CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

Catherine Keszei

……Catherine Keszei honed her skills while studying at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A rising star in graphic design who works out of studios between New York and Philadelphia. She has the effusive energy of a young artist who has already developed a distinctive style, a result of her sponge like ability to understand complex cultural issues that merges in to the simplest stroke of her pen, in an effort to solve a variety of sophisticated visual problems from demanding clients. Her drive and ambition is overflowing with a variety of expertise in the area’s of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, and tactile mediums and has recently expanded into video design and compositing. Catherine is also proficient with Final Cut Pro the primary editing choice of the movie making industry. A formidable skill set to say the least.

The studio is pleased to announce that Catherine will be joining forces with us on a variety of upcoming projects. To learn more about Catherine’s work log on to www.catherinekeszei.com……….

Fashion Forward

Dark Eyed Girl

Girl And Jacket

Martini Girl

Star Bucks Girl

Girl And Mirror

Post by Corey Armpriester

CA-Can an artist be successful without an agent or gallery representation?
TW-That’s a problem with the art scene over the past 10 to 20 years. The galleries and the collectors became the power brokers in the art world instead of the artists and the artist almost became secondary to the art. You don’t need a big name gallery a big name museum or a big name collector verifying your importance; that is something you have to establish yourself and that is what will draw your audience, not the other way around.

CA-Why do you live in Philadelphia?
TW-This is where I was born and raised and I have family here and I’m a very family oriented person, Philly is home.

Family, assistants

CA-Do you think having a family hinders the artist in any way as far as resources and time that can be given to the work?
TW-No question, that was one of the hard things about my marriage and raising a family. It’s always an underlying drive, the work comes first. Any artist of merit will say the Art comes first.

CA-How does your family deal with that and what is the consequence?
TW-The consequence in my case is divorce. Unfortunately my 23 years of marriage to my wife Sandy has started to unravel through divorce proceedings. It’s an unfortunate circumstance.

CA-Do you ever allow the assistant to take the photograph?
TW-No, my assistants generally take care of my post production needs and they also help me on the actual shoot, but I never give them the responsibility of taking the shot and then me putting my name to it; that would never happen.

CA-Is there something unethical about that?
TW-No, Andy Warhol had the factory; it’s really up to the individual artist to decide.

CA-Do you practice sex magic?
TW-I’m not gonna get into my personal sex life.

CA-What? Tony Ward is afraid to talk about sex!?
TW-I’m not afraid to talk about sex. I think there’s a thing called love and I think there’s a thing called sex and the two are not necessarily the same; does that answer your question?
CA-Yes.

CA-Is the Muse necessary?
TW-The Muse is like having coffee in the morning.

CA-Is feminism contributing to the destruction of the family?
TW-No, I don’t think feminism is the thing that destroys families, there’s a lack of a long term commitment.
CA-People will be surprised that Tony Ward is coming to the defense of feminism; that’s very bizarre.
TW-I’m not committed to the idea of feminism. Who am I to say a feminist viewpoint is right or wrong. What I prefer to do is through my work ask more questions about a variety of cultural issues.

CA-Is photography stupid?
TW-Photography is simple, not stupid; even with all the cameras out there people still take very mundane pictures that don’t need to proliferate the planet. In the proper hands, it’s really a rewarding medium.

CA-Could you talk about light?
TW-There’s no such thing as good light or bad light

CA-Artificial and natural light are equal?
TW-There’s no mandate from the art gods indicating what type of light one should work with.

CA-Amsterdam is
TW-My second home.

CA-Do you have a favorite coffee shop and do you eat Space Cakes?
TW-No, no Space Cakes for me. I know too many Dutch friends that have carted Americans off to hospitals because of those space cakes.

CA-One Space Cake is not going to send you to the hospital.
TW-I know that Mick Jagger has been taken back to the hotel on occasion.

Part 3 of the interview will be posted tomorrow…..

……
Post by Corey Armpriester

With art, cigarettes and sex on my mind, I sit down with Philadelphia’s very own agent provocateur, photographer Tony Ward, for a little talk, revealing a man with drive and ambitions fueled by art and costing him his marriage. Art as home wrecker–I’m sure spouses of artists can understand such a thing.

The Philadelphia photographer’s work runs the gamut from high art to low, from gallery exhibits to Bob Guccione and Penthouse Magazine. Sitting across the table from Tony Ward, I get the impression he has the confidence of a man whose ancestors follow him around everywhere he goes, except during moments of silence, his eyes share a melancholy and introspection he tightly controls; I suspect this recipe is a powerful source of seduction (the emotional tease).

If you’re an artist and have ever fantasized about traveling and exhibiting your work in galleries around the world, selling your art for thousands of dollars and having it stored in international museum collections while working on your sixth book in-between, and working on a constant stream of magazine spreads, then Tony Ward is living out your dreams in his life. How did that happen? What does it take to get that far? He talks about art patronage, feminism, space cakes, Thandie Newton and agents re-emerging to assist him in making the right introductions. He gives both the carnage and inspiration of art life, yearning for itself.

Ward will be showing some of his work at The University of Pennsylvania’s Fox Gallery, Feb. 17 to March 5, 2010.
Corey Armpriester-Germany has been very good to you, what is your relationship to the German people?
Tony Ward-It’s so true that Germany was a spring board for me. What happened was my agent in New York was Henrietta Brackman; she came out of retirement to represent me. Henrietta introduced me to Ursula Kreis, another well known New York agent who introduced me to the right people at the right time, which resulted in my having shows in Hamburg, Berlin and other German cities.

CA-Are you surprised that your photograph titled, “The Figure” sold for $18,000?
TW-I wasn’t really that surprised, only because I think it’s one of my best works; a gallery in Paris decided to invest in a print that warrants that kind of price, and a collector I met at the opening bought the piece.

The patron

CA-How important was Bob Guccione to your career? (Guccione is founder and once publisher of Penthouse magazine).
TW-Bob Guccione was pivotal because during 1995, I was producing a lot of free work, work for myself, and I was getting into a very creative zone. A friend of mine that had worked along side of Bob in the ’80s suggested I send Bob a portfolio. I sent a set of prints to his house on 16 East 67th Street in NYC; after he saw those prints he decided to feature me in the September 1996 Anniversary Issue, 16 pages that launched my career in the adult print industry. He was my patron of the arts for almost 10 years; I had an open checkbook to produce as much material as he could publish for many years. That’s what enabled me to travel to Europe so much.

CA-Do you think the grain in your photographs distinguishes your work from pornography?
TW-There’s certainly artifice built into the structure of my work to try and avoid the stigma of being labeled a pornographer, because the facts are that I was engaged in these kinds of shoots really looking for a means to express the art of it not the sex of it.

CA-Do you think the grain gets in the way of using the images as a masturbatory aid?
TW-I never considered my images to be masturbatory at all. In fact someone came up to me once and said, “Tony I find your images masturbatory”; I was almost insulted or repulsed, that was the consequence of some of the work.

CA-Why is the strap-on so important?
TW-That was just a visual tool we used; it was one of the protocols, especially when shooting lesbian scenes.

CA-Using one word, describe the vagina.
TW-Flower

CA-Is branding your name a dehumanizing act?
TW-No, I think branding a name is important for survival. It’s a business decision that most artists make at some point in their career. At the end of the day, Art is a form of branding. I’m encouraging young artist to be more self-sufficient and brand themselves via the internet.

Part Two of the interview will be posted tomorrow……

Artwork Courtesy TKP Creative Group

……The posthumous documentary “This Is It” debut at the movie theaters in the past week raked in over $100,000, 000.00 in revenue. To bad that Michael Jackson is no longer with us to witness yet another one of his creative and financial achievements. We asked guest blogger, Racquel Ward to write about her impressions of the film. Art work for this post courtesy of TKP Creative Group. To learn more about TKP log on to www.tkpcreativegroup.com.

MJ By Artist Rah Crawford

Racquel Ward; “In light of his death, which was illuminated around the world, it was no surprise to me when I first heard of a Michael Jackson movie that was to be released in theaters everywhere, especially since I’ve studied culture and media at the New School University in New York. It is “my job” as a trend conscious viewer of pop culture events to predict social cultural clichés.

The movie title “This Is It” both subtly and overtly hinted at the sudden end of MJ’s existence on Earth, suggested that the movie would present that “one last moment” we all wanted to see. I was once again disheartened by the commodification of a tragedy in our media driven, sensationalist society. However, the MJ fan in me was extremely excited to see him on the big screen again, AND in concert, which I had been too young to do when he was actively performing while he was alive.

While pondering whether or not to see the movie, I quickly remembered that in order to find happiness and solitude in this possible exploitation of a great legend, I must put my criticisms aside and enjoy the silver lining. With that said, ‘This Is It’ was fabulous and satisfying! I got to see what I always knew was there; it was Michael’s spirit, energy and unprecedented talented which was captured beautifully in the documentary style movie.

Seeing Michael interact with his dancers, musicians and creative direction was a once in a lifetime, never expected dream come true. Still, we must ask ‘Is This It?” Will there be another film or album capitalizing off of Michael’s death. Sure, but who cares. Although I still have my doubts about the intention of the film and the borderline creepy social implications its production reflects, I’m glad it was made and will be added to the invaluable access we as a world have into MICHAEL.”

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……..

Reuben Harley

…..The man who brought in huge sales as marketing director for Philadelphia’s Mitchell and Ness Sporting Goods store by introducing throwback jerseys to numerous celebrities including P. Diddy, Alan Iverson and various other stars, will be collaborating with the studio on a series of fashion shoot’s for this blog in the near future. Big Reub as he is referred to by friends, is also busy consulting with leaders in the fashion industry in his search to establish the next big fashion trend. Recently, Reuben met with representatives of Wolford, the Austrian marketer and manufacturer of fine hosiery and lingerie for women at their New York offices to discuss a campaign to increase awareness of the brand in the U.S. market.

He has set aside a $500.00 pair of Zac Posen/Wolford hosiery for the first shoot. We have been looking forward to collaborating with Mr. Harley for some time. The time has arrived……stay tuned……!

….If you happen to be traveling to Hamburg, Germany for business or pleasure anytime soon, the studio recommends that you stay at Hotel Village, a moderately priced hotel in the heart of this rich european city. Hamburg is the home of Jil Sander, Wofgang Joop and other distinguished Germans and It’s just a block away from the Hauptbanhof or train station as it’s known in English. The hotel was formerly the location of one of Germany’s most famous Bordello’s and the decor reflects the activities that took place there during it’s infamous past.

As soon as you walk in to the place, it’s as if you’ve taken a step back in time. The original “ceiling mirrors” over the beds are still in place for today’s hotel guests to enjoy. It has also been the location for many of this studios most erotic shoots.

Hotel Village is close to the thriving city’s night life where prostitution remains legal……

Jersey Girl

…..Here at the studio, we’re quite certain that when Bruce Springsteen wrote his famous song, “Jersey Girl”, he was surely referring to girls like Alison Dunlap, a native of the Garden State. In his song Springsteen wrote; “Nothing matters in this whole wide world…When you’re in love with a Jersey Girl.”

Alison At Home In New Jersey

Talent, a natural beauty, great wit and a distinctive charm are some of the qualities that got our attention here at the studio. An accomplished commercail photographer working out of her home in the Tacony section of New Jersey, Alison loves to take pictures and model as well. She credits David LaChapelle, Helmut Newton and Joel-Peter Witkin as a few artist’s that have inspired her. Her commercial work has a clean and crisp edge to it while she describes her personal work as more, “playful yet a provacative mixture of sensuality and sarcasm.”

Alison Lounging

TW arrived at her home on a perfectly sunny day, a short distance from the studio just over the Delaware River on the way to the shore. The daughter of a contractor father, Alison is very handy around the house. She basically can fix anything, a testament to her independence and ability to construct complex sets for a single photograph.

Handy Around The House

Her bedroom is aglow in a cozy, sensuous blood red…….

Alison In Her Bedroom

There will be more sittings with Alison………..

Leg Show

To be continued……..

Miami Real Estate

…..As soon as we arrived at the security gate we knew we were safe. The studio was assigned to photograph Thomas Kramer, the self proclaimed visionary entrepreneur of Miami Beach at his mansion on Star Island. This small little island, attracted a few well known neighbors that include: Gloria Estefan, P. Diddy and Shaquille O’Neil. There were rumblings going on in Mr. Kramer’s native Germany, that the real estate mogul was embroiled in a multi- million dollar legal battle with members of his former wife’s family. Well known magazine picture editor Anka Degenhard, under contract for Hamburg based Park Avenue magazine at the time, contacted the studio from her office in Hamburg, to ask TW to fly down to South Beach to meet and photograph the real estate investor.

TK CROSS

Mr. Kramer was a polite host as we toured the enormous property looking for various places to shoot. The search for a great location on this day was not going to be a problem. We were on a tight schedule as he informed us of a cocktail party he was invited to attend at Shaq’s house, just a few basketball courts away. Rather than walk, TK decided to take the Harley……….

Thomas Kramer