CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

….. 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…..

Fashion By Shawn Pinckney

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.

Monica

…..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.

Monica Wearing White

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.

Black Short Shorts With Matching Top

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……..

Black Shoes To Match

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

…..to be continued…….

Mashed Up

Posted by Chantal van Duppen

……We started Mashed Up simply because we love to create worlds and bring stories to life. Life would be too boring if we did not have the chance to paint the colors more intense and bright. We are currently teaming up with a photographer, make up artist and an editor to realize our upcoming projects. We see ourselves as story tellers that direct photo shoots. Our ultimate goal is to be art directors for advertising, fashion, lifestyle and music clients. We also have our own view on life that we want to bring forward in our free work.

An image tells an unfinished story. It is up to the viewer to ask himself, what has happened and how the story finishes, because in the end the image will always belong to the viewer, and truth lies within the experience of it. We say that “we design the experience”, and “everyone has their own experience, we design yours”.

Photos by Eric Soenens

In life, we are inspired by contradictions, history, the human ego, sex, violence, instincts, urges and spirituality. In our free work we find the human flaws the most interesting and beautiful subjects to investigate. Faces, attitudes, and postures make us wonder what is hidden beyond the surface. We believe in a system of life which connects people and events tp each other. As different forms of art can be connected to each other, we came up with the name, Mashed Up, which is derived from the term “mash up” (song or composition created by blending two or more songs by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another).

Duo

As a duo, our interests and backgrounds are interrelated. While Iris has a passion for poetry, narrative literature and dance, Chantal loves photography, film, art and graphic design. This combination makes us work well together. Furthermore, having a commercial background in marketing we have both learned to merge into a business driven environment as well.

Iris And Chantal

www.MashedUp.nl

…..to be continued….

Selfy

Posted By Alejandra Guerrero

I have this series I’ve been producing for a while called “Dressing Rooms.” Basically, I am trying on clothes and taking photos while doing so, in all sorts of different stores and dressing rooms, in various cities where I travel. The idea came to me in 2004, when I saw this gorgeous Valentino dress at a Filene’s Basement in Chicago. Even though it was a discount store it was still 2000 dollars!

I was carrying my first digital camera, and it occurred to me to take a photo wearing the dress. I showed the picture to a friend who lived close by, a make-up artist with Nars, and I thought about re-doing the shot but a little bit more glamorous. So he did my hair and make up and  I returned to the store and told the lady at the dressing room to let me take some photos, so that my boyfriend would see how great it looked, so he would buy it for me.

Some time later my passion for shopping and taking photos blended together as I kept doing the same type of guerrilla shots, of course not telling anyone I was doing so, trying clothes on, being seductive, provocative, funny, ironic  or whatever mood I felt and trying of course not to get caught. In my mind I thought if I couldn’t have the clothes, I can at least have a photo of me wearing them. Sometimes I have tried clothes I’d never wear or I would love to wear, ranging from lingerie, trashy, couture and ready to wear fashion.

Amanda

…….. The studio was contacted by the creative director for one of the largest gentleman’s clubs in the area, to produce a new regional advertising campaign. Five dancers who worked regularly at the club were hand picked by the CD to model for TW during the production. One of the models was a standout, a fashion thin blond by the name of “Amanda” .

Amanda Wearing Victoria's Secret

She is a twenty year old natural beauty who just recently entered the adult entertainment industry.

Tony Ward Studio

After the production for the club was complete, TW carefully reviewed Amanda’s photographs and realized she would be the perfect model for one of his ongoing book project’s entitled, Fashion/Fetish. He imagined her long slender legs in a pair of black fishnets supported by a five inch heel.
These are the first pictures ever published of Amanda and the first nudes she has ever allowed to be taken. It is our pleasure to introduce this lovely, personable beauty to our readers…..

……Steffi and TW met over the internet when a friend of hers suggested she have a look at his website at tonyward.com. After perusing the site, she contacted the studio via email, sending along a few pictures of herself taken by a former boyfriend, as well as a few pictures from her work as a fashion model in her native Germany. We were impressed with her stature and unusually long legs.

Standing just over six feet tall, she reminded us of so many German girls that Helmut Newton worked with throughout his career. Steffi kept in touch for several months and eventually made plans to meet up with Tony in Hamburg for a test shoot.
The night before the sitting they got together for an evening on the town. TW was delighted to discover Steffi’s English was quite good, enabling them to enjoy each others company, as that is usually a good sign of a successful sitting and a great set of pictures.
Our producer in Hamburg Suzaan Talib found the perfect setting for the shoot; the oldest bordello in Hamburg which has been in continuous operation since the early 1900s. The madam and owner of the old establishment were gracious enough to give us the run of the place for several hours, while customers were coming and going. To their bemusement we repeatedly had to tell them that Steffi was not there to service them, they wished…….

…..Blend is to mix smoothly and inseparably together or to mix in order to obtain a particular kind or quality. A perfect title for the avant guarde publication born in 2005 from a collective of Dutch visionaries from Amsterdam. The studio was delighted to be participate in producing some of the first fashion spreads for the new publication. Today Blend has grown and evolved in to the mainstream and has morphed in to a popular culture icon in Holland and beyond.

Blend Fashion

The intention was to design a lifestyle publication for people that enjoy contemporary music, art, film, fashion and photography. With an ear to the ground for what is happening on the street, Blend editors are quick to point out trends that are happening in the alleyways and on main street with an intense passion and regard for all of the the topics that attract their growing 21st century readership.
Besides the regular issues of Blend which appear on newsstands eight times a year, they also collaborate with external parties such as the Stedeliijk Museum of Holland to create unique publications that are referred to as Special Blends. These additional publications have featured the work of Andy Warhol for example……

www.Blend.nl

Self Portrait By Alejandra Guerrero

…..The studio is happy to announce that Alejandra Guerrero, a photographer we have recently featured, has been invited to participate in the publication of The Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography, Carlton Books, London in 2010. We have asked guest blogger Mikel Elam to comment about her self portrait or “selfy” entitled, “Faded”, Los Angeles, 2006……

Mikel Elam; “There is an other worldly quality to the self portrait of Alejandra Guerrero. A woman caught between two dimensions. The transference of energy has resulted in an interesting aura of colors intermixed with mist like shadows. As she stares into the camera, the self portrait is very telling of a woman confronting something or someone.”

www.Alt-Er-Ego.com

The Art of Corset Making

…..The art of corset making has been around for hundreds of years. The word “corset” came in to general use in the English language in 1785. In fashion, the corset is generally used to trim the waist in an effort to enhance the bust and hips. The best fitting corsets are generally made by a corsetmaker, especially fitted for the individual who is wearing it.

Delicious Corsets

Psydde Delicious and Amy Schmitz founded Delicious Corsets in 1995. Both graduates of Philadelphia’s College of Textiles and Science where they studied fashion and textile design. They applied their education and talent to an exciting and successful made to order corset making enterprise, now in it’s 15th year.
If your in to the art of corset making, the studio highly recommends that you learn more about their offerings at www.deliciouscorsets.com……..