Friday, September 29, 2006

Update: Experimental Printing

A day or two ago, I mentioned that I wanted to experiment with new printers. Although I LOVE my current printer, and I think the prints are flawless and I absolutely love them, they're quite expensive to produce, and thus quite expensive to purchase. My hope was to find another printer that could perhaps do a comparable job, but be much less expensive. I received the prints today. I'm not happy. I knew I was sacrificing quality for price, but that was a HUGE mistake. Theoretically, these are collector's items (assuming people collected them), and I should in no way compromise quality. It would be insulting if I sold these to anyone. The color is splotchy, pictures that are actually quite sharp came out blurry, and the image isn't centered on the paper. The paper is cheap, and shipping damaged a few of the prints. Terrible, terrible. So, I'm sticking with my old printer, and I'm more loyal than ever. Yes, it may mean I sell fewer prints because they're pricey, but I don't doubt you would get what you pay for.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Mostly incommunicado until Monday...

My mom and her spousal-equivalent are flying in from DC this afternoon, and will be here until Monday. Therefore, I will be mostly incommunicado unless I have interesting news (like anything involving a certain Canadian television show...)

A testament to how awesome my mom is: when I told her about my commissioned project for Box, with the orgasm faces and masturbating, her immediate reaction was, "Oh Honey, that's great! It sounds very interesting*"

*(genuinely "interesting", not interesting as a euphamism/stand-in for "I'm not sure what to think of this")

Hooray for Mom and Peter. I kinda wish they were here last week, when I could have taken them to the Folsom Street Fair. My mom actually sounded interested in going. Yes, she knew it was an S&M fest.

Sigh....

Just when I start to think there might be hope for humanity, I hear about something like this:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/stories/DN-nakedcomplaint_24cco.ART0.North.Edition1.3e87f61.html

I just don't get it....

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

New Printing Methods?

I'm playing around with a new printing service, and I know the photos will look good, I'm just worried about the cropping and the final image size. I refuse to crop my images, so I'm experimenting with printing on different size papers from different services to see how big the images actually are. I can't give exact measurements for the image size, but I can tell you the paper size and tell you that the image will be full-frame and slightly smaller than the listed paper size. Don't get me wrong, I'm very loyal to my usual printing service, but for different sized prints, I just wanted to see what my options were.

So here's the skinny: because these are EXPERIMENTAL prints, and I'll be getting a lot of them, I thought I'd let people make requests for certain images to be printed, and then you have the choice in purchasing them at a significantly lower price than usual. If the pictures look good, congrats, you just bought a print of mine for a really good price. If they don't meet my standards, the only person who loses is me.

You can choose any picture you want on the site. Shipping is included in the price. Email samantha at his dot com if interested.

Here are the prices for the PAPER size:
(remember: the image itself will be slightly smaller)
5"x7": $15
8"x10": $20
11"x14": $30
16"x20": $50
20"x30": $100

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

New Mini Project: Need Models

The ever-so-awesome Box Magazine (box-mag.com), who featured in me in their second issue, has commissioned me to take a photo essay of people's orgasm faces while they masturbate. This should be very entertaining. Now, they were nice enough to help me find some models, given that I recently moved across the country and know so few paople, but I can't imagine I can't find my own models, too. So, if you or anyone you know is completely comfortable with the idea of a.) being photographed masturbating, and b.) having lots and lots of people see it's you, email me at samantha at his dot com. So, you all know I take this thing very seriously, so if anyone even thinks of emailing me dirty notes and asking me to participate, fluff you, "help you out", or anything similar, I will be forced to immediately delete your email, or, if I'm in an exceptionally bad mood, post your email on my blog. Yes, I would do it, I'm that mean. So don't send me evil emails! So again, anyone out there who wants to be photographed masturbating, and you think you can handle me being there with a camera in your face, let me know.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Interview

TheEroticWoman.com posted my interview with them this morning. Perhaps not my most erudite comments, but I had a lot of fun with it. You may need to join in order to read it, but it's free, and I haven't received any spam so far, so I think you're safe. It's a fun site, so you should sign up anyway.

So, I may have mentioned that I've been looking for a "real job" in the arts that won't suck out my soul. It's more complicated than it seems. So, between sending in applications and reading my umpteenth rejection letter, I've been sending out submission packets to galleries and magazines. I sent out 10 a few weeks ago, and so far, I have a list of about 20 today, and I'm not done yet. Someone please cross a few fingers or finger-shaped appendages for me, will ya? Thanks.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Updated Website

My absolutely wonderful webmistress Rachel has finished updating my site. Here are the changes:

1. The BIO page is now the INFO page. The INFO page now has my artist's statement, pricing info for prints (sort of), and info on modeling.
2. The RESUMÉ page has been updated.
3. The PRESS page has been broken down into new categories. Published work has been broken down into either the PRINT WORK category or the WEB WORK category.
4. There have been updates to the resumé, links, and press pages. Nothing big, but updates nonetheless.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Update

The website is half updated, so sit tight. I'll let you know when it's fully done.

In the meantime, "Cattus Interruptus" and "In the Motel, 5" will be in the Fall 2006 Edition/Issue of Zeugma Magazine (www.zeugmamag.com). Each copy is hand-bound and individually silkscreened for $8 each, shipping is $2.50. It's a really small magazine, but it sounds pretty interesting.

If you're interested in buying a copy:

Mail to: Zeugma Literary Journal
c/o Eastern Edge Gallery
P.O. Box 2641, Station C
St. John’s NL
A1C 6K1
CANADA
Cheque, money order or cash only; make payable to “Tomasz Mrozewski”.

Shipping costs may be waived for customers in St. John’s who can arrange for convenient pickup or delivery.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

New Work





Monday, September 18, 2006

Sorry for the delay...

The shoot Saturday afternoon was about 650 pictures, and the quickie shoot that evening was about 150. Between Saturday, Sunday, and today, I've spent about 6 hours editing, and I'm nowhere near done. Sit tight.

Friday, September 15, 2006

New work coming soon

I have two shoots tomorrow, one with a couple in the East Bay in the early afternoon, and a quickie with a pregnant couple late that night. So maybe some photos in the next few days...

Website stuff

Jane's Guide (janesguide.com) reviewed my site and named me a Vamp pick! Cool. Their one complaint was that I never actually say how people can buy prints. Which brings me to my next bit.

My fabulous webmistress and I are in the middle of doing some moderate revamping of the site. Nothing major, but now that I feel like I have a better idea of what kinds of pictures I'm taking, I can better categorize my pictures, so a lot of shots will be moved around. I also have some things to add to my resume, and I will be adding a price list. Because you know, genius that I am, I forgot to put one in the first time around....

Thursday, September 14, 2006

I need to say this again.....

A few days ago, I posted a one sentence post: "Blake Gopnik can kiss my ass." It was only up for about 20 minutes before I decided it was immature. But you know what? Screw that. He is pompous, elitist, and narrow-minded. So let me amend my statement:

Blake Gopnik can kiss my young, incredibly sexy, naked woman photographing ASS.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Read this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091200267.html

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Thoughts: Pregnancy in Erotic Art

I’ve been approached by about four different couples during the past few days. I’ve been corresponding with some interesting people, and I’m optimistic about having some new shoots soon.

One of these couples informed me they were pregnant. Only about four months along, but she was starting to show--”would this be a problem?” Of course not! I told them working with a pregnant couple would be a first for me, and I was very excited about the prospect of doing something so new to me.

But I got to thinking: why aren’t more pregnant women featured in erotic art? I don’t mean traditional nude photography, where pregnant women are merely accessories in “explorations of human curvature” (gag). The whole “lets put a curvy woman against a mysterious backdrop with stark lighting to play up how curvy she is” schtick is so trite and overdone, I find it insulting to everyone involved: the photographer (big fish in a small pond, falling back on what he/she/ze knows is safe, too cowardly to really delve into something new), the model (reduced to looks, don’t get me started on THAT Feminist conundrum), and the audience, who was just robbed of the time it took to look at the photo and remind themselves that the photo isn’t anything new, and it was probably done infinitely better by Imogen Cunningham or Helmut Newton, so why bother with this imposter? Yeah, that’s right, I can be downright nasty. Like I’ve said before, I have an intense, intense hatred of traditional nude photography. But I digress.

Back to the original question at hand. Why AREN’T more pregnant women featured in erotic photography? They seem like they would be perfect candidates. First of all, they’ve obviously had sex. Second, I’ve been told the hormones drive them batty. And yet, pregnant have rarely, if ever, been featured as intense sexual beings in art history. My suspicion is that it stems from a time when the health of the general populace was fairly unstable, and when a woman became pregnant, there was (unfortunately) a significant risk that she would lose the baby. As a result, pregnant women were sheltered and protected. More graphic erotic art (such as mine) has historically been associated with a more hedonistic mentality, images of people who love sex, pleasuring themselves, and they don’t care who witnesses it. In that context, pregnancy was something that “happened” to women, a roadblock of sorts, because now her responsibilities lay with the baby. Her sexuality was denied. My boyfriend informed me last night that there are people with pregnancy fetishes (don’t ask me how he knows this), which I’m not surprised by, as that is what a fetish is, the application of sexual associations to something decidedly asexual. I find this incredibly problematic. Not only does it imply that pregnant women aren’t sexual beings, but it reinforces a myopic ideal of what IS sexual. This also applies to fat fetishes, transsexual fetishes, and senior citizen fetishes.

I’ve never made any secret of my attempts to expand the idea of “erotic art,” hoping to encourage people to reevaluate their definitions of art and porn, or at least the binary between them. Much of this stems from who I work with. I like working with non-models (I don’t really like using the phrase “real people”, as it implies models are fake people. That’s not fair.) It’s a bit of a departure from traditional erotic photography, where professional models are used (but I’m not the first to do this, let’s be honest). I personally think photos of non-models having sex is more erotic than models because a.) you don’t see it all that often, so it’s usually more alluring, and b.) it’s easier to relate to. That’s not to say that models aren’t sexy, or that I’m trying to deny them their sexuality. But if a photograph of two non-models having sex is heralded for being erotic, then it sends the message that ANYONE can be celebrated as a highly sexual being. This includes pregnant women. I hope I get an opportunity to work with this couple and show how sexy they can be. These are two people who are comfortable enough with their sexuality to show it off, and who obviously love each other very much, so much so that made a baby together. What’s wrong with that?

I know I haven’t given much opportunity for input, but I’d like to start a dialogue. Any thoughts?

Monday, September 11, 2006

New Work: First Photos from SF!

Oh my goodness, yesterday's shoot was fantastic. This couple is amazing. They originally emailed me about a week and a half ago, we bounced ideas off each other, they casually announced they were getting married ("Oh, and we're getting married Sunday, so can we shoot next weekend?"), and we made a date. They absolutely understood where I was coming from, they were very open and comfortable with their sexuality, and were very excited about working with me. Plus, they thought I was brilliant and fabulous, so they get brownie points. :)

The shoot itself was only about 30-45 minutes, which is incredibly short for me, and I ended up with 102 photos. These are my favorites. They love them, I love them, smiles all around.












Saturday, September 09, 2006

Update

Ok, here's some news:
1. Had a job interview on Wednesday. I think it went really well, but I don't want to jinx it. If I get it, I'll let you know.
2. Theoretically, I'll have two shoots this weekend, one tonight, and one tomorrow. Except that I've only been able to confirm the one tomorrow, so maybe it's only the one. Either way, there will be more pictures soon.
3. I just did an interview with The Erotic Woman (theeroticwoman.com). It should come out in a week or two, I'll post a link. Claire, their webmistress (also, very pregnant) seems to really like me, and we're working on seeing what else we can do together. It seems that she's been approached by a few publishers, but given that the site is fairly young, she doesn't want to jump into something like that prematurely. But then it happens, I'll be there, and it'll rock.
4. I am going to the Ghiradelli Chocolate Festival today, and writing lots of letters to galleries in hopes that maybe they'll like me enough to show my work. Maybe. I've only written two, and they're both going to DC. I have a bunch more to go, and that's only for people in DC and SF. I'm not reay for NYC, LA, or Chicago yet. But if anyone knows someone who might be interested....

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Happy Labor Day!

Yeah, I know it's tomorrow, but tomorrow is my birthday, and I'll be too busy then to say it.

See, this is how great I am: 22 years ago, I planned the timing of my own birth so that someday, everyone could have the day off to celebrate my birthday. I'm just that nice. :)