The "Author Photo" - Sam

After crit on Friday, it was evident both me and my internship partner needed to re-do the author photo assignment. This came as no surprise, but I actually remembered the rules before my batteries died on me. Instead of making Emma suffer through another shoot in the cold, I put Sam in a jacket and told her to come with me and stand in a few places. I took many more pictures, and was very happy with a lot of them. I hope Emma, my boss Emma, will like these a bit better with eye contact and no smiles [despite the fact I loved the candidness, she felt they were too snapshot]. However, I have managed to keep my love for lighting intact, and have gotten closer in to the subject since the face needed to take up much more of the frame.

Though I still have to pick three for Friday out of all the ones I enjoy, here were a few of my picks to show off here:

The "Author Photo" - Emma

Now with school beginning again, I've started my internship with an assignment due tomorrow already. As promissed, I will be posting more school artwork here this semester, which will mainly be photography (and sadly no model drawing. Maybe next year!)

After being thrown under the bus and stressing about every finicky rule and running around to find printers, I discovered I was still made to be an artist who apparently forgets and still breaks rules. I wouldn't break them if they weren't given to me, but this assignment came with strict orders, one of which I couldn't follow. Though I do break on purpose, this time I forgot that eye contact was the most important rule, and that my internship overseer/boss I guess you could say "hates smiles". Well, at least for this "author photo" assignment. And normally I don't use them either, but I was lucky enough to get my roommate from last year comfortable behind the camera for a few (very cold) moments here and there yesterday afternoon.

Though we're taught to be purists, I've edited these to my liking to post here. The printed versions are un-edited, as my boss will see tomorrow, but here is me cropping and contrasting to my liking, though I haven't edited much. I've picked a few favorites to show you, unlike the three I will be showing tomorrow, but here they are.

Continued Sluttiness

I managed to catch this ad in several screenshots since my entry yesterday. It may not be the stripes one, but I daresay it's just as bad, starting at the crotch in all it's pixely scrolling glory.






Personal style? I'll let you debate.

Even This Title should be Slutty.

Eye-catching?
It's about time I blather on with some pretend-witty banter (aka rant) on American Apparel.

Their store already has one strike from the beginning, in my opinion - their prices. Such outrageous numbers for such basic clothing? Noooo. I may be cheap, but I think it's gotten out of hand. In the past year or two, the company has really stolen some spotlight in the fashion world amongst pretentious hipsters and those in the crowd who like to pretend they're cool by spending ridiculous wads of cash on clothes that "look like they were cheap" but not really. Though that's been a fad for ages, and their prices are bothersome - the real problem lies behind their ads.

Famous for their controversial advertising, American Apparel plasters billboards and online sites with numerous pictures of boob-bearing and leg-spreading females. For those of you who frequent Texts From Last Night or Lookbook (and I'm sure there are others), you know that there have been edgy ads from the temperature-sensitive t-shirts to the more recent lace bodysuit. Though "sex sells" is a popular saying, I think they're really cutting it close.

Dov Charney, the maker of it all, is not known to be conservative. This already pretty obvious if you haven't noticed by his company choices, but some other people involved have assured the public against rumors that girls aren't laid off for not being hot enough, it's that they don't have enough "personal style". Well, if personal style is thrusting your crotch up on a clear glass table for the advertising business, clearly I've been missing something.



Though in her letter to defend the company, creative director Marsha Brady may have a point about wanting models to make their basic clothes "exciting,"( which I do admit is needed) I think they may be advertising that the wrong way. Nothing says class like a crotch shot or some nipples.

After surfing Lookbook forums, I found a poster who couldn't have put their more recent advertisements in better wording. "So much vagina happening lately. We were getting more boob ads around Christmas, but lately its really about the crotch, isn't it?" Short, sweet, and much to the point. Here's some examples:







Though there are countless more, I don't know about you, but I don't want to buy these clothes any more than I did before. In fact, I'd love to stay away from all of these ads and stores by ten miles, yet, that is not as possible as I wish it was. I will leave you with my favorite ad to hate - the scrolling Stripes! ad. Though I don't have the example to display in all it's scrolling glory, it looks like this:



Just like that, only in a long bar, and the scroll STARTS at her crotch, pauses, and slowly works it's way up to her face. Remind me again why it is so important that the ad starts at her crotch? Oh, right, it's not important, it's just her "personal style."

Badass Grandmas and Sailors

Most of you that know me well know that when it comes to topics of conversation I always seem to circle back to two things - boys and tattoos. I may think a lot about both, but sometimes in the midst of these kinds of things I stumble upon interesting articles. Thanks to some recent surfing on Modblog, one of my daily sites I like to check, I've been reading a few articles that I found linked there.

The first one I discovered kind of evokes laughs at first, but when you actually look at it, it's, well, kind of cool. Jean Russel, at 78 and residing in assisted living doing normal grandmother things like loving her grandchildren and making blankets, just got her first tattoo. Like the rest of the people who have their head on straight, she wanted it to have meaning. With the initials DLD representing her children, and 7 underneath for her grandchildren, she proudly displays the dark ink on her arm.



I don't know about you, but a lot of old people and grandmother types in my area generally frown upon this kind of thing. But, Jean found out that she was supported by her children and several other members of the community, inspiring them to help with her community service and blankets. The overall short period of time it took (twenty-five minutes) gives no justice to all the proud moments involved - the tattoo artist was happy to work with her, and successful despite the condition of Jean's skin (we all know old people skin is frail, and I imagine that's not easy to work with).

On the subject of tattoos, I now turn to nautical sailor markings, a style I find interesting despite it's now woven meaning into popular and even stereotypical tattoo culture. Philly, a place I love from experience, is having an exhibit called "Skin and Bones" on the history of sailors and their tattoos, explaining all the original oldschool meanings behind the imagery we all label today as "stereotypical" (such as all those swallow tattoos). Were this museum closer to home, I'd definitely be taking a trip - but for now, I have to admire all the information I can read up online. Though tattoos could mean as little as a pastime to them, it went from that to being a helpful tool of identification, as well as symbols that carried meanings all sailors could recognize. And one of my favorites - it was a bonding activity. What's better than a bunch of boys getting together to bond over someone getting tattooed out at sea?



Yup, that's right, they did this on the ships. Some carried the art to shore, but let's just say they started out with gunpowder and urine. Not appealing, but I guess the ocean can get pretty boring when you're sailing miles and miles to acquire some nice swallow tattoos to show off your mileage.

Though I could go on and on about how much I want to see this exhibit, I doubt it's going to happen. However, I will always continue to admire my venue of boys and tattoos online, so it's all good.