Flying Houses by Laurent Chéhère

It’s curious that the art I’ve been drawn to recently has to do with floating or flying. Here’s another series, called, Flying Houses by Laurent Chéhère.

Flying Houses is on exhibition at Galerie Paris-Beijing in Paris from now through December 4th. Chéhère will also have work on display at the Art Miami Art Fair from December 4th through the 9th.

I have to thank my friend Kristin for first posting this series on Facebook.

Tyler, in Drifters + Wanderers

Here’s Tyler, my newest Drifter.

Mormon Missionary Positions by Neil Dacosta

I’ve always had my own fantasies about what kind of photography I could get away with if Mormon missionaries ever knocked on my door. (Then again, just like the FedEx driver from the porno, the hot Mormons are elusive to me.)

Back on track, here’s a photography series that I found amusing (slightly sacrilegious, but amusing). [Click to enlarge.]

All photos in this post by Neil Dacosta; found via mormonmissionarypositions.com.

What a Day

I woke up at 5:15 this morning after having a dream that I was forced to participate in a drag queen pageant but no one would give me any shoes or makeup, so I was walking barefoot and plain faced at the end of this line of drag queens, totally humiliated.

This led me to lay in bed and start worrying about my online presence. I got up and Googled myself, which is always a surprise. First, I didn’t expect to find that another photographer in Florida had plagiarized my Purchasing My Artwork page, word for word. This didn’t bother me so much, but I did write to him to ask him to change the words that read “at the sole discretion of Scott Barnes Photography” — since I had never heard of him or anything. (By his response, I think he was justifiably mortified.)

I was also surprised to discover that my fine art nude site, Vir Impudicus, has been indexed by Google and comes up when you type my name. The whole purpose for creating a secondary site for nude photography was to keep it unconnected to me, by name, so I’m not exactly sure how that happened. And it’s leading to mixed feelings.

On one hand, I’m not embarrassed by any of the photos I shoot. I feel they all have artistic merit. I shoot erotic art, not porn, and if you disagree that’s your problem not mine. But on the other hand, someday I might be searching for a new day job again, and I’d rather that not be the first thing a potential employer discovers about me.

I guess there are enough people with my name that it shouldn’t bother me too much — doing a Google search for my name leads one to a whole lot of content that isn’t about me. Still, my online persona is something that I think about. I suppose it’s just a good lesson in making sure that I always put my best effort forward.

I did go into Tumblr and change the setting so that this site won’t be indexed by Google. I should have been smart enough to do that in the first place. I’m not so sure that I like having a Tumblr blog, I might get rid of it. I feel like I have enough of an online presence between this site, Facebook, and Twitter. I don’t need one more time waster.

I also had my first appointment with a new therapist tonight. This should be good.

Rob Wilson

Here are a few photos of model Rob Wilson from Boston, who won a contest to become The Price Is Right‘s first male model. These photos kind of make me wish I’d stayed home last week to watch Rob’s episodes.

All photos in this post by other photographers.

Regret

World’s Oldest Known Auschwitz Survivor Has Died

I hate this. Somehow it gave me some kind of peace knowing that these people were in the world. In a strange way, I feel less hope for humanity without them.

Tom Wood: Men and Women

Here are four photos by photographer Tom Wood, who has been photographing everyday life in Liverpool for 40 years. He’s having his first major British exhibition, Men and Women, at The Photographers’ Gallery in London through January 6, 2013.

You can see a few more of Tom Wood’s photos here. I should be inspired by this to start shooting my American People series again. Wood has perfectly captured the mood I’m looking for.

All photos in this post by Tom Wood.

Thomas Sottong by Tobias Lundkvist

Here’s German model Thomas Sottong, photographed by Tobias Lundkvist for L’Officiel Hommes Germany‘s Fall 2012 issue. I love the lighting on the model’s face throughout the series.

All photos in this post by Tobias Lundkvist.

Photographing the Dead

Hollywood films gleefully celebrate slow-mo death and dismemberment, but real-deal death is something we North Americans have a hard time dealing with as a culture. We put it off. We avoid mentioning it in the presence of children. In the media, not only do we resist images of bodies (especially American or white ones), in some cases, we even resist images of caskets.

That’s an excerpt from a blog post by Carolina Miranda about why she’s okay with photographs of the dead. It’s in response to this article by Joerg Colberg, who’s photography blog I read religiously, and who considers photographs of death to be sensational.

I remember when I got Annie Leibovitz’s book, A Photographer’s Life. Among the photos of her parents at the beach and various celebrities hanging out in her studio was one photo that stuck with me, of Annie’s life-partner Susan Sontag, dead in her hospice bed. Annie even stated that she didn’t know what else to do when Susan died, so she took her portrait. The photo is beautiful, and loving. And I remember thinking that this was something that Annie Leibovitz could pull off, but not me, if I were in the same situation.

That speaks to my own conflicted feelings about this issue. I agree that it’s ironic that Americans celebrate death in movies (from Hostel to Kill Bill to Heathers to Final Destination to Pan’s Labyrinth) but yet in life, it’s almost considered crass to use the words, “he died.” Instead we substitute for it vague phrases like “passed away” or “crossed over” that are rather meaningless, when you really think about them.

I agree that we shouldn’t hide from the fact that the world and its inhabitants can be evil to each other sometimes. But at the same time no one, including myself, wants to see dead bodies every night on the news. I think there’s a way to do it right, but I also think there are many ways that photographs of death and violence cheapens and sensationalizes the story. I’m not scholarly enough to define the difference, I just know it when I see it.

Your thoughts?

Jason

I haven’t had a whole lot of photo shoots recently, but I think that’s going to change in the coming weeks.

Here’s Jason, one of the most recent guys I’ve photographed. Jason drove almost 7 hours to work with me. You can see more of his photos on my secondary website, Vir Impudicus, in the gallery called, Vir Impudicus. Be forewarned that some of the following images are not safe for work.