Disclaimer:  All of the images described in this blog and the 143 magazines, art galleries, and bathroom stalls to follow are not to be taken more seriously then you take yourself.  (note: This may vary per reader).

Please accept in advance my apology for trying to call out an encyclopedia of images that don’t want their picture taken anymore and for attempting to find a beauty that exists without the need to airbrush your plastic tits.  Thank you.

1. Beauty needed to be seen in a new light (or an old one for that matter), clicking the proverbial fashion refresh button if you will.

2. Photography is begging to get it’s mojo back (or in English: making a silent plea for a return to the aesthetic and conceptual groundwork that separated the medium from painting, graphic design, and the point and shoot, can’t expose or light, but I can fix it in post and create some surreal shit.

3. We all need to laugh more often. 

Technically, I break down the conventions of fashion and glamour photography…the angles, settings, make-up designs, wardrobe, prop use, etc.  I satire, parody and sometimes pay homage to work from the past that both wrecked the art form for commercial conformity and dignified a youthful era in commercial art and photography by employing subtle technical and conceptual references.  To me, neither satire nor parody works if it’s too blatant and it must attempt to mask itself behind a replication of actuality.

China is Going to Fuck Us Up (economically speaking)

It’s certainly a perilous time for both the world and our country.  As trivial as commercial photography can be, any artistic gesture can socially define a culture through the visual guideline it creates and become an emblem of attitude for our youth and the rest of the world to see.  My work is a continual gesture of whimsy and raw emotion, a continual suggestion of course correction.  Politely and in equity I offer: “Fuck you Maxim.  Fuck you MOMA.  Now kiss and make up and so we can massage our collective egos fireside with some Perrier and caviar while debating the genius of Sir Warhol and the gears of his factory.”

Socially speaking the communicative possibilities of selling “fashion” and beauty are endless.  Fashion photography has always been a source of refuge where Art could hide as commerce and vice versa.  Wasn’t there something both striking and revealing in Avedon’s work – something that went beyond the brand he was selling?  Warhol submerged us in our own popular culture.  He sold, sells, and says….a lot…about us.  Images that don’t evoke lose their ability to communicate.  Images that regurgitate convention or repeat for the sake of proving marketability or technical prowess are simply empty gestures and only serve to piss off Iran and North Korea even more (just wanted to see if you were still paying attention with that last part).

Turning the Tide One Unconventional Image at a Time

Nothing changes without risk.  My shutter finger doesn’t even get out of bed unless it knows it will take one.  Personally, I can’t imagine defining my work by creating an image that I don’t make my own.  Derive all you want but the ensemble of influences should only support and not dictate the artist’s unique voice within the piece.  Whether the image is purely whimsical or a serious jab at reshaping or creating new fashion forward conventions, all the pieces in this series are aimed at evoking an emotion or feeling and cushioning the sensory pleasure at it’s core with a defined yet subtle gesture of meaning.

Photography gave me a piece of clay to work with.  I looked around to see all the other students who were given the same piece, yet they all chose to mold the same figure.  With this series I smiled at my piece of clay and started to mold all of the students – a portrait of what it looks like to see creatives creating the same thing.

A Conclusive Paragraph that Doesn’t Start with the Word “Overall”

Warhol decided to make a can of Campbell’s soup a piece of art as a gesture against the conventional wisdom of art itself, while still employing a satirical gesture and recognition of mass production and consumerism’s affect on pop culture and vice versa.  What I’m trying to say is that commercial photography has become an endless shelf of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and with these images I present to you the “most gorgeous” can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup…ever. 😉