CThru.com Presents Tony Ward Studio

Melissa Norbeck

Posted by Melissa Norbeck

Well, maybe we can just make a few changes. What is wrong with our country?
Quite a few things come to mind: two of them are health care and greed. The health care issue here in the US is ridiculous. Some people don¹t have problems with health care and health insurance, but many do. And so what if one man has insurance and can get his teeth cleaned every six months when the child down the street just died because she doesn¹t have health insurance or enough insurance. Why is health care the way it is? Greed, plain and simple.
The higher-ups care more about money and less about helping people. Sometimes I really feel things are so bad (war, health care, greed, violence, global warming, animal cruelty, etc… that the world just needs to end and start over.

I think it¹s amazing that we the people stand for as much as we do. Supposedly we live in a Democracy ­ NOT. We do have freedom of speech, but that can only get us so far. We do what we¹re told, and that¹s the way it is. I¹ve been saying for a long time how I feel we do not live in a Democracy, and, ironically enough, I just came across a new word: Plutonomy = an economy that is largely influenced by the wealthy; where things are divided into two parts: the wealthy and the rest of us. That is definitely America.

Pharmaceutical Research

It¹s a damn shame that people like teachers and cops -those who serve others and don¹t make much money as is- are taking pay freezes. When was the last time you heard of a CEO or someone who worked for a health insurance company or pharmaceutical company take a pay freeze?

R&D

America is the best country in the world but also the most corrupt. I wish
people worried about others not only themselves. To quote Michael Moore, I refuse to live in a country like this, and I¹m not leaving!

……….The first time Summer visited the Studio was for a meeting, assisted by a female off duty officer of the Phiadelphia Police department. She was looking to have some new pictures taken. The national spot light was still shinning brightly upon her, a result of the death of one of her customer’s wives while she was working as a stripper at Delilah’s Den in Philadelphia. Craig Rabinowitz was a regular at the club, and apparently had a fondness for Summer which led to a deadly obsession. He routinely would spend a couple of thousand dollars a week for lap dances at the club where the sultry dancer worked, racking up enormous debts that he no longer could afford to pay. Rather than break the habit of his weekly trips to the club, he decided instead to take out a two million dollar life insurance policy on his unexpecting wife, and conveniently executed her by drugging and drowning her while at home taking a bath.

Rabinowitz tried to make the claim that his wife’s death was accidental but good police work and forensic evidence soon revealed it was a brutal and calculated murder.
Craig Rabinowitz was charged with his wife’s death, and is rightfully serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison.

To see the entire sitting of Summer and more Erotica from the Tony Ward archives, log on to tonyward.com

True Love

Posted by Alex Remnick

The series is called “Mike and Kate” and it depicts an actual couple, who have been dating for over a year now. While shooting, I worked with the following guidelines in mind.

•Neglect the inclination to overly display or emphasize the presence of nudity
•Attempt to realistically and objectively depict the dynamic of a relationship outside of the public eye
•Draw symbolism from the seemingly un-symbolic space in which the shoot took place
Nothing in this shoot was set up, except for the fact that Mike was nude. I left for a few minutes to get more film, and when I got back, Mike was playing his guitar. Kate removed her bathrobe in the last few images because she thought she looked silly in her bathrobe.

Mike And Kate

These images are about true love, and what that term really means. Not true love in the fairy tale sense of the word where a poor young orphan meets a prince and they live happily ever after, but rather, what love truly means. Mike and Kate have definitely had their share of fights, but they can always count on being able to come back to these moments. They can always hang out half-clothed on a Sunday afternoon, do nothing, and be happy just to be together.

…….Alex Remnick is studying photography at the University of Pennsylvania.

Lips - Self Portrait Kalina Isato

…..Kalina Isato always wanted to be an artist, but conservative Asian parents squelched her early dreams. They were not supportive of her interest in studying the Arts, and like many parents didn’t see an upside to studying Art in college. They encouraged her instead to study the Sciences, particularly computer science and engineering while pursuing her creative endeavors of photography and music production on the side. Her accomplishments in the sciences would make any parent proud, graduating from Boston University with a BA and MA in Computer Science in 1989, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Betta Kappa. During that same period, she completed an advanced course in logic programming at Harvard University.

All along Kalina continued to pursue her interest in the Arts and used the photographic medium as a vehicle to express herself, and her unique place in subcultural America. She’s currently studying photography at the University of Pennsylvania where the studio was recently introduced to her work. In her own words, Ms. Isato describes her current body of work and how the series “Clublife” evolved. This particular grouping of pictures is currently on display from November 8th to December 31, 2009 at the William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa. To learn more about Ms. Isato’s work log on to www.KalinaIsato.com.
Posted By Kalina Isato

“Throughout most of my life, I knew that I was born different and it wasn’t until my teenage years that I came to terms with my transgender nature and started creating the image that people see today. Every time I go out bar or club hopping, I always take pictures to document the night. I never conscientiously wanted to create a public exhibit of my work, but over time the number of pictures I took and the fact that I was able to capture candid scenes – because my subjects were comfortable with me – convinced me that what I was creating was too important to keep in a scrapbook all to myself.

Lauren

My meticulousness made math and science easy for me and when it came time to study photography formally in 2007, I was prepared to handle all of the technical demands that photography requires.

Jacqui And Brenda

I believe that being both artistic and technical, I see things that some people who focus soley on one or the other cannot see.
I rarely mention my honors anymore, because it make me sound like a true geek:).

Transsexual Women's Hands

Street Musician, Philadelphia, 1994

……Every time I think about the life and work of Harvey Finkle, he reminds me of the good fortune he has had in his life. A beautiful life partner, close knit family and a passion for something that each day brings him great joy. That passion, to our benefit are his photographs. Following a long tradition of documentary photography, Harvey Finkle is the Mother Theresa of passionate photography. He began to excel at his lifes work in his early years, receiving a Social Work degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. From there, his education lead him to picture making which helped him define his social causes.

On Thursday, October 15th, 2009 The Constitution Center of Philadelphia will recognize his legacy. A press release has just arrived at the studio from Bread & Roses Community Fund of Philadelphia. Tickets are available at the door. You don’t want to miss this event!

Tent City, Philadelphia 1995

Tribute

The Bread & Roses Community Fund will be honoring social documentarian, Harvey Finkle, at its annual event on 10-15-09 at the National Constitution Center. Harvey is a still photographer, whose interests are social, political and cultural. His career has centered on photographing marginalized and disenfranchised people, including low income and homeless families, refugees and immigrants, the disabled and the Deaf, as well as groups working for economic justice, peace and human rights. The tribute will exhibit 75 photos reflecting the groups and people that he has photographed. His work can be seen on his website, harveyfinkle.com

www.HarveyFinkle.com

A Run For Congress

……I must admit it was a little intimidating. When I walked in to Pat Meehan’s office it was quite large and overlooked Independence Square in Philadelphia. It’s not very often that one get’s to walk in to a room that represents so much political power. He served as the federal prosecutor for the city of Philadelphia and its eight surrounding counties from September 17th, 2001 to July 15th, 2009. An appointment by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. senate. No small measure of responsibility placed in his hands.

Mr. Meehan became notorious for his investigations of “pay to play” politics in Philadelphia. One of those investigations led to the conviction and sentencing of city treasurer Corey Kemp an acquaintance of Tony Ward Studio. It is widely believed that Mr. Kemp’s sentence was excessive. Ten years for having a deck put on the back of his house.

Meehan For Congress?

On September 14th, 2009, Pat Meehan announced a run for the U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 7th district. Pretty soon the voters will decide if that run is warranted…..

Armey Is At It Again

….During the mid 90′s, even though my love for fashion photography was growing, I was assigned to produce portraits for George magazine, the brainchild of John Kennedy Jr. John Jacques Naudet, an editor at large who was working for American Photo at the time was a fan of my work and introduced me to my editor at George. Jean Jacques is the father, whose son’s the Naudet twins, were the documentary film makers who captured on movie film the extraordinary events of September 11th, while they working on a film project about the New York City Fire Department.
One of my assignments for George was to travel to Washington to photograph our House Majority leader at the time, Dick Armey, for a profile the magazine was publishing about his service to our nation. I was told by my editor, knowing that I was in to fashion, to take note of Mr. Armey’s boot’s as he often wore traditional cowboy boot’s, even while wearing his mainstream Washington uniform, the traditional gray pin stripe suit, white Oxford collar and tie. So the first thing I asked Mr. Armey to do in preparation for our sitting was to hand over his boot’s for closer examination. They were memorable boot’s all right, custom made Tony Lama’s, with his name inscribed. I even took a still life of them on a white seamless. I thought he was pretty hip at first, but then I learned about his politics. During the sitting we took pause to await the verdict on the year long trial of OJ Simpson. There I was, in the office of one of the most powerful political leaders in America, staring at a television set to hear the jury’s verdict. I didn’t know how to play it, he didn’t say whether he thought OJ was guilty or not. Once the verdict was read he said that he would later call his wife in relief that OJ was found guilty. The only thing we had in common was the guilty verdict and even less now that I recently learned that Mr. Armey is the chairperson for Freedom Works organization. There was a big rally a few days ago on Capitol Hill. There he was on CNN, 15 years later, with out a political office stirring it up again for the GOP………

Stunning Look's And Legs, Great Coat

….Esther wore the coat well and the panties underneath even better. She has so much style and class it’s remarkable. No wonder she has done so well in fashion. On the set she was polite, lighthearted and ultra sophisticated…..sexy……

Man In The Mirror, Sascha Lilic

…..Tony and I met through Sascha Lilic, the man whose reflection is cast in the mirror in this picture. Sascha is a world renowned stylist and creative director who for many years worked alongside the legendary Helmut Newton on some of his most coveted assignments. Sascha and I collaborated on this shoot for Spoon magazine on location in Los Angeles……..

Tyson Beckford Super Model

….I first met Tyson Beckford at a Vibe magazine party in NYC, where this picture was taken. He was represented by Bethann Hardison and was quickly moving up the ranks in the modeling industry. Tyson regularly appeared in top tier men’s fashion magazines and eventually landed himself a super model contract with Ralph Lauren. He is currently co-hosting the reality series Make Me a Supermodel on the television channel Bravo with Niki Taylor……