiliodemarchi.com.