CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

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……!

Charlene Lanza

…..No stranger to the studio, pin-up artist Charlene Lanza and TW met through a mutual friend, fellow painter and guest blogger Mikel Elam back in the nineties while they we’re hanging out regularly in Soho. Recently, the artist and the photographer met again for a portrait sitting and to introduce her latest works to our growing audience. Ms. Lanzel is an American artist, originally from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Born in 1967, she started to paint with passion at the age of five. Self taught and determined to exhibit her works beyond the confines of a small town, she moved to New York City at the age of 20 and has been enjoying the creative process in the Big Apple ever since.

We are delighted to introduce a sampling of her work to you. To learn more about Charlene’s painting’s, log on to www.charlenelanzel.com…….

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

Nirvana By Mikel Elam

…..Guest Blogger, Patrick Breslin a professor of Speech Communication at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida; writes a commentary about Mikel Elam’s state of “Nirvana”, the studio’s Painting of the Day…….

Mikel Elam’s painting titled “Nirvana” depicts a male figure seated in meditation. The painting is a partial patchwork: the figure’s head encased in an orange square, the torso in a dark gray one. The background contains light colored disks, gold leaf squares, and dark purple 5-spoked behandled circles reminiscent of Buddhist icons, all ensconced in rectangular shapes. The dominant shade at the bottom of the painting is also purple, suggesting a base or ground, and philosophically linked to the icons; the top is adorned with swaths of blue, suggesting sky.

The meditator in the painting is a multiracial collage. The head appears African; the torso a shade of bronze; the lower abdomen and legs partake of a dark Caucasian complexion; the arms lighter—the left hinting at orange, the right bordering on pink—, and both terminating in an empty space of unpainted hands.

The title of the piece suggests several interpretations. Nirvana by definition refers to the ultimate peaceful state, and the multiracial makeup of the subject of the painting seems to propose that the blending of races, or at least their acceptance of one another, might lead to a peaceful existence. In the context of meditation as understood in popular culture, the lower abdomen whimsically lacks a navel, the historically clichéd object of meditation, causing the viewer to wonder whether the meditator in the painting is a holy incarnation not born of a woman. The viewer observes that the head of the subject does not fully connect to the body; the two are separated by a strip of the orange color from the box that surrounds the head. One could read into this that the nirvanic state of the meditator is all within the mind, disembodied, the concept of which does align with classic Buddhist perspectives.

The goal of meditation is enlightenment, whose common metaphor is light. Meditation is practiced in the mind—in the head—, yet the color scheme of the meditator’s body in the painting casts the darkest shades on the head and the lightest ones on the nonexistent hands, reversing the typical expectation and intimating that perhaps through the hands one expresses one’s degree of spiritual development, as Elam may be attempting to do in this work.

Pat Breslin Vulcan Days

Selfy's

……When the email arrived with an attached photo of an attractive woman holding a book entitled Orgasm, it certainly got a lot of attention at the studio. An assistant commented “she must be a fan”. The planning, the execution of the picture was clever, striking and the model was exotic looking. The book that she was holding was published in the year 2000 by yours truly. It was quite a compliment.

We learned that the picture was a self-portrait or “self’y” as Alejandra Guerrero affectionately describes her passion for often making herself a subject. It has been exciting to watch the talented Columbian born, 30 year old, rise to the rank of international photographer.

Alejandra calls Chicago her home and is currently where she resides. However, she also shoots in LA and is currently abroad working on various projects in Scotland and England at the present time. It is our pleasure to offer you a sampling of the ambitious work of this talented young photogrpaher. To learn more about Alejandra’s work, log on to www.alt-er-ego.com. …………

Kissing A Fool

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Marketing Widgets-Michael Jackson Movie Release

…..Ed Simmons for a long time now has been the point man for Tony Ward Studio when shooting in Los Angeles. Assistant to TW on the set in LA, accomplished photographer in his own right and blogger, writes about the pending opening of LA LIVE and Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal tapes. Photographs of Ed courtesy, Stephanievovas.com ……..

Ed Simmons Lights Up

There has never been anything like this. The only thing I can think of that come’s close is six big screens, at the Sidewalk Cafe in Venice, all tuned together, to the Andy Griffith Show. It’s a coin toss as to which has more social content. Wait a minute, its not even close; Andy Griffith gets it hands down.?p?
Well, there is still hope for the world. I saw a Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer Truck out making deliveries. There are still clubs like the Troubadour. These theaters, at LA LIVE will open in a big way. When have you heard of a movie theater complex with a grand opening covered by World Media? People are flying in from over seas, standing in line for days, to buy movie tickets. Has to be a first!

I am, and always will be, a fan of talent. As I see it, (doubtful that I will), the movie “THIS IS IT”, is about a whole lotta nothing. Videotapes of rehearsals for a concert tour, that never was. As the foundation for a documentary, about a successful Michael Jackson tour with such a demanding schedule is an important part to laying down the story. But there is no story here. This is about wringing out one more pound of flesh.

I had spent no time at LA LIVE prior to going to work in construction at the theaters. It had always been no mans land around there. Any media coverage of the area, up until now, had always been of civil unrest issues or a Laker championship victory celebration. Lot’s of coworkers in construction parked down there, while working on the towers of LA back in the eighties.

I went down looking for work once a couple years back, after returning to Los Angeles from Philly. I ran into my old boss, Jose, from the Cathedral project in Central Los Angeles. He couldn’t put me on; he had just thinned out his crew. After wrapping up work on the theaters, I thought I’d spend a little time around lunch, to see what kind of traffic moved through.

This is a sports and entertainment complex on a grand scale. Dozens of eateries line the open courtyards. I guess they got a no competition clause in their lease. The only coffee to be had is Starbucks. I was getting a little sugar and cream in my coffee during my break, when this sweet young thing came up beside me, to fix her tea. I gave her a little more room, excused my self for spreading out so much at the small counter. I’m at about that age, when young women, see me as someone sweet, fatherly, somewhat harmless. I really have fun with it.
I don’t kid myself, I’m still breathing! She said I was fine, I thanked her; I told her she was fine as well!!!

There are a lot of condominiums surrounding this complex. Not enough people making real money though to fill them up. I thought I’d find lots of people out and about at lunch, after all, about 72 degrees, clear, crisp, autumn air, any other city, this would have drawn them out for sure. I’ve heard this place has been coined the “Times Square of the Left Coast.”

I don’t think I counted more than twenty people at any given time, moving through the courtyards. That must be all wishful thinking. Maybe when the Ritz Carlton wraps up construction, all the pieces will be in place. Now here’s a crazy thought; how about an Organic Pharmacy Super Store, complete with an Old School Soda Fountain, that would sure draw some people in?

Seriously, the problem here is there is no money! More people need good jobs for something on this scale to work and trickle down doesn’t work anymore. It was only a couple of days after Michael Jackson died that work began when promoters developed their new widget. Across the news, word of rehearsal video surfaced. Suddenly, a movie that would be ready for a late October release became the latest MJ headline.

Some big deals had to be cut, timing was paramount. These folks were in court before the poor man was even in the ground! The date for the movie release wasn’t just pulled out of a hat. I worked in construction on the theaters at LA LIVE in the beginning of September. In a little more than a week on the job, I had it all figured out. There is nothing personal in business. I guess this is what makes it all OK. At the end of September it was announced, the Michael Jackson movie, a compilation of rehearsal videos that was posthumously titled, “THIS IS IT” would premiere in all fourteen new theaters, being built at LA LIVE. It is clear to me that the promoters were all over this financial opportunity. The spin was well crafted.

The public was told the rehearsals were video taped. How the world lost a tremendous talent and that the comeback of Michael Jackson would have been triumphant. We all now would have the chance to see the concert that was never to be.

Ed Blogs Yeeha.Org/Art

Joe Mammana

…..When the call came in to the studio to arrange for a portrait sitting with Joe Mammana, it seemed as though the urban egg farmer was sitting on top of the world. Owner of Yardley Farms, a successful egg-processing business that apparently was handed down from his Sicilian father. Joe enjoyed the comforts of wealth and an extravagant lifestyle. There was the flashy Joe, the Ferrari, the trophy girlfriends, the beautiful clothes.

There was another side to Joe that lay dormant, a 20 year criminal history, which included convictions for aggravated assault, theft, forgery and dealing steroids. Around the time this picture was taken, Joe seemed to have turned his misfortunes around by finding solace in philanthropic pursuits. Mammana became active in Philadelphia’s Citizen’s Crime Commission, and offered more than one million in reward money for leads to solving serious crimes.

Earlier this year Mr. Mammana’s dark side resurfaced as he was arrested, prosecuted and is presently serving an eight year sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and tax evasion. Mr. Mammana’s inner demons for now have won a perpetual inner battle……

At Home With Becky Lewis

…..When you enter her home even on the brightest of days it’s dark. The first thing you notice are the black walls. Ms. Lewis chose black because it has a calming effect on her. Perhaps a way to escape the hustle and bustle of Philadelphia’s, Port Richmond neighborhood. She didn’t grow up in the city however, and that’s where her story get’s more interesting.

Becky grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington, Delaware, which she asserts she hated as a child. Her father an emergency room physician. Her mother a registered nurse. She absolutely adores her parents. Good schools, private schools at that, can do great things for the mind of a child. The education opened up many doors to Becky’s inherent creativity. She left the nest early however, just eighteen. College was not in the cards, a yearning for life in a bigger city, she moved to the city of brotherly love.

Fascinated by tattoo’s at an early age, the arrival in to the big city provided her access to Philadelphia’s sizable tattoo culture. Ms. Lewis has become one of the icons of that culture. You’ll be seeing and hearing more about Ms. Lewis soon……

The Love of Tattoo

Guest Blogger Diana Desiderio, in her own words, provides us with a glimpse in to the sporting world of women who wrestle…….

Diana Desiderio Seated

“It’s very hard to believe that it has been almost five years since I hit the ring. Growing up in Philadelphia presented a fairly tough upbringing. So why not take the beating with the guts and the glory? In my early 20’s, I was offered an opportunity to train with a lot of well known names on the Indy circuit. Being a native of South Philly, a lot of the greats that you see today came out of Water and Ritner Streets, where the old ECW venue still remains. Without thinking twice, I fell into training three times a week and doing shows every week for next to peanuts all for the love of the labor involved in the sport.

Ringside

When your involved in what is traditionally considered a “mans sport”, you got to take it like a man. Eventually, I worked for a pay-per-view women’s federation, a completely different world opened up to me there, more glitz and glamour. As my ring savy progressed, I was getting noticed more and more, even on the streets, it was a good feeling. So I contacted a friend of mine who is the producer for the Howard Stern Show. At that time, I was part of the infamous tag team called “Hells Belles”, including the illustrious Annie Social. We were on a roll.

We both worked very hard to try and make in an industry that is very hard for women to be taken seriously, for the skills we possess in the ring.

Unfortunately, during a match, I was badly injured and was forced to resign from my love of taking hard hits. It has been my honor and privilege to have fought with the best of them. It’s even greater to have stories to tell the grand kids.”

Hells Belles