……….I wanted to take the viewer on a journey through the changing seasons of the year using different makeup and styling tools. Each season represents a different goddess and different connotations from the color palettes, styling and facial poses. Pushing the surrealist effects in each photo I tried to create the impression of another world and with that followed the seasons with stories of ancient goddesses.
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Starting with autumn, the image in black and white with a leaf headdress reminiscent of the Ancient Greek goddess Athena’s raised helmet. The distant gaze and profile focused viewpoint creates a sense of thoughtfulness and serenity, in keeping with the role of Athena as the goddess of wisdom. Flawless skin and dark eye make up draw attention to the eyes, from which the Ancient Greeks viewed the soul and wisdom of a person.
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Winter
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As these leaves fade winter comes and a layer of snow settles over mountains, branches of trees and the face of my model. The pulled back hair and high bun connote the strength and hubris of the virgin-huntress Aura, the Titan goddess of the breeze and cool air. The pale white skin tone with fresh blue accents holds the austere demeanor in keeping with the cold background. Bejeweled in icy crystals and large drop earrings the model’s styling emphasizes her austere demeanor.
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Spring
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Spring leaps forward replacing the coldness of winter and provide new growth of life. Another goddess comes forward, this time the goddess of love, Aphrodite. Rosy cheeks and flawless pale skin accentuate the calming and loving effect of this beautiful goddess. The color palette has remained subtle and muted but moves form the cold blues of winter to a romantic feel with soft pinks and purples. Hydrangeas frame her face like a halo or flower crown wreath and flow down decorating her famous long flowing hair.
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Summer
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As the sun heats up and summer arrives the palette transforms to rich reds and warm oranges. The roundness of the elevated hair bun reminds me of the sun and the goddess Eos who opens the gates of heaven each morning for the sun to rise. Often depicted in saffron-colored robs and golden arms she comes to life in this surreal portrayal with birds escaping from her golden cheeks and the sun slowly rising from behind her face.
Photography by Francesca Nichol, Copyright 2012
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Editor’s Note: Francesca Nichol is a senior enrolled in the College at the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2013. Ms. Nichol plans to work in advertising, photography and related fields upon graduation. To read more articles by Francesca Nichol, to to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.
………..I have an identical twin sister, Elaine; growing up we were very close and always together. We had all the same classes, participated in the same after school activities, imagined the same games for our toys, had the same friends, and argued over which one of us our pets would get to snuggle with. We went to the same college, majored in similar subjects, and even had dorm rooms near each other. Eventually we grew a little less similar, branching out into our own interests and when I moved to Philadelphia for graduate studies, it was the first time we were apart in all of our 22 years together. This distance has tested our relationship, but has ultimately brought us closer together and allowed us to appreciate the differences between us that we have developed.
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Elaine
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My sister is very into the 1920s era and vintage clothing. She is also an avid swing dancer. Here, she is wearing some of her vintage clothing and reclining in a chair. Even at rest Elaine is trying to dance, and nonchalantly kicks her leg up. The overlaying image is of one of her vintage dresses that she cherishes.
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Elaine
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Similar to the last photo, Elaine wears some of her vintage clothing collection. She curls her hair to better match her classic persona. Vintage patterns from her scarf collection are overlaid over her serene expression. Elaine is a dreamer, who aims to live in a time period of
past.
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Old black and white photo booths invoke a glamour and nostalgia of the past. I also enjoy them for those same reasons. Elaine brightly smiles and poses in one, bringing life to a piece of the past.
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Elaine
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Elaine has always been fiercely competitive, and even though I usually am not, being with her brings it out in me. We are always comparing ourselves to the other. In the past when we were very similar. it was difficult because we were always in a race against each other, but now that competitive feeling only pushes me to be better in what I do, with her supporting me.
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This self-portrait is a reflection of my feelings being a twin. Sometimes when I look at her it is like a warped version of myself looking back. I do not know what it is like to not have a twin sister, but always having someone there is definitely a bonus. Sometimes it is hard to always have to share things, but overall it is rewarding that we are so close.
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Self-Portrait by Melanie Silver
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Elaine is struggling to find her place in the world. Unsure of what she wants to ultimately do with her life. I know that she will be successful with whatever she chooses, because she has such a strong will and friendly personality. Having a twin sister has helped define me as a person, and I can only hope to help and support her and our differences as much as she has with me.
About the Author: Melanie Silver is studying Architecture in the graduate fine arts program, University of Pennsylvania. To read more articles by Melanie Silver, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.
………..Sensuality is recognized as the enjoyment, expression or pursuit of pleasure. However, there are many ways to experience sensuality without drawing from physical experiences. Dreaming, for example, gives a woman the ability to recreate thoughts, images and sensations in her head. That ability to replicate real life situations and turn them into fantasies that stimulate bodily sensations is what renders dreams erotic.
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Photo: Luciano Ruiz
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Throughout this journey, the subject explores her deepest thoughts of pleasure and sensuality through dreams and emotions. First stop: Paris circa 1950s. By looking at her reflection in the mirror she begins an affair with her sensuality and understands what her body symbolizes.
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Photo: Luciano Ruiz
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As she becomes more comfortable with her own figure, she begins to explore with textures and patterns until she finds what she’s looking for: her own definition of sensuality.
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Photo: Luciano Ruiz
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It is finally at this stage where her imagination breaks free and her thoughts wander around. Angel or devil? She finds comfort and pleasure in white sateen, evoking a sense of innocence and purity. Nonetheless, she is also intrigued by seductive poses and dark colors. She is slowly catapulted into this dark and wicked world.
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Photo: Luciano Ruiz
About The Author: Luciano Ruiz is a Candidate for Bachelor of Arts, University of Pennsylvania – Class of 2013
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Editor’s Note: To access additional articles by Luciano Ruiz, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.
……….Legendary photographer Larry Fink spoke at the Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday, November 28th – as part of the much acclaimed 9 Perspectives On a Photography Collection exhibition. The attentive crowd was regaled by a series and discussion of outstanding images from Larry’s storied professional career and young life as a photographer. The talk was intriguing, humorous, informative, and poignant leaving the listeners with smiles on their faces, some wisdom from a special artist, and fond memories that made marks in their hearts and minds.
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Photo: Larry Fink
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Photo: Larry Fink
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Larry Fink’s work, virtually all black and white, covers a wide range of subjects – from politics, parties, Hollywood, fashion, sports, counter culture, and intimate family shots. Larry’s unquestionable ability to detect and capture the “photographic moment” was quite apparent. The audience was shown Larry’s exceptional photographs as a professional photographer covering high society with shots of celebrities at the Oscars and lavish Hollywood parties, legendary musicians such as John Coltrane, and even President Obama himself.
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Photo: Larry Fink
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Larry Fink also spent some time highlighting his incredible work on boxing, shot over years in Philadelphia’s historic Blue Horizon. The images on pugilism were so striking because of Larry’s ability to capture the drama inherent in the sport – the battle between two warriors and two wills, the pain and the perseverance, the victory and defeat, against the gritty backdrop of North Philadelphia’s famous venue and the trainers, staff, and crowds swarming all over the now defunct arena.
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Photo: Larry Fink
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But make no mistake, Fink’s pictures were not something you would find in a standard event photographer’s portfolio. They captured the human element – emotion, drama, narrative, character, and beauty in his subjects. Larry’s gifted ability to capture the raw humanity in a beautiful way was already being articulated when he was quite young, as his early work powerfully displayed in a more bare bones way.
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Photo: Larry Fink
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Photo: Larry Fink
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Photo: Larry Fink
About The Author: Daniel Murphy is a young professional in Philadelphia and is studying digital and film photography at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Editor’s Note: Larry Fink’s photographs are currently on display in 9 Perspectives on a Photography Collection, Arthur Ross Gallery, the University of Pennsylvania from November 10, 2012 to January 27, 2013. To learn more about Larry Fink’s Photography log on: www.LarryFinkPhotography.com
……..The Lost Door is an erotic thriller that straddles the line between fantasy and reality. This interplay is already a dominant theme in Stuart’s photography and it is explored in a new light with the added complexities of dialogue, motion and music. The driving energy of this film derives from imbalanced relationships – captor and inmate; teacher and student; lover and seducer… The roles of domination and submission are in continuous flux; fantasy and reality become alternately indistinguishable as characters surrender to their desires and then succumb to reason.
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The Lost Door
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The Lost Door
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The cast of actors perform passionately and Nicole Auberger is a particular standout – both for her endearing naivety and phenomenal beauty. The musical score heightens the romance and intrigue, with sudden pauses of silence applied to good dramatic effect. Quirky details indulge us with insight into Stuart’s creative mind: carefully captured reflections off a pair of sunglasses, the odd line of dialogue in Chinese, the humor of a tree shaped like a vulva.
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The Lost Door
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The Lost Door
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The Lost Door
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The outtakes and supplemental scenes are a must-see, particularly the beggar who fakes an injured leg. Stuart likes to explore different fantasies in his work and the hot beggar is a good one. Anybody who has spent time around Paris will understand.
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The Lost Door
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The Lost Door
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This is a complex and multifaceted film, the type that you will want to watch at least once.
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Roy Stuart, Copyright 2012
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Editor’s Note: To order the film: www.TheLostDoor.com
……….After reading Critical Focus, A.D. Coleman’s reviews of unconventional photography remained fresh in my mind. For a photography assignment at UPenn, I first thought to explore abstraction, praised in Christian Boltanski’s installations, or to interrogate the style of random shooting criticized in Garry Winogrand’s work. I realized that these routes appealed to me for the same reason. I could avoid the responsibility of accurately portraying my subject.
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Photo: Olivia Carlize
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I decided I would benefit from representing an individual. Jeff agreed to pose after his last class of the day. He seemed pensive and distanced as we chatted on the walk to his house. Although Jeff’s words communicated little information, his body language exposed his mood. In this series, I wanted to suggest a sense of tone, character and place without revealing the entire story.
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Photo: Olivia Carlize
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I explored several means of creating detachment, including framing through architectural elements. Obvious posing is meant to highlight another dimension of distance from the subject by acknowledging the images as staged. In one shot, Jeff awkwardly confronts the viewer, conveying the uneasiness that we both felt about photographing him after a tough day.
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Photo: Olivia Carlize
About The Author: Olivia Carlize is a senior enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania. Class of 2013
……….When the moon is full in Montana during the winter and there has been a fresh snowfall everything is bright and pristine and I love the white.
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I have done many winter snow shoots and they are tough. Shooting in zero degree weather with the wind blowing was not a joy. But I love the white and my blood bubbles at the sight of the shapes snowdrifts make.
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In the west during the winter it seemed as though everywhere I turned there was an image to be photographed.
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Everything about this location and the time of day was perfect. The dark sky, long shadows, virgin snow and a perfect log house. It almost seems like moon light.
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Once we were able to set up on the side of the cabin where I would not see the foot prints and getting inside to light the windows, I only had one shot at bringing the cowboy in from the right in the virgin snow, we either had it on the first take or not.
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As it turned out everything about the photograph is perfect and it was used around the world in different languages as a Christmas card.
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Photography by Jack Ward, Copyright 2012..
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About The Author: Originally an artist of the brush, Jack studied painting and design at Cooper Union in New York City, and color theory under the tutelage of Josef Albers at Yale University, where he received an MFA degree in Color Theory in 1958. It was during a stint in the Air Force – flying the observer (weapons control officer) position in F-100F, F-101F, F-102F, and B-57 aircraft off of Cape Cod and in North Africa, that Jack’s interest in photography became a passion.
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Editor’s Note: To learn more about Jack Ward’s photography, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.
Posted on December 8, 2012 by Ypsitylla von Nazareth
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………..Casting a light back onto the shadows showing up details in a visualized twilight theater about the struggle between reality and madness, the paradox of irony and illusion, confronted with the fact that we are “living at the edge of madness”, this is”High Toxi-City”! The new black and red conceptual images by Cheyco Leidmann, never shown before and presented amongst other thematically different images (all together 131) at the Moretti & Moretti Gallery in Paris, are glutted in their monochrome tones, on palettes of a piercing eroticism, they participate with all their heat to any kind of apocalyptic vision. Authentic, real, unrestrained brutal-though at first sight the brutality appears to remain concealed behind an aesthetic contemplation.
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The bodies enjoy and bleed at the same time. Screams of pleasure open fester wounds. The abyss of perversion is only revealed upon closer scrutiny. The beholder is equally captured in the image as are the morbid, seemingly mad figures in their fantasies. These fantasies are only unraveled slowly, by means of the lighting guiding the viewer through the picture and revealing gradually the fundamental aspects to he or she. Empty houses, windows without glass – reflect the desperateness, the finality of the situation. Faces without eyes, beetles and religious symbols with a depth of eroticism turn the image into a memento of our time.
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Photo: Cheyco Leidmann
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Some images create a mural-like, imposing complex composition confronting issues critical to contemporary urbanism. Flux and reflux capture the world in a state of chaos. The event manifests an encounter between two views.One demonstrating Cheyco Leidmann’s commitment to this new interpretation of
neo-visualism, including a specific triptych constellation composed of multiple images, and the other showing his hard-core color classics.
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Photo: Cheyco Leidmann
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It is a dialogue of true substance which should inspire the viewers eyes, thoughts and emotions seeing the truth of the picture , which by then is no longer just in black and white. Creative collaborator Ypsitylla von Nazareth accompanies Cheyco Leidmann on his journey.
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Galerie: Moretti & Moretti
Exhibition Title: “High Toxi-City”
6, Cour Berard, Paris
November 16 to December 8, 2012
………..30 degrees Farenheit. 30 mph winds. 6 hours of sunlight per day. Why would anyone want to go to Iceland in November? Because Iceland is one of the most visually exciting places to go the year round and winter time provides the best opportunity to see the Northern Lights. Land of fire and ice, countless magnificent waterfalls, and sheep pastures, Iceland has an unspoiled landscape and is a photographer’s dream.
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Iceland is about the size of Kentucky, a relatively small state in the U.S. and only has 300,000 inhabitants. 280,000 of them live in the capital city of Reykjavik. Since I went during the off season, there were few things open in Iceland outside of Reykjavik, so I stayed in the small city during my week-long holiday. The quaint, colorful village is sleepy during the day, but it comes alive at night when the suburban residents and tourists come out to play.
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Photo: Willa Hu
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As much as I enjoyed Reykjavik, I wanted to explore Iceland’s dramatic, unspoiled landscape. Thankfully, half of the country was easily accessible through day trips. Along routes such as the Golden Circle and Southern Coast, I came across black volcanic sand beaches, glacier outlets, and hillsides covered in green moss. There’s also the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. Since we couldn’t get a good view on land, some of my travel buddies decided to snorkel in a pond that was over the the rift.
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Photo: Willa Hu
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As much as I love scuba diving and trying new things, the 36 degree glacier water was too much for me to bear. I opted to stay on land, and visited sites like Strokkur, a geyser that erupts every 4-8 minutes. Contrary to popular belief, this is not the famous Geyser after which all geysers are named after. Geyser was next to Strokkur, but only erupts periodically because too many people have thrown rocks in it.
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Photo: Willa Hu
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Since it was so cold in November, one of my favorite destinations was the Blue Lagoon. Although it was originally a part of a lava formation, the lagoon is now filled with steamy water from the nearby geothermal power plant. Its hot, mineral-rich water is reputed to have healing powers, but most tourists visit for recreational purposes. Surrounded by big boulders and glaciers, the serene environment and steamy water provides the perfect way to end a long day.
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Photo: Willa Hu
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I got to see so many majestic sights during this trip, but I missed the opportunity to see the Northern Lights and I left the eastern coast untouched. I plan on visiting again…but sometime when it’s much warmer.
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Photo: Willa Hu
About The Author: Willa Hu is a Graduate candidate enrolled in the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsyvlania. To read additional articles by Willa Hu, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon. Photography by Willa Hu, Copyright 2012
Posted on December 2, 2012 nu Natalia Quinteros-Guevara
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……….Meet Pascuale Scioli. He’s a tailor in South Philadelphia’s East Passyunk neighborhood where he has been operating his own store for over 20 years. Pascuale, or “Pat”, as he has people call him, is a petite powerhouse of energy. He was outside of his shop when I first met him, talking to a neighborhood woman about the dying art of hand stitching. He continued to tell me how he uses the methods his grandfather used as a tailor. Pat is a very proud and extremely friendly guy who was more than willing to pose for a series of photos. This series aims to highlight the importance of artisans.
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When I went to photograph Pat, he was helping a customer who drove all the way from New Jersey to see him. “Shirts are made in a generic size nowadays,” he explained to us as he proceeded with his work. “The most important part of a shirt and suit is a good fit and attention to details”. We were all having a great time listening to Pat tell it like it is.
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Photo: Natalia Quinteros-Guevera
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Pat measures everything twice on the person before making some quick reference hand stitches for the alterations he will make. The entire fitting and alteration took 15 minutes at most. His hands are extremely fast and agile. An impressive site.
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The master craftsman shows me how he must iron out all pleats and folds made from a stitch in between each alteration to see how the pants fit. His iron was an amazing old school iron that had valves connecting to a continual feed of steam.
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Photo: Natalia Quinteros-Guevera
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One of the many things that fascinated me about Pat was his simple use of tools and how he had everything set up. Stools double as tables. Soap doubles as fabric markers. The dish has a sponge with water to make hand threading the needles happen in a second. The thread only in two colors to show up on their contrasting fabric. A simple and streamlined method from decades of experience showing that the more you know, the less you need.
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Photo: Natalia Quinteros-Guevera
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The pants from the proceeding shot are now at the worktable where he finalizes the alterations. His work space houses all essential items only. I imagine the ashtray as a harken back to times when people puffed away on cigarettes while being sized for a suit. Now the ashtray is being re-purposed for thimbles and needles, but it’s still on his table.
About The Author: Natalia Quinteros-Guevara is enrolled as a candidate for Master of Fine Arts in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
