Hello hello. Yes yes.
I hope you’ve been keeping cool in this filthy hot NYC weather, fellow C.C.Degenerates! Those of you outside of New York… consider yourselves lucky! This past Fourth of July weekend was a hot bitch! Anyway, we’re all alive and well, so let’s ART IT UP! I’m doing something a little different this week. Let me explain; I’ve been using any free time I’ve had to work on some freelance projects (hey, if you know anyone that needs an artist, send ‘em my way! I need the dough!), so I haven’t had much time to draw at my leisure this week. I’ve recently joined a daily Photoclub started by fellow C.C.D. contributor Kristen Grillo
and it’s put me in a photographic mood of late. So this week I am going to share some of my photographs with you! It’s nothing earth shattering, but I like ‘em. When it comes to the workings of a camera, I am technically akin to a mental retard. But I think I have a good eye, and I do enjoy taking pictures. Here are a few… some old, some new. Here are…
“THIRTEEN PHOTOS”
Photo #1: “NYC SEWER”
Let’s start off down and dirty! Just a cool shot of a manhole cover around the block from me. This was taken this week. I used Amanda (that is my special lady friend)’s new fancy digital camera for it, and the detail is great! Man, I gotta get me a thousand bucks and then get me one of them fancy cameras!
Photo #2: “EMPIRE STATE”
I like this one a lot. At some point I have to print it up and get it in a frame for my wall. Anyway, this was taken by me in December of 2006, from the top of “30 Rock”. There was enough sunlight still in the sky allowing me to get this shot. It reminds me of the scene in ‘Ghostbusters’ when the skies open up and once the containment system was shut down. Yes, I’m a nerd. Enjoy “Empire State”.
Photo #3: “IMAGINE: STRAWBERRY FIELDS, DECEMBER 8th, 2006”
Also taken in December of 2006, and also keeping with this NYC theme. Every year on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death (murder, actually, by that lunatic dumb douche whose name I won’t even mention ‘cause fuck him) I visit Strawberry Fields in Central Park. It is located across the street from The Dakota, which was the apartment building where John lived and died (Yoko still lives there.). I have been doing this every year since 1993. And every year I go, I try and take a photo of the memoriam set up in the middle of the square. People bring offerings and shit, and I always throw down a guitar pick. It is a tradition that I will keep forever. Well, this was a nice picture.
Photo #4: “PARACHUTE JUMP”
Yeah, the last three pictures have been done to death… but fuck you, I like ‘em! These are mine, so they’re better! Plus it’s my column, so I’ll do what I want! HA! But really, here is another New York landmark, The Steeplechase Park Parachute Jump. I took this from the beach in the summer of 2005, if memory serves me well. I think it’s cool. Hope you do, too.
Photo #5: “ANGEL IN STONE”
Let’s move up the Hudson River a bit to Sleepy Hollow. This place is a beautiful spot to take pictures, especially in the fall! Before all my friends were married and babied up, we’d make sure to make an annual sojourn there around Halloween, to go hiking in the graveyard and its surrounding wilderness. This was taken at that graveyard… the same one Ichabod Crane was chased through in Washington Irving’s classic story! Spooky!
Photo #6: “SLEEPY HOLLOW PLAINS”
Another S.H. shot. We had hiked up a hill, then an ages old stone wall above the graveyard. When we got to the top, it opened up to these plains. The sun was starting to set… a perfect time to arrive and get a photo. Not to be a fruit, but it was really beautiful.
Photo #7: “LONG ISLAND LAKE”
I went fishing in August 2005 with my Uncle Joe and his brother-in-law, Hank. We were on some lake in Long Island. I have no idea what the name of the lake was… but who cares? Just look at this photo. Greatness.
Photo #8: “OAHU BEACH SUNSET”
Oahu Beach, Hawaii. October 2006. Words can’t and won’t do it justice. So…
Photo #9: “PEEPING TOMMY’S VIEW”
Too bad there were no naked broads milling about! This was also taken this past week with Amanda’s fancy camera. I think it looks cool, and that’s why it’s here.
Photo #10: “AMANDA IN KETTY’S KITCHEN”
This was taken the same day as the photo above, with the same camera. This was just a candid shot of Amanda sitting in our friend Ketty’s kitchen. I thought it was a really great photo; crystal clear and capturing her in a natural way. She said she didn’t like it because her face looked stupid. Well I think she looks cute and I think the picture came out swell. So there.
Now, lemme give you a little history about the last three photos. In 1995, I took some reference photos of my then girlfriend for some freelance work I was doing. The pictures came out pretty cool, so I asked her to take more. Friends of ours saw them and liked them, and asked me to photograph THEM as well (all chicks). By this point my then girlfriend became my ex-girlfriend, but the plans were made to take pics of these chicks. I had the idea that I’d make a portfolio of pictures of girls I knew. Sorta pin-uppy, sorta sexy, but pretty. I never got around to some of ‘em, but I did get a few. Here are three. Foxes!
Photo #11: “KRISTEN DETAIL”
Since she’s a fellow C.C.D.er, she’s gonna start off the pack. This is a detail of an 8”x10” photo I took of your friend and mine, Kristen Grillo. Simple. We did these in January of 2007.
Photo #12: “MICHELLE ON RED SHEETS”
My girl photo portfolio had some running themes: fishnets, black stockings, red lips, red sheets, red nails. All sexy shit, in my opinion! This is my friend Michelle on red bedsheets. We did these in October of 2005, the day after my brother’s wedding. I like the pose (taken from some sketches I did before our shoot), and the lighting is pretty cool, too. I used a dopey point and shoot digital camera, so the shots were hit or miss as far as lighting, focus, etc. But we got some good ones and this was one of them. This was the one I was gonna use for the portfolio (I started printing some of the pictures to start the book, but at the time I was having issues with my printer… so I became discouraged and aborted the project. Maybe I’ll start it again someday.) Anyway, here’s Michelle (she’s a mommy now, by the way.)
Photo #13: “MONICA GOES TO HOLLYWOOD”
My friend Monica was keen on posing, so she did! This was my favorite of the bunch, though we got a lot of really cool ones where I messed with shadows and stuff. Monica is really tiny, so this was me looking down on her. I like her sassy look, and the bustier is something out of Old Hollywood, I think… like Mae West or Jane Mansfield or something. It’s a little saturated, but I thought that lent itself to that classic Hollywood feel. This is my choice for the portfolio. (Monica is also a mommy now, too! I can’t wait for her and Michelle’s little girls to see these! Haha.)
Well that’s a little of what else I do besides draw and paint and stuff. I hope you’ve enjoyed this
little departure, and I hope to share my photos with you again someday, kids! I will be taking next week off to go to Florida on vacation, but don’t worry! I’ll be back the week after with an all-
new ARTIN’ IT UP!
So until then…
SMILE UP!
~TL
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