‘FaAshph00grphy’

Hiyah. How’s you? Good, I hope. Welcome back to another scurrilous communiqué from the sbh. Again can I say that I have no structure for these so it’s how they come out. This week’s notion fumble has been turning to thoughts of the creating, especially in the smaller content arenas of sbh. I’m wondering if I should make some more new stuff on it, as I really do enjoy making what I’m affectionately calling:

Fash/model/clothes/portrait or ‘FaAshph00grphy’

My areas of attraction to this style of work is, as always, the vibes, from the dancefloor to the photo studio, the thing that I linked into most, is the mood/aura/ambience/spirit/ of the person plus the clothes plus the hair plus the make-up plus setting. Don’t get me wrong I love the clothes but its more about who’s and how they are wearing them, plus the latest clothes are always difficult to access this especially when self-styling etc etc etc

Of course in these troubled times then questions creep in, into the whys, whatsthepoint etcetc…

Why do we do anything in fact? What’s the point in the face of all this adversity and shit?

Of course we are all only human and the oppressive facets of this shitshower of elected by bigot’s, fascist, unfamiliar toffs running the country, they want you to make you question anything you do that isn’t what they think is acceptable...

The answer is of course, yes, yes, yes, you have to create. You have to create when and where you can, you have to bring something into the world, for your own sake and you hopefully create something that feeds souls (yours AND others) and promote the act of to ‘do something’.

For me to start the creation process off I need a set of letters put together that sums it all up. And to make this stuff I desperately need an all-encompassing name to unify it. To firmly place it looking upwards to a banner, a place to base the manifesto, the unifying word that adds to a cause. Basically these last few years I’ve been trying to find a word that would sum up the images I’d like to make I initially thought of two put together that summed it up ‘Inappropriately Divine’

But felt this may be a touch too pretentious…

How about the word crude maybe spelt (C)rude?

Sluttry anyone?

To the dic-(tionary) and we have all sort for sexi:

sexually attractive seductive desirable alluring inviting sensual sultry slinky provocative tempting tantalizing nubile voluptuous shapely luscious hot fanciable beddable fit foxy cute bootylicious spunky erotic arousing exciting stimulating sexually explicit titillating suggestive racy risqué spicy juicy adult rude coarse smutty pornographic vulgar crude lewd lubricious raunchy steamy naughty horny porno X-rated triple-X XXX Blue saucy fruity gamy. Exciting stimulating interesting appealing intriguing fashionable trendy 

Hmmm, lot of baggage there isn’t there…Maybe the best way to the ‘word’ would be to look at the influences, what work I want to produce, what influences that, what the zeitgeist is and what’s happening….Well, Fashion at the moment is all about this anywayway, it’s mainly the season?? But as the world (well the uk mainly!) enters recession, hemlines get longer or is the other way round? Do we get less inclined or more inclined?

Let us start on the work I’m thinking of remoulding, this is a combination of some stuff I grew up with, the stuff that I was told was good in this field, stuff that interested me and the cliches of phortttohrawaapgggtyhy….*yawn*….But in the act of looking back at the photographers, they are all now tainted in some way and once they are tainted like that, I don’t want anything to do with them, I hear that you can separate the artist from the art BUT if they are someone you don’t want to be associated with, if you wouldn’t be seen with them then don’t amplify their work, yes? Everytime I think yes that’s an image, look at who has made it and go ‘eewwww’ then it’s not a good sign is it?

That limits the field somewhat, and also this type of work ushers in the hackneyed idea of the classic photographer as a perv role welcomes itself in here, which combines with the usual perry mason/ midsummer murders/soaps typical view of photographers, where if one appears then you know they done it….is there a market for a sympathetic portrayal of a photographer or is the world not ready for that yet?

Anyways I digress, bac to the work I wanna create, I thought that it was something different from *that*, the images I want to create are light-hearted, empowering, unashamed, possibly a little raunch within acceptable boundaries. Tongue firmly in cheek, dare I even say glamour ??? Now there’s a word that conjurors up all sorts of manifestations, meanings, most of them can be so easily dismissed these days, so think the most acceptable word now is raunch or sexy or sultry isn’t it?

I think if I had to start somewhere I’d like to do a postmodernist takes on the lads mag type image, possibly using a model that would never have appeared in them previously perhaps? Cliched much?

Of course if this is what you want to do then it follows you absolutely have to discuss why you want to make these images. My main worry that I’m just contributing to the commodification of women’s bodies, the connotations of what that means now are bigger than ever and that does not sit pretty. I would be yet another stale, pale, male making tired images of (what will now be quite a lot) younger females and that raises a lot of concerns doesn’t it? The idea of these type of images (and especially who made them) gives me a shudder so therefore maybe I shouldn’t make this kinda of work anymore? Maybe that moment has gone, well until the next time someone influenceable introduces it but until then what should one create?

I have no answers as of yet, I’ll have to think on about that.

Anyway to an image, as I don’t have full permissions for a lot of the fash stuff I made, I’ve had to adapt it, cut out the distinguishing features, much like I do with my club stuff and that’s when I thought to mash them together as I’d done before so here is this week’s illustrative piece. I’m doing this pixelated mosaic ‘thing’ quite a bit recently, really seems to be fitting with the ideas I have surrounding the archive and what I’m making but does it work? Has it not been done to death? Or am I doing it differently, again that is something only the audience can answer.

In with the love.

Ciao Bella.