Updates, (s)Light of Hand, and the Occult ShootIt has been an incredible summer for my art. I don't think I've ever been this artistically productive, and I've had several breakthroughs in my processes. I've also gotten a lot more comfortable with the idea that my art is erotic and sensual. I've made enough new art over the past three months to support dividing my work into four major categories: Wet Plate, Gilded Cyanotype, Psychedelic, and "Anima" (for "normal" stuf). This has justified and triggered a rework of my online portfolio and, even scarier, I'm actually making efforts to get my work into at least one gallery and get a show before the end of 2025. My pace of shooting is necessarily going to slow down, and then halt, as summer ends and we head into fall and winter. I'm going to be diving deeper into some of the stuff I mentioned above, and featuring some of the shoots I've done, in the months to come. The biggest news over the last three months was that I fought down my imposter syndrome sufficiently to enter some of my recent work into a juried competition. Specifically, I entered an alternative photography juried competition called 2024 (s)Light of Hand, judged by Michael Kirchoff and hosted by the Photographer's Eye Collective.
I entered three of my gilded cyanotype prints, and was delighted to learn that one of my prints was selected by the juror for inclusion in an exhibition at the gallery: Oracle Anima, featuring my muse Alice Crowe (Instagram & OnlyFans):
I had fun choosing a frame for this print, which is required for the collective to display it in the exhibition. I almost never frame my prints, and I knew that I wanted to find something in gold that would compliment the print's gold leaf. Here's what I ended up going with:
I'm really proud of how this print turned out, and I'm even more proud that it's getting some recognition. A lot of the credit for this print is due to Alice Crowe, who had an idea for an Aleister Crowley-inspired occult/Thelema shoot. Here's a shot of good ol' Aleister in a "Magus" Thelema costume:
This sounded like a really fun concept shoot to me, and so Alice and I collaborated on the wardrobe, accessories, etc. Because she was so excited about this shoot concept, Alice talked a model friend into joining us for the shoot: Lorna Lynne (@moonladylorna on Instagram). So, not only did I get to have fun with a concept shoot, but it ended up being the first shoot I've ever worked with two models at the same time. Not going to lie: It was challenging! I really wanted this shoot to be special, so I packed up my wet plate camera and portable darkroom and prepared to have my first wet plate session on-location, out of the comfort of my garage. I was totally nervous, and between my technical screw ups with the wet plate and the limited number of plates I was able to make, we got one semi-usable plate. There was subject motion, since the exposure was 10 seconds long and I don't think I properly communicated just how still I needed the models to be during the exposure. I also totally screwed up the collodion pour and development, which was particularly challenging in the tight confines of the portable darkroom. This isn't a technically great wet plate -- it's actually the opposite: it's crap. But as an image, it still totally works:
In any event, the shoot was a lot of fun. I won't say that it exceeded my vision -- I'd love to do it again with additional/different poses and props, probably in a studio. But Alice loved it and it resulted in "Oracle Anima" -- which I think is the best piece of art I've ever made -- so I'm not complaining. Here are some behind the scenes shots and other images that I'm particularly fond of from this shoot:
I was also, very intentionally and I'm sure clumsily, channeling Diane Arbus here:
Finally, here's the original digital (please don't judge) color photograph that became "Oracle Anima":
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