Monday, September 29, 2008

Three photos of the day: Rumi



Model: Miss D., Films: Ilford B/W 400, Kodak B/W 400


3 shots from a short session with Miss D. in portrait, beauty, editorial fashion and subtle erotic style.

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels bless'd; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
To Him we shall return.

--- Rumi

Cheers

Wolf189

http://www.wolf189.com/

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman

Model: Miss A., Film: Ilford B/W 400

Paul Newman dies of cancer at 83.
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" "He's one of the giants," said film historian/critic Leonard Maltin. "From the time he established himself as a star in the mid 1950s to this day, he has remained a star. His name has retained its potency in the public eye. That alone is pretty remarkable." "
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Road to Perdition (2002)
The Color of Money (1986)
The Verdict (1982)
The Sting (1973)
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Harper (1966)
Hud (1963)
The Hustler (1961)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
The Left Handed Gun (1958)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
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Rest in peace.
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Wolf189
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City
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Thursday, September 25, 2008

Three photos of the day: Smoking



Model: Miss B., Films: Fuji pro 160, Kodak B/W 400

I don't smoke. I have never smoked in my life....but I do photograph people in their own elements without any judgment upon them ... if smoking is part of who they are and their personality in those very moments which I am photographing them, then I would not try to alter their reality. I try to appreciate their reality as much as possible in those moments.

However I like people and wish them well...so if you do smoke, please stop smoking ...even though it might look cool as props in photographs or while hanging out in clubs or chatting with friends about philosophy/art/fashion/politics/music over a coffee....just a humble friendly suggestion and nothing more.

" The 1982 Surgeon General's Report stated that "Cigarette smoking is the major single cause of cancer mortality in the United States." This statement is as true today as it was in 1982. Because cigarette smoking and tobacco use is an acquired behavior, one that the individual chooses to do, smoking is the most preventable cause of premature death in our society. "

"Each year, a staggering 440,000 people die in the US from tobacco use. Nearly 1 of every 5 deaths is related to smoking. Cigarettes kill more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.
Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths. It is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx (voice box), oral cavity, pharynx (throat), and esophagus, and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, liver, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, colon and rectum, and some leukemias. "

Cheers

Wolf189

http://www.wolf189.com/

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, NYC

Monday, September 22, 2008

Three photos of the day: Gatekeeper



Model: Miss J., Film: Ilford B/W 400
3 shots from a short session with Miss J. from 2-3 years ago.
Style of session was nude portrait, editorial fashion, conceptual erotic shots and giving a story board a shot.
Cheers
Wolf189
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Friday, September 19, 2008

Three photos of the day: Economy



Model: Miss V., Films: Ilford 400 and Kodal 400





As a person who leads a rather gypsy like life, moving from town to town, living day by day, I shouldn't care much about politics and economy, however I do care about the well being of people and it hurts me to see how major corporations and federal government take advantage of the very core of this society which we call USA.



I am not going to try to analyze the financial situation of this country (who could really? even if I was fully capable of doing it, since we always need the actual facts and not the fictional or half true data, which we are being fed by media and in various speeches.)



However I can post few clips from different sources as a reminder for future. (... and to be clear I do not belong to any political party or groups. )



New York Times, September 19

"...The unemployment rates for New York City and the state shot up in August to 5.8 percent, from 5 percent in July...... Statewide, the jobless rate also rose to 5.8 percent, from 5.2 percent in July. That was the largest monthly increase in the state’s rate since January 1991, according to Peter A. Neenan, director of the department’s division of research ....... The city is still better off than the country as a whole. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent in August ...."



http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/citys-unemployment-rate-rises-to-58-percent/



"PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's annual Governance poll finds a continued deterioration in public confidence in U.S. government institutions. Just 26% of Americans say they are satisfied with the way the nation is being governed, the lowest in the eight-year history of the Governance poll and tying a 1973 Gallup reading as the lowest ever.



The percentage of Americans satisfied with the way the nation is being governed has declined each year since 2002, when a high of 59% were satisfied. "



http://www.gallup.com/poll/110458/Trust-Government-Remains-Low.aspx



"WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. government is moving to enact a sweeping rescue package for the battered financial system that the White House says will sustain U.S. markets and the economy but also put hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the line.



A week ago Monday, the federal government was compelled to seize control of lending giants Fannie and Freddie. The government agreed to invest up to $100 billion in each firm to keep them solvent, and to run them indefinitely.


Lehman Brothers , the huge Wall Street brokerage, then went into bankruptcy proceedings over the weekend, and on Monday, fellow troubled Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch & Co. hastily agreed to be sold off to Bank of America in a deal worth $50 billion.


Continuing the week's string of market-jarring developments, the government seized control of floundering insurance giant American International Group with an $85 billion loan that granted it a roughly 80% ownership stake. "



http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-readies-broad-rescue-plan/



"At the end of July, Exxon-Mobil reported the largest quarterly profit of any business in U.S. history, posting a net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter. That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. "



http://www.metnews.com/articles/2008/inmyopinion091908.htm



"Ohio health insurance premiums grow 9 times faster than wages, study finds."



http://www.cleveland.com/living/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/living-0/122181302955850.xml&coll=2



"Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A tidal wave of anxiety is washing over America, from Wall Street's concrete canyons to the lettuce fields of California, propelled by the mortgage industry collapse, costly gasoline, tight credit and rising unemployment.



Operators of telephone help lines, insurers, hospital administrators and therapists, interviewed over the last month, say the financial services crisis, which has caused an explosion of foreclosures, is sending everyday people to mental-health services at levels not seen since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.


``It's shattering people's dreams of having a piece of the pie,'' said Victoria Tabios, 52, who works at a mental-health agency in Stockton, California, a city at the epicenter of the worst U.S. housing crisis since the Great Depression. ``There's a sense of hopelessness, irritability and anger.''



``We're reached a tipping point where anxiety about the economy is pervasive,'' said Dan Abrahamson, assistant executive director of the association's practice directorate. The worries ``are there all the time; you can't get them out of your mind.''
In Stockton, one in 25 households received a foreclosure notice from April to June, the highest rate in the U.S. At the same time, the number of people seeking counseling from Tabios's agency grew almost 10 percent.




Marielena Leon, a mother of three, felt such despair after getting a foreclosure notice she could scarcely leave her bed; Tabios's own father, facing the loss of his home after he borrowed against it to open a failed restaurant, is being treated for depression, Tabios said in an interview.



ValueOptions Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. provider of behavioral health and wellness services, said calls for assistance with home foreclosures, bankruptcy and other financial hardships have grown 89 percent this year over 2007. The closely held company, based in Norfolk, Virginia, provides counseling and referrals to 5 million workers.

Worrying about finances and housing ``causes marital conflict, extreme stress, anxiety, depression'' and can disrupt workers' productivity ``because their mind is on the financial crisis they're dealing with instead of their job,'' said ValueOptions Vice President Rich Paul.




``We've really not had such a combination of loss of jobs, income and housing in some time,'' said Brenner, who has studied the relationship between recessions and mental health for more than 30 years, most of it at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ``We'd have to go back to the Great Depression'' to find a time when so many negative trends coincided.
Liz Stevens, a 22-year real estate veteran who rose to be a regional manager for Prudential California Realty, invested $500,000 to open her own franchise in Berkeley in 2006 and hired 23 agents. On August 1, she let the remaining 10 agents go and closed the doors.
Stevens still wonders how things went bad so quickly. ``I'm educated, I'm intelligent,'' Stevens said in an interview. ``I have a business plan. These things aren't supposed to happen to people like me. It's very easy for me to feel ashamed.'' "




http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aEidcDQzs.U4&refer=us


Cheers (!?)

Wolf189
http://www.wolf189.com/
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

I am flying...





I am flying...



the positive of your negative is nothing more than a childish gesture


the fake humility of your tone has nothing to do with my reality


standard emotions don't exist in this land, on this palm


getting stabbed by a pencil at heart could be a reward in itself


swallowing a sword with a jar of mustard could turn out to be the best meal that you can get around here


and speaking to the crowd, with a loud voice, doesn't make it true


I see through you


I see through all of you


and yet I have no wings to fly over you


aside the ones which are hiding behind my own eyelids


Shhhhhh....I am flying.




Cheers

Wolf189
http://www.wolf189.com/
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Monday, September 15, 2008

Interview and Photo Exhibition in Univers d'Artistes



Models: Brittany V., Natalie, Ree Ja, Films: Ilford 100, 400 and Kodak 400


You can view this interview and photo exhibition in Univers d'Artistes :

http://universdartistes.blogspot.com/2008/09/wolf189-interview.html

Exhbited models are: Ree ja, Christina, Jemme H., Ava A., Natalie, Katisha, Sarafin, Candace C. and Envy.

Images are in portrait, fine are nude, erotic and editorial fashion style.


Cheers

Wolf189
http://www.wolf189.com/
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Three photos of the day: A loft in Los Angeles



Model: Vanessa, Film: Ilford B/W 100

Working with Vanessa was a joy. We shot in various styles but majority of the shots were in editorial fashion and portrait style.

I used 6-7 different films and slides during this session. I'll post more images in the near future.

Cheers

Wolf189

http://www.wolf189.com/

Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City


Friday, September 12, 2008

Photo Exhibitions in Room44




Models: Christina, Miss K., Jessalyn, Films: Ilford B/W 400, Kodak B/W 400


Room44 has created two galleries of my photographs in the fine art nude and subtle erotic/fetish styles.

Wonderful models who are being exhibited: Envy, Ava A. , Brittany V. , Ree Ja, Miss K. , Jessalyn and Phoenix M. .

You can view them here:

Fine Art Nude gallery:

http://www.room44.com/thumbnails.php?album=262

and

Subtle Fetish/Erotic gallery:

http://www.room44.com/thumbnails.php?album=263

Cheers

Wolf189
http://www.wolf189.com/
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Article in Univers d'Artistes

Model: Brittany, Film: Ilford B/W 400
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You can read and view this short article and exhibition at "Univers d'Artistes", which is written by Chris St James:
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Cheers

Wolf189
http://www.wolf189.com/
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

This lonesome road...


This lonesome road...


The last time that I put a price on freedom


it brought me nothing but suffering


if you can call it a name, a penny, less or more


then you are just a shadow of your own ghost, on a cloudy day


a roof so blue or so black, yet so empty


compliments a happy heart, yet so hungry


if this is the fate of a difficult man


so be it, as long as he has chosen it, willingly


Cheers
Wolf189
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Krzysztof Kieślowski: Three Colors





Models: Brandy, Jemme, Tanya Films: Fuji Pro 160, Velvia 100


Krzysztof Kieślowski died aged 54 on March 13, 1996, during open-heart surgery following a heart attack, and was interred in Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.


I enjoy and admire many creators in various fields...from artists, musicians, film directors to authors, philosophers, etc. but he is probably the only person which I feel very close to, not only in his points of views towards art, cinema and life but also the way he used every little technical means to his advantage in telling his stories.


...there was a reason behind every used element in Kieslowski's films and yet the technical parts and concepts were not consuming the context...they were all being used in a magical, meaningful harmony....silences, colors, light, pauses, camera angles, editing, times of day, scars, tears, broken hearts, hopes, happy endings, sad endings, ambiguous endings and everything in between....and colors...colors...colors.


During my life, I have witnessed many sad and real life dramas...from fathers selling their own under age children to use the funds to save the rest of family in war zones, to very untimely death of lovers to other things that can break your heart even imagining them....and yet the sadness of Kieslowski's untimely death is right up there among those and not less important than many other human tragedies in my humble opinion.
Although I have to say...personally I would've died a very happy and fulfilled man if I would've made only "Blue" and "Red" before my death.


Kieslowski said the following in an interview:


It comes from a deep-rooted conviction that if there is anything worthwhile doing for the sake of culture, then it is touching on subject matters and situations which link people, and not those that divide people. There are too many things in the world which divide people, such as religion, politics, history, and nationalism. If culture is capable of anything, then it is finding that which unites us all. And there are so many things which unite people. It doesn't matter who you are or who I am, if your tooth aches or mine, it's still the same pain. Feelings are what link people together, because the word 'love' has the same meaning for everybody. Or 'fear', or 'suffering'. We all fear the same way and the same things. And we all love in the same way. That's why I tell about these things, because in all other things I immediately find division.


Must see Cinema by him:


The Decalogue (Dekalog) (1988)

A Short Film About Killing (Krótki film o zabijaniu) (1988)

A Short Film About Love (Krótki film o miłości) (1989)

The Double Life of Véronique (La Double vie de Véronique/Podwójne życie Weroniki) (1991)

Three Colors: Blue (Trois couleurs: Bleu) (1993)

Three Colors: White (Trois couleurs: Blanc/Trzy kolory: Biały) (1994)

Three Colors: Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge) (1994)


The above images are part of a series which has been mildly inspired by Three colors: "Blue" , "White"and "Red". It is a work in progress and a long way from being complete. I have to thank the wonderful models who have participated in this project so far... Brandy, Jemme and Tanya.


Cheers


Wolf189


Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, New York City

Monday, September 8, 2008

Three photos of the day: Sam's Town



Model: Angelique, Film: Ilford B/W 400

These shots are about 2-3 years old. Angelique and her friends and family were in town to see a concert if I am not mistaken. I did 2-3 rolls in about 40-45 minutes, all of them in the same styling and make up.

I photographed her mostly in editorial portrait and fashion meet film noir on some level...her look, styling, light and mood felt that way.

Cheers

Wolf189

http://www.wolf189.com/

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City


Saturday, September 6, 2008

Three photos of the day: Tuscany



Model: Brittany , Film: Ilford B/W 400

I did three sessions in Tuscany Suites in one day about a year ago...although I was not feeling that well hence all three shoots were even shorter than my usual.

I had some plans and ideas for each session which at the end I ended up using them just as guidelines.

The above shots were part of a story board style photo shoot in erotic style which I did with Brittany...although we did some editorial fashion and portrait photos as well.

This was my third session with Brittany I think...we have done 13 sessions together in total. She is intelligent, inspiring, unique, quirky and beautiful all at the very same time.

Cheers

Wolf189

http://www.wolf189.com/

Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York City

Monday, September 1, 2008

"Rock & Roll Oriental Style" in Michelle7



Model: Stella K. , Films: Kodak, Ilford, Fuji

"Rock & Roll Oriental Style" is a photo essay which is being exhibited in Michelle7 :

http://www.michelle7.com/covers/2008/09/

I shot this essay in a subtle erotic and portrait style photography few months back. It was a pleasure to work with Stella. The title was generated through this line from Stella's bio:
"I'm a rock'n'roll singer with an Ivy League degree who gets naked in front of a camera."

Cheers
Wolf189
Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, NYC