A Celebration of Trans
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And I'm happy! And I am brunette, so I feel like mysef again...was fun playing a redhead for a day, thanks to the magic of SL. In my real life I am forever brunette, in SL, every color of the rainbow, but in small doses...brunette 97% of the time there too, it just feels like me because that is me. Isn't it funny how we can't disassociate ourselves from the things that make up who we are at our very core even in SL. Well, I guess maybe a lot of people can, but my SL persona is very reflective of my real life self. :)
I'm sorry for posting another photo after already posting one yesterday...but I was playing and it was a sweet, pretty adventure today, so here we are! I hope everyone had a great start to the new week! :) <3
Experienced some moments of disassociation the other morning as I ventured out into a thick layer of ground fog. The fog created a weird mental disconnect as the ordinary landscape was rendered as a monochromatic otherworld. This alone was more than plenty for my creative mind to act upon. But as I lingered, I found the brightening sky to the east particularly fascinating. I tend to be a creature of the night and my time here (and in general) is usually the later part of day and evening, sometime even past sunset. My entire psyche revolves around sunset and seeing (and composing photos) with light emanating from the western sky. My small world looks completely different during those rare occasions when I am out shooting in the early morning. Invigorating to see the visual tables turned in this manner and sense that I am exploring familiar ground for the first time. I invariably find myself shooting from angles that make absolutely no sense at other times of day. Here I love the layering effect of diminishing clarity as the landscape is enveloped by fog as it recedes from the lens. In my mind, nothing exists beyond what I can see. In these moments my tiny universe shrinks even further. Very odd to feel such confinement when standing outdoors in an open space; a rich visual and visceral dichotomy.
Well, not really, I just wanted to post another shot of my first Wood Duck sighting.
Seen in the front pond at the Mt. Whitney fish hatchery. Off of Highway 395, ca.
Although, on the weird side, the breakup of reflections revealed a disassociated eye near the bottom.
Sun will rise and set - presence of Life on earth is not a precondition!
In my posts I have referred the liquid of Deadsea as " fluid" ; never called it "water". We , the earthlings can never disassociate life and water ! A liquid which doesn't support life , not even micro organism , I refuse to call it Water !
Enjoy the surreal scene of setting sun over a lake of no life !
My friend BKHagar *Kim* bought a “mystery tub” of china from an auction, all wrapped in old newspaper. She sent me a photo of the box as she had received it from the auction, and I pointed out that she had a Royal Albert teacup from the 1930s amongst them. You can see her beautiful 1932 Royal Albert "Petit-Point" teacup here: www.flickr.com/photos/bkhagar_gallery/54482268384/in/phot... or in the first comment below. She asked me how on earth could I know that just from seeing half a cup and a handle sticking out of some newspaper. My answer to her was that I had a teacup in a different pattern with the exact same cup shape and handle in my decorative china collection, and this is it.
This is a Royal Albert trio decorated with the pattern "April Showers" featuring a transfer that was then over-painted by hand. "April Showers" was produced from the 1920s through to the 1950s in a range of colours (I also have a blue variation), featuring a different style of teacup for each decade. This cup shape has the delightful name of "Hampton" and was used during the 1930s. The trio features a square cake plate, implying that this set was made in the early part of the 1930s.
Another friend of mine’s Aunt said that “drinking tea from a thick pottery mug was as good as receiving a slap in the face”. Whilst I don’t necessarily feel quite so strongly about drinking tea from an alternative, I do believe that there is nothing nicer than drinking tea from a fine porcelain cup. I think it is elegant, and keeps alive the fine tradition of taking elevenses or afternoon tea in a gracious fashion. In a world of utility, there is a certain charm in taking tea from a beautifully designed cup, painted with beautiful flowers.
In 1896, Thomas Clark Wild bought a pottery in Longton, Stoke on Trent, England, called Albert Works, which had been named the year before in honor of the birth of Prince Albert, who became King George VI in 1936. Using the brand name Albert Crown China, Thomas Wild and Co. produced commemorative bone-china pieces for Queen Victoria's 1897 Diamond Jubilee, and by 1904 had earned a Royal Warrant. From the beginning, Royal Albert's bone china dinnerware was popular, especially its original floral patterns made in rich shades of red, green, and blue. Known for incredibly fine, white, and pure bone china, Royal Albert was given to the sentimental and florid excesses of Victorian era England, making pattern after pattern inspired by English gardens and woodlands. With designs like Serena, Old English Roses, and Masquerade and motifs inspired by Japanese Imari, the company appealed to a wide range of tastes, from the simplest to the most aristocratic. In 1910, the company created its first overseas agency in New Zealand. Soon it had offices in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Willing to experiment with the latest in industrial technologies, the company was an early adopter of kilns fuelled by gas and electricity. Starting in 1927, Royal Albert china used a wide variety of more stylized backstamps, some with the crown, some without, and others stylized with script and Art Deco lettering. Some of these marks even had roses or other parts of the pattern in them. Patterns from the years between the wars include American Beauty, Maytime, Indian Tree, Dolly Varden, and Lady-Gay. The '40s saw patterns like Fragrance, Teddy's Playtime, Violets for Love, Princess Anne, Sunflower, White Dogwood, Mikado, Minuet, Cotswold, and the popular Lady Carlyle. Royal Albert incorporated as a limited company in 1933, and in the 1960s it was acquired by Pearson Group, joining that company's Allied English Potteries. By 1970, the porcelain maker was completely disassociated with its T.C. Wild & Sons origins and renamed Royal Albert Ltd. Pearson Group also acquired Royal Doulton in 1972, putting Royal Crown Derby, Royal Albert, Paragon, and the Lawleys chain under the Royal Doulton umbrella, which at this point included Minton, John Beswick, and Webb Corbett. In 1993, Royal Doulton Group was ejected from Pearson Group, for making less money than its other properties. In 2002, Royal Doulton moved the production of Royal Albert china from England to Indonesia. A few years later, Waterford Wedgwood absorbed Royal Doulton Group and all its holdings, which currently makes three brands, Royal Doulton, Minton, and Royal Albert, including the Old Country Roses pattern, which is Royal Albert’s most popular design.
Great Egret trying to disassociate itselfl from the bird poop.
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Ca. Feb. 2023.
"Home sweet home...~" The whites of his teeth flash as another glass is filled and sent his way. Ignatious nods at the barkeep whose name he forgot. His lips disassociate as he brought the glass in to his mouth for one last chug.
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~ I am destroyed by the inside, I disassociate
I hope to destroy the outside, it will alleviate and elevate me
Like water flowing into lungs, I'm flowing through these days
Like morphine cuts through, through deadened veins, I'm numbing in these days ~
.Photoshop Version of Volumetric Piece.
"They have never been saddled or stabled, never bathed or brushed, never trotted around an arena. They have never had their muzzle brushed lovingly by a human but they know nothing different. They have never seen those things, and likely never will. These horses are wild as wolverines.
Even though they are in a national park, they were not comfortable with human presence. Distance was their safety. At first glance, Theodore Roosevelt National Park appears lost and forsaken. Lots of heat and desolation and short on shade or breeze. Arid prairie home to only sand and grasses, too inhospitable for any real life. Despite that, it is home to more than 150 wild horses. Deep within 70,000 acres split across three disjointed sections we were able to find a handful of large herds to observe, grazing away in the mid summer heat. But it wasn’t until we stumbled across this solitary family of three, high up on a bluff, that suddenly the feeling of seclusion and struggle that resides in this area of difficult country made itself visible.
Disassociated from the nearest visible heard by miles, these three were on their own. We referred to them as Father, Mother and Junior.
The one I will call father, is battle scarred, his eye sealed shut not from the brightness of the sun but injury, likely scars of a battle.
Junior is curious from age, but mother has already taught him to be wary.
Mother, is the definitive matriarch, assuming the duties of watching over her family and wary of outsiders. Her focus never left me, even though I posed no threat. She seemed to have assumed the role of security for the family.
They grazed, unthreatened, but cautious. their faces telegraph that there are so many stories that Father, Mother and Junior will never be able to tell.
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Durward Street used to be known as Buck's Row, & is where Mary Ann Nichols became a victim of Jack The Ripper on August 31 1888. The spot where she was found is where the bicycle is.
The building behind the tube station entrance is the old board school that overlooked the murder at the time.
Buck's Row was renamed Durward Street in 1892, as locals wanted to try to disassociate it from the Ripper history.
Nikon F4. AF Nikkor 24mm F2.8D lens. Ferrania Orto 50 35mm B&W film.
From an abandoned industrial site walkabout a couple years ago. Did all the slider gymnastics back then, then finally turned it sideways... disassociating it from gravity improved the aesthetic of the composition.
When examining advertising campaigns throughout history different political, economic, and social issues are very obvious. Advertising always seems to mirror not only what is occurring across mass society, but also the themes unique to a diverse group of sub cultures in society during a particular time period. After closely exploring fashion ads throughout history it was clear how the ideas about body image have changed over time. Gradually it has become acceptable to show more and more skin and advertising in general has become much more sexualized. In the book Adorned in Dreams, Elizabeth Wilson explained how people have used fashion as a way to represent themselves and their reactions to society across the decades. She says, “In all societies the body is ‘dressed’, and everywhere dress and adornment play symbolic, communicative and aesthetic roles. Dress is always ‘unspeakably meaningful’.” Wilson goes on to describe how in the twentieth century the integrity of dress has progressed to disassociate itself from the rigid behavioral codes that once sustained it. Fashion has been freed to become both an aesthetic vehicle for experiments in taste and political means of expression for dissidence, rebellion and social reform. In this book Elizabeth has set up an important foundation for further analysis into current fashion advertising. Many of the issues presented in contemporary advertising convey very similar messages about body images; however more distinctions can be made based on the market a particular ad is targeting.
As illustrated through the movie “Happiness Machines”, an important tool in advertising is the ability to create desire. The “desire”/ Consumer society was born after World War I as a response to the fears of the new industrial society that was a product in America from the war. Based on what Bernays had previously learned from his Uncle, Sigmund Freud, about the human mind and subconscious thinking, he realized this would require him to transform the way society thought about products and turn America from a needs based society into a desire culture. He had to create the new types of customers. Bernays began to create many of the techniques of mass consumer persuasion we still use today. He began to glamorize products by placing advertisements linking products with celebrities who used them. He used product placements in movies and dressed the stars for film premiers with the clothes and jewelry from other firms her represented. He told car companies they could sell cars as symbols of male sexuality. He also employed psychologists to claim a product was good for you and pretended they were independent studies. Finally he paid celebrities to repeat the new and essential message; you bought things not just out of need but to express your inner sense of yourself to others. “Wearing certain clothes will make you more attractive”. This caused a change in society called consumerism.
Today desire is still constructed through political, cultural, and economic conditions, but it is also invested with the power to authorize and normalize those conditions (Helstein, That’s Who I Want to be: The Politics and Production of Desire within Nike Advertising to Women). Susan Bordo described how ads play off of the female fear of food and desire to gain control. In Hunger as Ideology Susan Bordo explains the negative effects advertising has on womens’ body image. Throughout history advertising has played off of womens’ fear of food and desire to gain control and while doing so has embedded the idea that men are superior to women and food should be feared by women, as it is a sign of weakness. Marketers try to sell products by showing it as a tool to gain control over some aspect of their lives. Not only do advertisements play off of females’ struggle for control, they also must be considered as gender ideology- that is, as specifically servicing the cultural reproduction of gender differences and gender inequality, quite independent of marketing concerns. Although it is arguable, these desires seems to be an underlying theme in most advertisements. Different markets have unique desires that take precedence in their lives, thus the major distinctions between modern fashion ads lies in the specific market a brand is targeting.
One of the most dominant types of fashion advertising is that of high-end brands. The pages of fashion magazines are filled with ads for brands such as Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Christian Dior, and Prada just to name a few. Although all the brands have unique ads with their distinct trademark on them, there is an eerie similarity between them all. Slender, blonde, Caucasian females seem to dominate the script for high-end fashion advertising. Although in the 21st century advertising seems to becoming more culturally diverse, even the “ethnic” models have very westernized features. The typical ad depicts this female adorned in the latest fashions by the designer and is preposterously posed in a glamorous setting. Often times sex appeal is created either from the way the model is posed or the ‘lack’ of clothing covering her body. Occasionally males are used in these ads as an accessory to the women. Although society in general has become immune to these imagines since they have become so common, the messages they enforce about body images are not acceptable.
According to The Beauty Myth, as found in the Naomi Wolf readings, a thin, white, blonde woman is considered the 'perfect woman' and the most beautiful woman to feature. The typical high-end fashion ad plays to that stereotype. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf argues that it is men that create this idea of what or whom is "beautiful". It is the men in society that deem white, thin, blonde woman as beautiful, not women. Men create these "beauties" so that culture can remain male and male dominated, as argued by Wolf. The idea of male dominance is very clear in the advertising industry. The readings from Fresh Lipstick by Scott support this idea of the male dominated gaze. Scott mentioned that a male point-of-view shot is just another way for men to continue to dominate society.
This first set of ads comes from the Fall/Winter 2007 fashion ad campaigns of some of the top high-end designers in the industry. Many of the models are either well known super models of famous celebrities. Ads like these are extremely common today in the fashion industry. They are neither innovative nor distinct and they only help to reinforce the body image crisis currently plaguing the general public.
The role the fashion industry plays on society is haunting. The westernized ideals and images of beauty are rapidly scattering through humanity. As discussed in Making the Body Beautiful by Gilman, aesthetic surgery is a growing industry. More and more people want to have western features and the age of the patients undergoing these surgeries keeps getting younger. Gilman said, “Patients seeking rhinoplasty…frequently show signs of guilt-tinged, second-generation rejection of their ethnic background masked by excuses, such as not photographing well.” When people are constantly bombarded with images of Caucasian females modeling the latest fashions and depicted as the “ideal beauty” it creates a desire to have those same features. “Happiness in our modern world is in part defined by the desire to vanish into the world beyond ourselves where there is no difference. We want to become happy like everyone else and thus be absolutely unique in our happiness. This contradiction is at the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter in aesthetic surgery is the common human desire to ‘pass’ (Gilman, 330).” By filling the fashion magazines with models that all share similar features it creates the idea that through plastic surgery one can achieve those same features and in doing so fit into society.
Another popular type of high-end fashion advertising is shock value. Certain brands choose to fulfill their consumer’s need for desire by use of shock value. These ads typically depict a fantasy world in which they illustrate deep desires that might not be considered proper to openly discuss. An example of this type of advertising is the Fall/Winter 2007 ad campaign by Dolce and Gabbana. According to Domenico Dolce the image is artistic and was meant to “recall an erotic dream, a sexual game.” Protesters complained that the ad depicted rape and was demeaning to women. Spain’s Labor and Social Affairs Ministry said in a statement, “One could infer from the advertisement that it is acceptable to use force as a way of imposing oneself on a woman, reinforced by the passive and complicit manner of the men looking on.”
This ad continues to be filled with Caucasian individuals all scantily clad and exposing extremely cut bodies. Naomi Wolf, in The Beauty Myth, explains how images such as this can have negative consequences on men as well as women. “So powerful is pornography, and so smoothly does it blend in with the advertising of products…that many women find their own fantasies and self-images distorted too…So rare is it to see sexual explicitness in the context of love and intimacy on screen that it seems our culture treats tender sexuality as if it were deviant or deprived, while embracing violent or degrading sex as right and healthy (Wolf, 140).” Men also face the stereotypic ideal of how they are supposed to look and act; men must be in shape, toned, tall, with good hair, teeth and eyes. Today, men make up one-third of all cosmetic surgeries. Images are damaging and may lead to inferiority and inadequacy, and can lead to cosmetic surgery. Men are finally understanding and feeling the affects that advertising and unrealistic expectations of beauty. However, women have been dealing with these issues throughout history.
Along with enforcing very negative messages about body images through the use of male positioning and facial expressions the ad creates a very negative message about male superiority. The men is this ad are holding the female down and forcing themselves upon her. She looks on with a very blank expression, implying that she is dazed and not enjoying herself. The men in the background are just looking on and not doing anything to help her or interfere with the act. In Fresh Lipstick Scott mentions the arguments Beauvior makes that women have an inbreed fear of being raped and becoming the sexual prey of men. Women learn to see themselves as an object viewed from the outside, thus she begins to dress in a way to attract a lover. This involves imagining how one might appear to the desired male (226). This ad perpetuates this fear and seems to allocate rape.
Although the ad campaigns for high-end fashion brands may seem innocent at first glance, upon further investigation it is obvious that they are enforcing negative messages about body image. If these brands clutter society with so many negative messages surrounding body images, how can they continue to remain so popular? It seems as though the designers of these ads knows that their main audience viewing their actual campaigns are not their actual clients purchasing the products. The majority of the people who wear these clothes have personal shoppers or stylists who buy their clothes for them. Rather, the images in these ads are designed to create a desire among a lower class of society to achieve this rich and luxurious lifestyle; however, the consequences resulting from the message of how to achieve this particular lifestyle is devastating.
In Self-Help, Inc. McGee describes how there is a growing interest in the self-help society. The movement can be traced all the way back to the Bible as the first example of a self-help book. Today there is a book to teach people how to help themselves succeed in just about every aspect of life. Advertising seems to foster self-anxieties and endless imperfections. It is important to acknowledge the growth of this trend in society since it seems to parallel a slow shift toward more conscious advertising. In the early 1990s sales of self help books went up 6% following the trends in society of unemployment and a bad economy. In the past ten years there has been a noticeable amount of ads produced in effort to portray positive messages about the body.
The ad campaign by the French brand Nolita is an attempt to create a more positive message about the body image. The author of the campaign is famous Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. The campaign is designed toward young women who keep up with fashion and is called to draw public attention to such awful disease as anorexia. The ad billboards feature a 27 years old French woman named Isabella Caro who weighs a mere 68 pounds. She says that she has decided to show her body for people to know and to see how the disease impacts the body. It is common knowledge that there is a major problem with eating disorders in the fashion industry. As previously mentioned the typical model has an abnormally tall slender frame. Maintaining this body image is generally unnatural, but models will go to any length to ensure that they stay at a dangerously low body weight.
Women are continually bombarded with advertisements and commercials for weight-loss products and programs. This type of advertising has been around for a long time and continues to enforce negative views of food for women. The media starts targeting girls from a young age and over time the idea is cemented in girl’s heads that food is bad. Many of the advertisements show the power that food has over women. They illustrate how the female psyche is in a constant state of starvation through their efforts to sell products that can create a “cool” or casual relationship with food for women. The issues surrounding food are a lot deeper and more serious than advertisements are willing to admit. Most often women feel upset and depressed and unhappy when they discuss compulsive eating or over indulgence. Since the Victorian era it has been considered taboo to show women eating, particularly in sensuous surrender to rich, exciting food (Hunger as Ideology, Susan Bordo).
Naomi Wolf made a lot of important points about the gravity of eating disorders. She illustrated how it is a vicious cycle that can often lead to death. When people diet the body often feels as if it is starving and chemicals in the head get messed up. It is really hard to control and basically anyone who diets is at equal risk for becoming anorexic or bulimic. Female fat is a sign of sexuality and reproductive ability. There have never been any studies on females that indicate being over weight can lead to other health concerns or put them at higher risk for death. Every study that has been done on obesity has involved male subjects; yet, females are the ones put under constant pressure from society and the media to be thin. It is acceptable for men to be fat, and men should have hardy appetites. It is age old and universal that if there is ever a shortage of food the women are the first to do without. In reality women really need just about as many calories as men and women suffer more serious problems if they are malnourished. Eating disorders effect a significant population in society. It is really scary because it is such a psychological problem that is seems there is no real way to prevent any one person from getting it unless the entire mind set of basically the world is transformed (The Beauty Myth, 179-116).
This ad from Nolita is defiantly a step in the right direction; however it does not do enough. Rather than say how to help someone with an eating disorder it almost seems to criticize the individual with the problem. People with eating disorders already have very flawed and negative self-images. Although this image is not seen as sexualized at all, it is merely because of the condition the model is in. She is still naked and being shot from a male gaze. It seems like a more effective approach would be to illustrate ways to prevent the problem or find a path to recovery; however, it is nice to see the problem is finally being recognized in the fashion industry.
Although the fashion industry is filled with images that perpetuate negative body images in society there seems to be some hope for improvement in the new century. It is very difficult to find ads that do a really good job of portraying positive body images, but they do exist. Some brands do a really good job of producing campaigns that portray a positive body image. United Colors of Benetton has a really unique campaign. It is interesting to note that the photographer for this campaign is also Oliviero Toscani, who shot the pictures of Isabella Caro for the Nolita campaign. Benetton Group's advertising campaigns are not only a means of communication but an expression of our time. Through their universal impact, they have succeeded in attracting the attention of the public and in standing out amid the current clutter of images.
The latest campaign by the United Colors of Benetton depicts the faces of four different species of apes. The print reads, “If we don’t do anything to save them, in ten to 15 years the great apes could disappear from the majority of the areas where they now live.” There were about two million chimps in Africa one hundred years ago, now there are little more than 150,000. They are dying out as a result of the expanding human population, deforestation, the destruction of their habitat, hunting and traps. The situation of mountain gorillas and orang-utans is even worse. The number of wild apes is falling while the number of orphans in sanctuaries is rising. This campaign does a great job of bringing awareness to important social issues. Some of the other ads depict the problems with starvation, AIDS and heart disease to name a few. Several of the communication projects created by Fabrica, Benetton’s research center have also been developed in cooperation with prestigious associations (including FAO, UNV, WFP) obtaining important acknowledgements at an international level.
Although these ads do not show the clothes, it creates the desire to help fight these problems. Through the campaign people realize that United Colors of Benetton does a lot of work with different organizations and that through buying this brand they are helping to support a very good cause. In that sense it is effective in creating a desire and does not perpetuate the negative body images that the fashion industry has been continually associated with.
Another genre of fashion advertising that seems to do a good job of portraying positive body images is in campaigns for athletic apparel. Currently both Adidas and Nike are attempting to produce campaigns that generate positive body images and messages. Nike’s campaign is a good effort to demonstrate more positive messages about body image, but it has been causing a lot of controversy. Nike’s new ad campaign, “Big Butts, Thunder Thighs, and Tomboy Knees” has been criticized because they highlight the butt, thighs, and knees of women athletes who could hardly by any means be considered out of shape. The campaign seems to have back fired and while those butts, thighs and knees should be praised, the manner that the ad presents the body parts almost condemns them. As explained in The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, in modern society women are expected to have split personalities and lifestyles. Women feel pulled in different directions, such as housewife, working women, athletic social, etc. It seemed that this would have been a great opportunity for Nike to reach the diverse desires of all women, but this campaign does not seem to be there quite yet.
While the campaign seems to have stayed away from the typical genre of fashion advertising, it is not very effective in creating a more positive body image. The images are black and white and shot in a way to eliminate the male gaze or cultural inequalities. However, the depiction of these well-oiled, muscle crunching body parts has sparked some questions. If the message is supposed to be about authenticity, hard work, and in-your-face reality, how about showing a little more sweat and a little less creatine? Furthermore, this ad seems to be appealing to current Nike customers while the whole point of advertising is to try and attract new consumers. Finally, the ad is a copy of the dove campaign which totally strips it of any creative or unique credit the campaign could have been given.
The Adidas campaign launches a new global basketball movement featuring NBA All-Stars Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Chauncey Billups and Gilbert Arenas. The movement of the “It Takes 5IVE” campaign is based on the idea of believing in something bigger than the individual-believing in five, believing in team. Adidas wanted to tap into the idea that there is more to the game then just individual achievement and focus on the value of being part of a team. That is the true spirit of the game of basketball. By bringing together five of the game’s most successful athletes and having them deliver the message that real success can only come from being part of a team, and that any individual achievements cannot measure to the success that five players on the court can achieve together shows that teamwork is the most essential aspect to a team sport.
This campaign seems to do a much better job of creating a positive message; however the message creates a desire for team work to help you succeed. While this is a good message, it is not a positive message about body image. Since this campaign stays away from assisting the fashion industry in creating negative body images and more importantly negative overall messages, it is a pretty good campaign.
Finally there are a few campaigns from popular designers that do a rather good job of staying away from continuing the negative body images being produced by the fashion industry. Both Tommy Hilfigure and Old Navy have ads that completely stay away from the body and in that sense they are not effective at creating a positive body image either, rather they are neutral. In the Tommy Hilfigure ad a herd of sheep are standing in front of an American Flag and the tag line reads “follow the flock.” This ad is cute and creates the desire to fit in and then eludes to the idea that through buying Tommy Hilfigure clothing you will be like everyone else; however, as previously stated, people in society today desire control over their destination and the idea of being like everyone else seems to distract from the notion of controlling one’s destiny. The Old Navy ad also uses animals by creating ads depicting images of their icon dog. These ads are effective at getting the name of the brand to the public, but it creates no desire and is therefore not as effective as the Tommy Hilfigure ad.
Overall, fashion advertising is dominated by ads that encourage negative body image through highly sexualized poses, a majority of male gazes, and unrealistic body types. There is not enough cultural diversity in today’s fashion advertising. The ads are effective at creating desire; however, the desire is to achieve unrealistic and unhealthy goals. In the past few years some very significant changes have been made, but it isn’t enough right now. It is a gradual process so it will probably take some time before any major noticeable differences appear on the pages of the top fashion magazines. Hopefully the steps that are taking place now will have a lasting positive impact on the body images created through future fashion advertising.
This was taken over the summer in 1969 at the Latham's home in Northern Virginia. Our two families have been close friends forever. Joe's father -- called "Uncle Bob", usually derisively, by everyone, including his own children -- was one of my two godfathers in the Episcopal church. Uncle Bob was an unabashed racist who wore a "S.P.O.N.G.E." button on his lapel for an entire session of school; asked what the acronym meant, he'd reply, "The Society for the Prevention Of Negroes from Getting Everything." That kind of racist. My godfather.
Mrs. Latham I loved, though. "Ella". Petite, elegantly-dressed, refined, and cuter than a bucket of bunnies (Joe and I are seated in her parlor in the photo above). Ella looked like a freckled, matronly version of Debbie Reynolds. The last time I saw her was at a memorial service for Uncle Bob at Episcopal High School in 1987 where I managed to get a really lovely photo of her greeting Mr. Callaway, who had just delivered a brief, but elegant summary of Uncle Bob's career.
(Mr. Callaway was 99 at the time and had taught geometry at the school from 1915-85, when he was forced to retire because he was getting blind. After taking the picture of him and Ella Latham, I walked up to him and told him who I was -- I hadn't seen him since the school's memorial service for my dad in 1968. "Well, Willie!" he exclaimed. "You live in Texas now, don't you? And Ruthie...she's in Washington, DC? She still work for The Smithsonian Magazine? I thought so. Alicia, Alicia's...let's see Alicia's living with that divorce lawyer, I think. And your mother's in Charleston?" I was dumbstruck by this old man's knowledge of the current events in the lives of people he knew and loved but never saw anymore.)
Joe dropped out of school when his girlfriend, a folksinger, got pregnant. He was a gifted guitarist, but became widely known among musicians as a brilliant guitar maker. His pearl inlays are considered second to none. One night in '73 Buffy Sainte Marie came to have a drink at the bar I worked in Nashville (she had a White Russian if anyone asks) and during the course of the evening asked me where I was from. I told her that, until I'd moved to Nashville after graduation from college, I'd lived my whole life in Alexandria, Va.
"Alexandria? Do you know Joe Latham?" Her companion thought I was lying when I said I'd grown up with him, but I knew enough details about Joe to convince them otherwise.
Joe's younger sister Sarah was a year younger than my sister Ruthie. She became an antiques dealer and appraiser after graduating from college. I was watching 'Antiques Roadshow" one night on PBS and saw Sarah expertly appraise some guy's antique wooden cabinet for him. I later heard from Ruthie that Sarah dropped any further connection with the show after the exposure of a "Roadshow" scandal, involving another appraiser and a collector's rigging the appraisal of some old handguns on the show. The segment was later removed from the program's future broadcasts, but Sarah apparently felt that the program's integrity had been compromised and wanted to disassociate herself from it completely.
Among Joe's musician friends was Janis Joplin. The summer of 1969 he got word from her that she was going to drop by his shop in Alexandria after a concert in Georgetown in Washington, DC, just 8 miles away. He invited me and my girlfriend Kitty (who was studying drama in DC that summer) and some other friends to come over that night to meet her; we waited for about three hours outside his shop, but she never showed.
Model Martin Ingley
What was in my head during this shoot? The loneliness and disassociation many feel in today's Britain. In a London cafe which not so many years ago would have been filled with chat and banter, people sit silent and alone at separate tables, all in their own worlds staring at books or cellphones. Isn't that just a little bit sad? A little bit wrong?
Looking for this record, I can not disassociate from the state to which my country has come ... a big hole!
At the same time I hope and trust that together, all the Portuguese will be able to stem this hemorrhage and the various financial holes opened up by our politicians over many years.
Nikon D300 + Sigma 10-20 @ 10 mm
ISO 200 - f/11- 61,3 s
Lee BigStopper + Lee GND 0.6 HE
PS - I also like the square crop, but our financial hole is too big! :)
My thoughts of late have been plagued by the economy, recession, layoffs, cutbacks, global financial collapse, etc. As an avid reader of CBC news (and lately, its associated forums of appallingly lower calibre), what disappoints me the most is the torpidity of my fellow human beings. Finger-pointing has become the new mode de jour; finding a scapegoat for our current economic difficulties pervades common thought. Blame the bankers! Blame the financial institutions! Blame the government! Blame Stephen Harper! Blame the Bush Administration! Blame Big Oil! Blame the whole damn free world! For that matter, blame the unfree world too!
One issue that doesn't jump out is that of personal accountability. Why not look at ourselves and really evaluate whether we've been living within our means or not. We're the only ones who are truly responsible for our own futures, so why not do some long-overdue soul searching? I'm not saying that deprivation is the key to eternal salvation (god knows I'm too much of a shoe whore to ever claim such a thing!), but there's something to be said for living in moderation. Our ancestors did it for millennia; why can't we?
Lately I've felt very disassociated from my existence. Humanity's traditional weapons of survival have transformed from physical requirements (i.e., food and shelter) to an intangible system of nominally valued paper currency and wealth -- albeit, subject to the proviso of securing food and shelter. Fundamentally, we cannot transcend basic human needs. Maybe a little devolution is in order.
Money does not grow on trees. Leaves grow on trees (see example, above).
I think it's time to take a step back, be honest with ourselves, and answer the question:
Am I really doing everything I can to protect my future?
"That world was killing me
World was killing me, disassociative"
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Sometimes it takes me ages to process the images I have shot. I think this is because I tend to wait a bit to ensure I have had time to disassociate myself from the emotions of the shoot and enable myself to see the work objectively. That way I can decide if the image actually is any good or not. It also enables me some time to revisit the experience with some reflection and enjoy the experience again. Anyway, this is Rydal Water from last week where I met Colin Bell for a wander. If I knew what was about to happen on that day I would have got some elbow pads, because only a few hours after this was made I fell of my mountain bike at speed! I had fun, but I think my body thinks my mind needs to put this midlife crisis to one side and buy a sports car instead!
I'm always amazed by my dreams. Sometimes I awaken in the midst of dreams and they seem so real. I try to comprehend the strange plots that develop, the odd assortment of characters, and never ending scenarios of weirdness. Usually played out amid a backdrop that combines bits of reality and fantasy. Best of all are those rare moments when I become aware that I am dreaming during the actual dream. At that point I am able to guide the direction of the dream. The possibilities seem endless, at least until I awaken. Wish there was some way to record my dreams and play them back during waking hours. Imagine that!
A fence, also known as a receiver, mover, or moving man, is an individual who knowingly buys stolen goods in order to later resell them for profit. The fence acts as a middleman between thieves and the eventual buyers of stolen goods who may not be aware that the goods are stolen. As a verb, the word describes the behaviour of the thief in the transaction: The burglar fenced the stolen radio. This sense of the term came from thieves' slang, first attested c. 1700, from the notion of such transactions providing a defence against being caught. The term remains in common use in all major dialects of modern English, all of which spell it with a "c" even though the source word in some dialects (particularly American English) is now spelled defense.
The fence is able to make a profit with stolen merchandise because he/she is able to secretly pay thieves a very low price for "hot" goods that cannot be easily sold on the open markets. The thieves who patronize the fence are willing to accept a low profit margin in order to reduce their risks by instantly "washing their hands" of the black market loot and disassociating themselves from the criminal act that procured it. After the sale, the fence recoups their investment by disguising the stolen nature of the goods (via methods such as repackaging and altering/effacing serial numbers) and reselling the goods as near to the white market price as possible without drawing suspicion.
she had a dream of boats, but she wouldn't let go, he had a dream of disassociation and comfort but he couldn't let go, she started waiting for the spring.
In some ways, this dark carnival series is more telling of my mental dysfunction than it is an artistic expression. So often, these concepts blend into a distorted swirl to the extent that I'm never really sure which is the dominant factor. But I have come to believe that they are co-dependent. The sense of artistic expression legitimizes at least a portion of my mental issues, and they in turn provide rocket fuel for the art. That's the short of it anyway.
As darkness descended over the carnival, I stopped interacting with the crowd and found myself withdrawing to the fringes, both metaphorically and literally. It's that disassociation that I wrote about in the previous post. I'm tapped into a sub-channel lurking just beneath the bright lights, festivity, and gaiety. I'm so detached from the people that I've unconsciously started shooting them is live silhouettes. Like living shadow people, stripped of personality and rendered in shades of gray and black. Odd thing is I still want them in the frame. Anytime I hunch down to line up a shot, I'm aware of a procession of very polite people suddenly stopping dead in their tracks. It takes a moment to realize they are pausing so as not to interrupt my photo. And that is precisely what I don't want. I wave them through, but the spontaneity is lost. I take to ducking down suddenly and shooting on the fly before I'm noticed. Ironically this style works best when I become as invisible to others as they are to me.
Things have been going on in my RL lately. Some that makes me want to scream. Disappointments and losses within the last couple weeks. As well with what all else is going on in the world affecting me too. If I'm not careful, I could just let myself drift off into disassociating or Daydreams.
Architectural detail from a contemporary building; disassociated from the third dimention, seen only as a graphic composition/image. From Stadiou street, Strovolos, Cyprus. Much better to View On Black
You were my oppressor
And I, I have been programmed to obey
But now, you are my handler
And I, I will execute your demands
Leave me alone
I must disassociate from you
The Handler - Muse
these two have a very strong "bond" much to arabella's dismay.
Nihonkai, Tottori, 2014
This was my first image of 2014. I'd been looking forward to visiting this site since mid-2013. For American BW landscapers, this would be analogous to my Slit Canyons or Half Dome - a place you want to visit yet makes you question what it means to be creative. Is there any value in visiting a location already photographed by more established photographers? How many times does something have to be photographed before it becomes derivative? This is the site where both David Burdeny and Michael Levin made images that I like. There are no other long exposure images of this location that I know of. Burdeny seems to have disassociated himself from his earlier BW work. Levin's image (Shu Iro) is colour. That means Rohan Reilly (with whom I was travelling) and I are the only two with images of this location in BW. Does that make them unique? Does the fact that Rohan and I went there with awareness of those images make our efforts derivative? Is it enough to go to an iconic location hoping to be moved, hoping that conditions are right, hoping to be gifted something from the "photogods?" Those are some of the things I've been thinking about as this image sat in my archive waiting to be released. I'm no closer to finding an answer to the questions put above today than I was months ago.
Though there is something I've realized in the intervening months since this image was made and I've had time to reflect on my trip with Rohan. The images that I feel most connected to, the ones that I feel reflect me best don't come from the "Levin / Burdeny" spots. Those ones feel a bit like someone else's spot. That's not to discount this image. We spent a lot of time and energy here. I was at this location for more than 6 hours trying to get the frame that I wanted (that's after having spent a few hours a few days earlier during less than ideal weather to check for focal length and composition which ironically was rendered moot by how dramatically the tide had altered the shoreline in the space of a few days - a radical reshaping of the sand at the shore). I'm pleased with the image and I feel it comes close to something I had previsualized from this location. Yet it is not among my favourites from the trip.
Those are reserved for the "found" images, the ones where we didn't know what to expect, the ones where chance intervened and a gift fell into our laps. Our afternoon in Kumihama was just such a occasion. The morning was uneventful but a change in weather transformed the afternoon. In the space of a few hours, I was able to make five images that I'm proud to put my name under (Kumihama jetty, missing parts, a blanket of new beginnings, neither heaven nor earth, and at the threshold - not on flickr).
So what separates that day from the others? The answer to that provides the keys to answering many of the questions brought up earlier. It wasn't the spot that made Kumihama special for me, it was a confluence of events that made the day special. First fog, then falling snow transformed the landscape to a minimal scene - an aesthetic that I find very appealing. What many accomplished craftsman could do in post, Nature did for us and I love that. That is a large part of what makes the images made that day special to me - the confluence of ideal weather, good location, and that it was totally unexpected. There is an undeniable element of chance to photography. When you create the opportunity to avail yourself of those chances, then something magical, something meaningful can happen for you.
If you are inclined, I encourage you to look up Levin's "Shu Iro" as well as David Burdeny's "Tori, Sea of Japan, 2006." Levin's can be found at his site, and Burdeny's is still available for sale at Jennifer Kostuik's gallery (image 55 of 224).
Here's an early morning shot of the Palace of Fine Arts. I came early because I wanted to see it lit up, and, I was still on eastern time.
Because I was on a different time zone, it felt like mid-morning to me. Disassociation with local time is something I try to take advantage of when traveling. It allows me to get out early or late without much effort. Maybe that makes me sound a little lazy.
A couple of years ago I worked on a panorama of this, but I can't find it now so I must have deleted it. I vaguely remember not being too happy with it. Nevertheless, I've taken another stab at it, and this time I'm satisfied. This is only one frame, but it looks a little like a pano. I didn't do much other than a bit of color balancing and a crop. I guess I just needed time to clear the air and try try again.
My mind
Was lost in translation
And my heart
Has become a cold and impassive machine
Leave me alone
I must disassociate from you
Song: The handler- Muse
Kabukichō (歌舞伎町) es un vecindario de Shinjuku, Tokio, Japón. Se considera el barrio rojo más importante de Japón; en su entorno se encuentran miles de locales de entretenimiento enfocados al mercado de adultos. El área cuenta con muchos bares, hostales, moteles, locales comerciales, restaurantes y clubes nocturnos tanto para mujeres como para hombres. En la parte oeste del vecindario se hallan también muchos de los establecimientos dedicados a la población gay de Tokio, que se extiende hasta el barrio de Shinjuku San-Choume (新宿三丁目).
El nombre del distrito viene de finales de los años 1940 cuando se planeó construir un teatro kabuki que, sin embargo, nunca se construyó. A pesar de ello, el nombre permaneció. En la actualidad existe un teatro que lleva el mismo nombre. Además, muchos de los famosos grupos pertenecientes a la mafia, como la familia Yakuza, la Mafia Nigeriana y la Mafia China se encuentran en esta área, siendo muy difícil detectarlos entre los extranjeros y los japoneses que están presentes en áreas públicas en el lugar. No obstante, los mismos tienden a poseer los locales ubicados hacia norte del vecindario, mientras hacia el sur se encuentra un área mucho más comercial.
Las oficinas del gobierno de Shinjuku se encuentran en Kabukicho.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabukich%C5%8D
Kabuki-chō (歌舞伎町) is an entertainment and red-light district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabuki-chō is the location of many host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the "Sleepless Town" (眠らない街). Shinjuku Golden Gai, famous for plethora of small bars, is part of Kabuki-cho.
The district's name comes from late-1940s plans to build a kabuki theater; although the theater was never built, the name stuck.
The area has many movie theaters, and is located near Shinjuku Station, Seibu Shinjuku Station, and several other major railway and subway stations.
The red 歌舞伎町一番街 (Kabukichō Ichiban-gai) gate, near the southwest corner along Yasukuni-Dōri, is often photographed as the main entrance to Kabukichō. Other major entrances, east of Ichibangai-Dori along Yasukuni-Dori, include セントラルロード (Sentoraru Rōdo, Central Road), where the Kabukichō branch of Don Quijote is; and another neon-lit arch at さくら通り (Sakura-Dōri).
The Shinjuku Koma Theater was a landmark in Kabukichō. By 2008, it had moved to its third location; since it opened in 1956, it has hosted concerts and other performances by top stars. The management announced that they would close after the December 31, 2008 show, and the building was demolished in 2009. The site was redeveloped and the Toho Shinjuku Building was completed there in 2014, including the 12-screen Toho Cinemas Shinjuku theatre and the Hotel Gracery Shinjuku.
A "life-size" replica of Godzilla (from the neck up) was added to an outdoor terrace in 2015; it has since become a local landmark.
The Tokyu Milano-za movie theater, just west of Cinecity Square, was the largest in Japan when it opened in 1956. Its last day of operation was December 31, 2014, closing after a screening of the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. A 225-metre (738 ft) high skyscraper is planned to be built on the site.
In 2004, according to a spokesperson of Metropolitan Tokyo, there were more than 1,000 yakuza members in Kabukichō, and 120 different enterprises under their control.
Entering the new millennium, laws were more strictly enforced and patrols became more frequent. In addition, fifty closed-circuit cameras were installed in May 2002 after the Myojo 56 building fire that killed 44; the patrols and cameras reduced criminal activities in Kabukichō, amidst controversy.
Private citizens and government agencies launched a joint effort in July 2003, called the Shinjuku Shopping Center Committee to Expel Organized-Crime Groups, with the aim to replace unlicensed and adult-oriented businesses (which were believed to pay protection fees to organized crime groups) with legitimate businesses. In 2004, the police undertook an operation clamping down on illegal clubs and brothels, causing many to go out of business. An amendment to the 1948 Adult Entertainment law made aggressive catching of female patrons by male hosts illegal. Also, the Kabukichō Renaissance organization started in April 2008 to rid Kabukichō of the yakuza; office manager Yoshihisa Shimoda stated "at the end of the day, we want Kabukicho to be clean. We want security, safety and a pleasant environment."
In 2011, Tokyo began to enforce the Organised Crime Exclusion Ordinance, which makes it a crime for businesses or individuals to deal with the Yakuza. Although the punishment for violating the ordinance ranges up to one year in prison and a fine of ¥50,000, it is intended to provide an excuse for refusing to make protection payments.
Bottakuri is a form of bait-and-switch, where patrons are attracted by a low advertised price but then charged numerous hidden fees. In one instance, a group of nine was lured into a bar under the promise the all-inclusive cost was ¥4,000; the hostesses inside consumed 172 drinks and the final bill was ¥2,663,000. The staff at the bar allegedly threatened the patrons to ensure payment. In 2015, there were 1,052 reported cases of bottakuri in the first four months of the year alone, particularly targeting foreign tourists from China and Korea, prompting a crackdown that began in May; in July, there were only 45 reported cases of bottakuri and 28 bars had been shut down.
In 2007, Aida founded the Shinjuku Kabukicho Host Club Anti-Organized Crime Gang Association to disassociate host and hostess clubs from organized crime, reduce the aggressive "catching" street solicitations, and eliminate the bottakuri practice.
"Cause I'm gonna be free and I'm gonna be fine
(But maybe not tonight)"
My RL is really... hard right now. As someone who's struggled often with mental health, it just triggers all kinds of things. My usual habit is to shut down, push unhealthily disconnect and disassociate and push through. I'm trying to do things differently this time.
this line in this song has always hit me so hard. Florence and the Machine's "Delilah"
I'm going to be fine, but maybe not tonight... and that's okay.
Progression, not perfection.
No credits this time, I can try and upload them later.
Unexpected standard gauge steam appears on 09.03 Zittau-Lobau passenger with a positioning move for loco 52 8195-1 taking part in excursions connected with the approaching 175yrs of Dresden-Leipzig Anniversary.
Hitched to the rear to complete the return run is BR112 diesel 112 777-3.
I cannot recount my time at Zittau without disassociating the quite indifferent experience of staying at Hotel Lubin in Bautzen for 2 nights, arranged in the usual way through Berolina Travel, London.
Upon arrival the young staff could hardly move away from the TV showing a Dynamo Dresden match. A cold room with no hot water was crowned by announcing that there would be no breakfast, throwing a few Ost Marks across the counter, not even covering the cost of railway buffet meal! Sixty pounds paid!
The rigours of the GDR.
6th April 1989
Despite my best, inadvertent efforts to disguise the fact, I really enjoy making photographs of people - both those I know and otherwise. In the right conditions, or done in the right fashion, it strikes you how special a skill it is to be able to capture aspects of a person, or moments in their lives, that you can reproduce into a photograph that they can have, keep and treasure. I photographed Louis and Gracie's wedding about three weeks ago. I have known Louis for a couple years now as a customer at Blue Moon, where his growing interest in photography has brought him and his friend Jeremy in somewhat frequently. When he asked me to photograph his wedding I in turn asked to go out and get coffee with him and his fiance, not to discuss wedding details but just to get to know them better on a personal level. That was followed by dinner together, ostensibly to discuss wedding details, but that barely happened at all as the time was mostly dominated by friendly conversation. And that is how I like weddings to develop for me. I go and photograph for the personal connection. I don't want to be disassociated from the event, I want to feel it as much as they do.
And so during the wedding reception, when Louis' groomsmen helped him up out of the wheelchair he has been using for several years now due to a spinal injury so that Gracie could hold him for their first dance, I was as moved by the moment as everyone else. It was a really neat thing to witness, and even more special thing to photograph.
The three of us got together yesterday evening so I could share the images and prints with them. And again, I'll reiterate that it is a special thing to see the work you have done have an emotional impact on those it is meant for. They loved the images but we ended up getting a good laugh out of the first dance photos. While they are beautiful, and had an impact, it turns out that Louis was pretty hesitant about the idea leading up to the dance. Since he is not able to stand on his own, it felt awkward for him and they spent their dance alternatively joking between themselves about how she bet he wished that he had taken her up on her offer to have their first song cut down in length. I got one photo of them both laughing during the dance and Gracie explained that was the moment where her grip had shifted a bit and they both thought Louis was going to fall. You couldn't tell any of that watching the dance, so caught up in the moment, but it was pretty fun to hear their story of it. I told Louis not to worry, if he had fallen I wouldn't have made any photos of that and he countered by saying if he had fallen he would hope I would have gotten some photos of it. Photos of people built around relationships such as this one are some of my favorite photos that I make, over the cityscapes, landscapes, macro, pinhole and such. I just don't usually share these. I guess they have such value to me I like to keep that for myself.
Nikon FM2n (the same camera model that Louis himself recently purchased and started using).
Rollei Retro 400S
I wanted to depict how people in the City although surrounded by life are alone- often disassociated with the society around them, inspired around the concept of ‘Loneliness’ - to use photography on location to explore the relationship between the myth of society and the reality of loneliness, to leave the viewer with an insight into the edges of our culture. Using lens based recording I wanted to use challenge the viewer to examine the darkness of our world and the relationship between the omnipresent lingering of loneliness, so the viewer questions how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and act as an epitaph for the effects of loneliness.
More background and information about this project can be found on wordpress: jasmineameliamurrayphotography.wordpress.com/category/pho...
Polaroid SLR 680
Polaroid 600 Film
@spektremeffects motion & fuzzy filters
Figured it was time I shared this to my own feed even though y’all have mostly seen it by now! This was my take as the guest artist for @roo_roo_s and her theme of Dissociation/Disassociation (I kind of interpreted it as both) for the @the12.12project. This theme really hit close to home as most days I feel like grief leaves me in a fog and reality is a blur. I recognize short term memory loss as a symptom because things like what I ate or wore the day before or last week seem trivial and meaningless. It’s all a blur. I stay busy to avoid the full impact of grief and the grieving. I do my grieving in private usually when I’m alone and the kids aren’t there to see me fall apart. It happens but I do my best to put on a strong brave front for them. It’s hard when they say they wish he was here for something like a birthday or a school event, knowing he hated celebrating anything and most likely wouldn’t have attended any school events due to his work schedule. Making this photo/triptych helped in a way… I’m still processing how exactly but there was a therapeutic element to it for me during this grief. Hell, 9 months later and I still want him back.
This is only the second time I’ve shared a Polaroid of me.