BrianRiley1

2011-03-17T07:49:00.003-04:00

It has been some time since my last post!

But things are still moving along well. I have been painting and have opened a gallery so I have been busy working away. Please have a look at BRIANRILEY1PROJECTS.com and see what I have been up to. I am now starting to look at some shoots that I have done during this time and have started to shoot again, so more pictures to come soon. I have really been thinking about photographers and how they work, some people take pictures of what is in front of them and other make images out of what they are seeing. I am trying to be the latter. So many photographer of the male nude simply take are taking pictures of naked guys and it stops there...Like I thought before it all come down to intent, if you intend to do more it will read inside your vision.

2010-07-30T08:52:00.003-04:00

Such a wonderful day the heat has broken and the air is cool.

2010-07-23T10:51:00.000-04:00

2010-07-21T17:45:00.001-04:00

So I am thinking of starting some editorial work.... THE E WORD....

But its something I have never done and would like to try, who knows maybe I will like it.

2010-07-17T08:37:00.000-04:00

2010-07-15T07:39:00.003-04:00

I would love to do a big show of my work!

Images about 30 x 40 or 11 x 14 and many of them so people could see the scope of the work.

Some day this will happen until then I will keep shooting.

I NEED MORE MODELS IF ANY ONE LOOKS AND WOULD LIKE TO POSE REACH OUT TO ME.

2010-07-13T07:50:00.002-04:00

Its one of the times in life where things are fuzzy.

Ideas are fuzzy, places, people and energy....... At one time in my life I called times like this depression, now I see it as emptiness. Emptiness is seeing this energy as a good thing because it allows amazing space for something new and refreshing to come in and thrive.

Only time will tell, The yogi would say that when you are board and feeling alone that is when you are closest to god, when there was one it felt the deep need to expand and a vibration created two and the universe was born.

2010-07-11T09:20:00.001-04:00

I am excited to do a photo shoot today

we will see what comes of it.

I am glad now that I have a car I would love to start photographing people in NJ....

2010-07-10T08:45:00.000-04:00

Not much to say just trying to get back into the swing of life in NYC.....

2010-06-27T05:14:00.002-04:00

Going away so the posts may slow down for a week wile on the road.

SAT NAM

2010-06-26T08:05:00.001-04:00

Humility means to understand the self and through that to understand others as well. Humility is the attitude where a person is not attached to his or her opinion and feelings. Humility is the most natural expression of truth. It helps in better understanding of truth. Humility is the basis for maintaining self-respect. Humility does not mean bowing down and being subservient to others. Humility allows you to see benefit in everything. Developing humility brings a lot of comfort and ease into your life.

2010-06-25T07:49:00.003-04:00

Seeing what is in front of me is so amazing. Life is such a gift, so much beauty all around us. Remember that the world like the body strives for balance. For as much SHITTY things happening there are amazing things happening. Decide what side you want to be on. I see the masses of people in NYC as I walk the streets and ride the subway and I often think, if each person were to project the energy of peace, have the thoughts and vibration of beauty and grace in their minds the would would be a different place fast. I dream of making this shift in consciousness happen, Beam Grace into every situation and uplift always. SAT NAM

2010-06-24T07:31:00.002-04:00

Looking Looking Looking..........

2010-06-23T07:17:00.002-04:00

Every day something new comes to the surface and I have a chance to share it. That is regarding the selection of images I make each day as well as life in general. Every morning is so creative, the weather, the light, the sounds, are always different, however slight, it's always a subtle variation on the same theme, Morning. How wonderful and creative the day is. Ang Sang Wahe Guru

2010-06-22T07:31:00.002-04:00

The SOLSTICE was amazing, now the day start getting shorter. The Solstice is an amazing still point to be held close. Its like the breath, and its still point at the top and at the bottom. Shunia, the still point where all things are possible. Photography is a still point capturing a moment that can travel in time to be contemplated forever.........

2010-06-21T11:17:00.006-04:00

Every so often there come a time when I have to print a portfolio of images. Today is one of those days. Its always a strange time making prints. I love it and I stress a bit about it. Well stress is not the correct term. Its more a deep feeling of heart energy. I have to feel the images that will be made, I have to feel them deep in my heart. I have been looking at a lot of blogs over the past few days and I am starting to find more and more about myself and my photography by looking at others. If you wish to know your self look at others. I feel like the work I like to make is about looking carefully at what is in front of me. Finding the sacredness inside a subject and striving to capture that in a photograph. Today, so many talented artists are being wrongly effected by the consumer driven culture we find ourselves in . They are spending their sacred creative energy striving to manipulate beauty for the sole purpose of emptiness. There is such a deep emptiness in so much around us, why spend your Kundalini adding more.......Dig deeper, and go further........ ONG NAMA GURU DAYV NAMA ( I bow to the subtle divine wisdom, the divine teacher within)

This is what I chose to print

2010-06-20T08:19:00.004-04:00

This mantra connects the speaker to the infinite and the infinite to the speaker.

Aad such, jugaad such, haibhee such naanak hosee bhee such

(Truth in the beginning, Truth throughout the ages, Truth at this moment, Nanak says this Truth shall ever be.)

It works! yesterday there was a disconnect today the connection is restored I chanted this mantra all day yesterday..............

2010-06-19T08:16:00.002-04:00

2010-06-18T07:36:00.002-04:00

Energy moves and changes....... Some days I am on and can look at the work I make and see something. Yet at other times I look and I see almost nothing. I hate to say nothing because that disrespects the work to call it nothing. Its just that I must be vibrating at a different frequency, I am not connecting at the moment. About a week ago I was so tuned into the energy of my paintings, now I cant even look at them....... I feel I am moving into one of these times of disconnect with the images I make. I know these times well and often it is when new work will arrive. I have been looking at a lot of work on blogs and see so many people making and sharing images. It is a bit overwhelming and incredible at the same time. I was talking with a client the other day about books, he asked if I were going to be publishing on. But I honestly do not see the point. My blog shares my ideas, my images and what is on my mind on a day to day way, why waste the paper.......

2010-06-17T08:21:00.004-04:00

What a wonderful clear day. The rain last night took away the humid air and the morning was light and fresh. How wonderful the weather is, greeting us a different way every morning..I love the seasons and now being so close to solstice the day are long and powerful. I left my studio last night at 8pm and the sky was still bright. Take the time to watch the light over the next few weeks, see how it changes, be outside in nature around dawn and dusk and see the dance of all the colors. Vibrate the Cosmos, the Cosmos shall clear the path.

2010-06-16T07:56:00.003-04:00

I have this Yucca plant in my garden that is just an amazing orgy of activity. It creates this sweet nectar that all kinds of creatures go crazy for. Today it is almost gross looking because it is covered in aphids that are farmed by ants. The ants keep them in areas, the aphids eat the plant deposit the nectar that the ants then eat. Then the lady bugs come to reproduce because their larvae eat the aphids. Then what is left from that carnage builds up and the fly show up. Also the bees, the wasps and the butterflies. Its like a one stop shopping mall for so many of the garden dwellers. When you can take a moment and just look down at the ground in just a few inches you will see the complexity of the life around us. If you go inside and quiet the mind you will be able to hear the sound that all this life transmits. The music of life is all around, take the time to listen and it can heal. I am currently doing a study of Sound healing with singing bowls, tuning forks and the gong. I have learned that everything comes down to music, the physicalthree dimensional for of vibration. In this, one studies how our internal vibration, due to the stresses of daily life becomes out of tune allowing disharmonies to build inside the body. When we are out of tune it is easy for disease to set into the body. Almost like if the Yucca plant were to take one of the features out of its equation the entire garden life would be effected. If the body is out of tune starting with just one organ then the entire homeostatic system is effected. Singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, and such work to recreate the original harmonic frequency, by making it vibrate to the frequency of the instrument so that when it is synchronized, it can vibrate independently. Stimulated and taken up by the powerful vibrations of the gong, fork or singing bowl the body is able to tune into its own undisturbed frequency. Its so cool. Everything you do, everything you see, everything you hear think touch, the people the smells the taste........................ It all is and effect your vibration, what tune do you want to play.

2010-06-15T08:08:00.006-04:00

Today was a fun selection into the archive....

GO OUT AND MAKE IMAGES OF WHAT YOU SEE.

2010-06-13T09:46:00.000-04:00

So many amazing people in this world. I had a great day working yesterday. I am so thankful that I found work that is so rewarding to do, working with people to bring on relaxation. Working with people to reconnect with themselves. People are so smart, yet some times unaware of their own awareness. So often when they lie on my table they are so clear in what it is in the world and in life that brings them stress... They are also aware of what it is that helps to rid their bodies of that stress. So many talk about doing it, yet return to that pattern of stress without taking their own advice.... One must break that pattern to grow. If your sensitive, caring, calm, and interested in something amazing and life changing study healing, heal yourself then work towards healing others.

Wahe Guru Wahe Jio

2010-06-12T07:00:00.004-04:00

I am reading this amazing book, Black Elk - The Sacred way of a Lokota. His words are so clear and beautiful. He talks about a time when man was in tune with nature and was able to talk and understand the language of Mother Earth, " They say that at one time we were civilized and educated...They say we could talk to the trees and all the green, They say we could talk to the winged-people, the four-legged, creeping-crawlers, mammals, and fish-people. They say that at one time we could all talk to each other. No matter how many countless languages, forms and shapes, and symbols there were, they say we all spoke the same mind. That is called civilized, or educated. Well we kind of drifted away from there and drifted over here. Now we call ourselves the civilized, Christianized world, but we just formed a little world all of our own. Then we got ourselves caught over here with out spirit, and we ended up with zero." In the wake off what is happening around us these words are clear. So make it your mission to reconnect, open your heart, tune up your internal vibration and find that connection once again.

2010-06-11T07:15:00.002-04:00

Likes... Things that are like each other yet so different, the subtleness of creativity. Only so many notes on the musical scale, only so many colors in the spectrum, yet so much variety, amazing!ONG SANGH WAHE GURU!!!!!!! Strive to open your heart and see the world of the Divine.

2010-06-10T08:28:00.003-04:00

I came across the quote from Yogi Bahajan in a new book I got yesterday

"Count your merits: You always count your defects and never your merits. Count your merits and leave off the deficiencies - they were meant to be filled with your efficiency. That's all it takes. When you don't give in to your deficiency, it is efficiency. You're not a sinner... Just deficient. Keep up and you'll be efficient. That's all it takes and it will carry you through - that's the secret of life. NO BODY'S PERFECT!

2010-06-09T07:13:00.003-04:00

Raa Maa Daa Saa Saa Say So Hung: The Sun The Moon The Earth and Infinity, I am a part of this infinity. Vibrate the Cosmos and the Cosmos will shine in you. This is one of my favorite Kundalini Yoga mantras, and it works!!!!!!!! Tune in, get you internal energy vibrating at the correct frequency and see how life unfolds. NADA YOGA, The discipline of the inner sound, the primal vibration. If you think about it what is your energy attuned to?

2010-06-08T07:47:00.000-04:00

Today Is my 38Th birth day.

Time moves fast when your having fun.

I am having fun, Went to an amazing Yoga class last night with my teacher Hari.

What a Joy it was, a GONG meditation. If you have never had a GONG bath, find a yoga center that uses the GONG and GO. I am trying, saving, and dreaming for the GONG to come to my yoga center..... Yesterday I spent the day in the swing Barry gave me reading a wonderful book I HIGHLY RECOMMEND "To Know Your Self" The essential Teachings of Swami Satchidananda, it will enlighten you. I am now starting "Black Elk" The Sacred ways Of the Lakota, Wallace Black Elk. I picked it up at one of my favorite stores in NYC , Stick Stone and Bone on Christopher st. One of the last remaining true places left, as the neighborhood transforms into retail stores and restaurants, The charm of the west village is fading fast, I hope a few wonders will survive.

2010-06-07T22:23:00.002-04:00

Simple and Beautiful.

2010-06-07T06:50:00.003-04:00

I just had some work come out on this wonderful blog called beautiful mag and they said so many nice things about me so I must Thank Them!!!!!!!!!!! Have a look and see www.beautifulmag.eu

I spent the afternoon yesterday in the yard, reading in the new chair swing I got for my birthday. There is something about being on a swing and this one is amazing.

2010-06-06T08:51:00.001-04:00

Looking around and finding balance. Yesterday I was leading a yoga class and we were talking about finding that balance Shunia, the still point and how with that clear mind one is able to manifest a beautiful present. I love the idea of always being in the now, its a challenge but one so worth taking. My selection of images is now becoming a meditation, looking into the work and seeing what, at this moment, comes to the surface. In the early morning the mind is still. It is like waking up and going down to a lake or as I was just in Florida out to the dock on the bay and seeing the stillness. The reflections in the water are so clear that one can truly see what it means to be still. As the day wakes up and the shifts and vibrations stir, the ripples form and that stillness is gone. That perfection of the still reflection is broken by the activity of the day.

2010-05-30T06:37:00.003-04:00

The light is so amazing this morning. The bids were up early and the air is cool. We have crickets this year in the yard and the sound at night is wonderful. They are singing us to sleep. I am not posting for a few day because I will be away, away from NYC, and away from my computer. Today I am still looking back at like things in photo shoots and seeing the work grouped together. How patterns emerge in everything we do, the repeat, they shift, yet they are alway there. Looking at my photography now after having spent 6 years on the project of the male nude I see and find so many of the same images being looked at, made with subtle changes, I can see how I see, how I was looking at the forms, over and over repeating the same pattern. Now my paintings and my drawings do the same. They form patterns that aline with my yoga and massage as well and are starting to bring many parts of my life together.

2010-05-29T09:06:00.000-04:00

There are shapes that only the body can make and how amazing is that. We are so blessed to have the most incredible way to experience the world. The mind, The body and the Soul. The body is a fluid moving means of experience. It is mold able and changeable and in the course of time always rebuilt on its own doing. A way to truly change your life is to enroll in an anatomy class, learn about your body, understand what is in it, what makes it work and then the world will open up to you. For so many years I was stuck in my head, my body was just there, I took it for granted. It worked, gave me little trouble and managed to keep up with my destructive behavior. Not to long ago, when I found myself in a dark and ugly place, where my always being in my head had taken the light of my soul and the integrity of my self away it was areconnection with my body that pull me back into the light. I see so many people slumped over, holding on to so much unused energy around their bodies and I see that that disconnect is sorampant in this country. I set out to change my life by reconnecting with my body and I hope to continue the journey towards helping others from what I learn.

2010-05-28T07:40:00.003-04:00

The moon was so full and amazing last night. I was bathed in moon light as I slept. What strong energy. It has me feeling good, energized and ready to finish my new painting. I really love the three images I chose today, Such strong people with such a strong presents.

2010-05-27T07:16:00.002-04:00

A beautiful day

A beautiful set of photographs

2010-05-26T07:48:00.002-04:00

My painting has taken me into multiples, where I have like things side by side. When you see them they look the same but with further investigation they are very different. Today I looked at my photos with that same eye. Seeing how I often shoot the same pose in different ways with different subjects. I taught a class last night where I talked about the concept of using a yogic touch in everything that you do. Taking the time to approach the world with light hands and a keen awareness, weather doing a yoga Kriya or doing the dishes. I like this way of looking at things and at photographs, when something is posed next to something else one is offered the opportunity to see subtlety.

2010-05-25T07:59:00.002-04:00

Today I am going in deep and showing images that I take but never thought I would show. Self portraits that trace my way around the studio over the past 8 years. Its interesting now that I am moving on with the work Painting again I feel I have gained a perspective of a time frame that had me in the studio taking photographs. I can now look back and see what the journey was all about. The thing I like most about art is how it is so much about being in the moment and when the moments pass and we move forward markers are left in our wake. Moments captured and spent searching for beauty, being creative and tuning into the source. EK ONG KAAR SAT GUR PARSAAD, SAT GUR PARSAAD EK ONG KAAR.

2010-05-24T07:42:00.000-04:00

Things are shifting as they do and a new adventure is starting for me in the world of painting. It has been close to 15 years since I had a deep interest to paint and now a drawing project that I have been working on for the past 2 years has shifted to its next step.... PAINTING. I am very excited, and feel I had an evolution in my approach to art and art making over the last few days. The beautiful thing was that it had to do with the blending of all aspects of my life. Working out, looking at art in galleries ( The late works of Claude Monet, at Gagosian) doing Yoga and massage, and a passage I read in the Yoga Sutras, 45:SAMADHI SIDDHIR ISVARAPRANIDHANAT. In hour 5 of massage on Saturday everything blended and I was able to see clearly in front of me what to do.

I looked back and found theses images I shot because they were done when painting was trying to surface about 1 year ago. It has tried over the past 12 years to come back in but has not succeeded. I think this time its around for a wile.

2010-05-22T08:49:00.001-04:00

Another beautiful day in the garden. I love to wake and have some tea looking at the flowers.

NYC is a challenge to me lately. I am so happy with my home, my work, my friends, my art. I have even started to paint again, so it all seems fine. Yet there is this burning feeling inside me to move, to get away from the city and try something completely new. Only time will tell as I know to trust the universe.

2010-05-21T08:12:00.002-04:00

Today I found one images when looking back. Its a beautiful one contemplative and calm.

My energy is a bit low and I going to spend some time in my yard with the flowers.

2010-05-20T07:54:00.001-04:00

Well I added followers to my blog and so far its just me and my partner Barry so please join so I can see if anyone out in cyber space is watching. Seeing the work that I am sharing. Not that it really matters. It is just nice to know that the images are making their way out into the world and maybe by showing them people can help me to understand more about what it is I do. I take lots of pictures, I love to play with the light, the textures, the colors and the balance of light and dark. I love looking back at shoots and finding the images that are correct for me. Every time I look I feel the energy of different images rising to the surface. I just had some image chosen for a web site that I love and the curator went into the blog and selected 3 images. I am always amazed at the decisions that people make, what images they choose to put together, often amazing combos are made that I would never choose.

2010-05-19T07:14:00.003-04:00

SHEN, the soul inside the body that manifests in the eyes. That part that reaches out into the world and project your energy into existence. This set of images was about capturing a projection manifesting in the minds of my subjects. The SOUL, OUR CONNECTION TO THE ENERGY OF THE UNIVERSE. Art celebrates that, stimulates that and feeds that.

2010-05-18T07:42:00.004-04:00

Details GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. I am learning so much from doing this photography project where I am curating a collection of photographs of the male nude. I am seeing how all of these photographers are showing their work. How they give prints to galleries, how they treat and finnish their prints. I am liking some and shocked by others. One frustration that I am working to make go away is the voice that keeps at me saying "if they show this work, why the hell wont they show your." All things come in time and the longer I have to make my work great the better it will be. What I produce now is so much better then what I produced a few years back so......... Thats the reason. Today I swam around the archive and found details, moments that found small reveling way of sharing the male body.

2010-05-16T11:01:00.002-04:00

Just looking back on a sunday morning.

2010-05-15T08:33:00.005-04:00

What a wonderful morning A beautiful day in New Jersey.
EK ONG KAR SAT GUR PRASAD SAT GUR PRASAD EK ONG KAR
God and We are One. I know this by the Grace of the True Guru, I know this by the Grace of the The True Guru. That God and We are One.
Make this Mantra a part of your life and you will be surprised at the changes in you.
These images are from early 2009, It was a wonderful change in lighting that happened by chance in a shoot so I worked with it. I am very taken by theses images and think I will work like this some more.

2010-05-14T09:26:00.002-04:00

Hard Drives........ So interesting how we rely on them now so much to hold our information.... Our information, whats that? The one I use at my studio that I edit pictures to was starting to not show up on my screen when I would turn on my computer, her name is Gia. So it was off to J and R to buy a new one and get it backed up. So important in the digital world to have a clone or a back up with all your information stored on it fresh so that if your original hard drive fails you just boot up its clone.... Sound allot like where science is looking to take the human, I wonder if one day we will have a back up. Something to dump our memories in so if the ware and tare of daily life makes the original fail we can just boot up our back up. In ways meditation is much like cleaning off the system of all the unnecessary files that cause all the confusion in the first place. A clean clear hard drive and scratch disc run so much smoother. Having my master hard drive home gives me so many shoots to pull from.....

2010-05-13T08:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I had such a great massage session with a client who is on a wonderful journey of amazing life changes.
His awareness to each subtle experience he is having was such a refreshing and beautiful thing to hear. We talked and shared stories and found that even though we were both coming from different perspectives we were meeting in the same place.
I see that place as the center or the Soul. Creating a moment has always been a focus of my photography and what I realy love about photography in general. One can capture a moment or one can create a moment. When I photograph people, the shoots are often close and an energy is captured in my images. The Native Americans looked at the photograph as something that captured the Soul and were for a long time afraid of being photographed. I think Photography can have that power, the power to capture that split second when the soul is revealed and hold onto it as a meditation to see and experience for as long as the image exists.

2010-05-11T17:57:00.004-04:00

Drift wood is something that is returning to my mind again and again and how its shapes remind me of the male nude.
This post is not about looking back but about looking forward. This is the work I am currently shooting at my studio..........
Today was a wonderful day, I cleaned my space, I shot photos, I talked with a friend and now I am off to teach a yoga class.
I would love to know what people think of the work so send me some comments..... Is anyone out there????

2010-05-11T07:04:00.003-04:00

Last night I was watching the discovery channel and it had programs all about the Universe. Its size, its birth, and our amazing ability to use the technology that we have to map and discover its mysteries. It is so big, some starts are 60 billion times larger then our Sun. 60 BILLION TIMES....... We have one telescope that works around the clock to map in 3d the entire universe. When one pulls back and looks at the bigger picture it looks the same as a neurone in the brain. stars cluster to make Galaxies, Galaxies cluster to make Supper Galaxies clusters, these cluster then into filaments that weave a web structure on and on and on and on. And its all held together by "Dark matter and Dark energy"...... Something that no one can seem to define. In Buddhism and Hinduism, Indra’s Web is a profound metaphor for the structure of reality, representing the interconnectedness and interdependency of all things, describing a rich and diverse universe where infinitely repeated mutual relations exist between all its elements and entities. With this in mind I feel blessed to be alive at such an amazing time.

2010-05-10T07:39:00.008-04:00

I am going further back with this shoot to 2005, back to the studio I shared with the painter, Back to the black back drop and back to the classic figure. I went to the park yesterday that runs along the Hudson river in New Jersey. It was low tide and is always a great place to find drift wood. I love drift wood! Aged pieces of things smoothed and polished by the ocean. God learned something from drift wood when designing the human body, Its shapes and subtle curves look like wood that has been sculpted by the sea. At this park there is one area of walk way that has, or had; drift wood tends to not stick around long, an amazing huge entire side of a wooden ship lying on the walk way. It was like a stage, 40 feet long by 18 feet wide, washed ashore by the tides. Photographs can be like drift wood. Images that float around and every so often surface. All my shoots are like this, each time I look back different images float to the surface for me to collect.

2010-05-09T08:23:00.006-04:00

I was sitting on the subway yesterday and had one of the moments when I really see all the people around me. I could see that each one of them was having an experience so similar to mine yet so much their own. It made me feel so close to the energy of oneness that I talk about in my yoga classes. Saturday has become such an intense day for me. I wake early in the morning to do yoga, then I am off to teach a yoga class. Most often we do a powerful Kriya ( yoga set ) on Saturday. Then I am home, change and off to the city for a massage shift at the gym I work at. My schedule is mostly booked on Saturday with up to 5 clients. It is such a day of concentration and meditation. The more I work with people the finer tuned my reception of their energy is. It is wonderful and strange. The subway ride made me think of the mantra God and me, me and God are one. Yogi Bhajan talks of God as the Generating, Organizing and Destroying forces of the universe. How wonderful to make the word so many people have pre set ideas about into such a pure definition. On the train, I could see that we were all one, that the truth behind all the people all the things around me was God/ Truth must manifest as everything in order to have every experience. In order to know something one must experience it for themselves. So we are all one, I am the same as the person across from me, if I clear all the baggage my mind carries I could see the pure energy of beauty in front of me everywhere.

2010-05-08T12:02:00.005-04:00

I read a great description of selflessness yesterday in the Yoga Sutras translation by Sri Swami Satchidananda. He spoke of a fruit tree and its giving nature. How it works and lives to produce fruit for all who wish to have it, good or bad, everyone get to enjoy its bounty. Yet the fruit tree itself never eats of its own fruit. I then thought that I may start to approach my art making with this in mind and just allow my images to be fruit produced off the tree of my creativity. Just let it be, available for anyone who wishes to see it. My blog is simply that. The fruits of my investigation for the world to see.

2010-05-07T07:40:00.008-04:00

This studio with the amazing wall was big and dark, no windows and about 800 sq feet with a 16 foot ceiling. There was a door in the back that opened onto an old stair well. It was dirty and dark because no one in the building used it, I think it was only a fire escape..... If you were willing to try it. I loved it!!!! It made the space special and so much bigger, I would always have the door open.
The way my lighting worked in the space was great, it would light the subject and have enough space to naturally fade away into the darkness. Having that much space was a real gift. Some day I hope to have a big space to work in again and maybe a window.....

2010-05-06T08:42:00.005-04:00

Still in the images of the amazing wall and flowers. I am now onto the flower heads. It was a vision I had, that now holds a lot of symbolism for me. I often look at the shoots I do and think so much about what images to edit out. That is 90 % of the work. This shoot I look at a lot. Do I pick one image that " holds it all" do I pick a number of images the progress my idea, do I pick every image that feels correct to me.....Today's selection was back to a question I always have about erections. It is what happens when your working with the body. A beautiful natural amazing thing. However, I am always wondering if I should include the images in my posts, on my site, and in the body of my work. Is it to close, to personal, to sensual? I think it is all of the above, however the Truth in the images is that it simply is what it is. when looking closely at the male form and working to tell the truth in my images, in my investigation I have to include this in the body of the work and allow the images to simply be.

2010-05-04T07:14:00.010-04:00

I always felt that I did not do many shoots in the space with the amazing wall. Now that I look back on it I did some great ones. I think because this time was such a transformation for me the images have always been distant. I feel like I can now look at them and see something special. I had an idea in my head of a good and evil series......How Appropriate! I needed flowers to shoot with but had no money to buy them. When the universe, (as I have grown to understand more and more ) stepped in and provided for me. I was headed into shoot one day and in the lift was a sign saying "SILK FLOWERS available" room 435. It was just 4 doors down the hall from me where I found two huge boxes, 4' by 4' by 4' full of the most amazing silk flowers. I would have liked real ones but for what I needed these were perfect. I started shooting with them that day. I am not sure if this was the first shoot I did with the flowers but it is an interesting one.

2010-05-03T07:40:00.009-04:00

Jumping around a bit in my editing process I now find myself into images I shot in the studio I moved into across the hall from where I shared with the figure painter. I was working at home in NJ on a series of photographs for a client where I was shooting rings and using an amazing stone as my backdrop. As I worked I imagined shooting people against this stone. I thought the texture on rock coupled with skin would be amazing. I was at the end of my lease on studio 417 and knowing that Robert my studio mate was leaving it was time for me to look for a new space. I asked the ladies in the office to show me what they had. I was walked across the hall to a space with a huge wall, 12 feet by 20 feet, worn and textured in plaster and paint from decades of ware an tear. It was the original wall from the building that at a point some one polished. IT WAS AMAZING! It was the stone. I rented the space, knowing it was way over my budget, because I needed to shoot against it. I packed up and moved across the hall. This was a strange time in my life and now looking back it was a major turning point. The energy of everything was up in the air and unstable. I was a complete disaster, physically, and emotionally, I was at rock bottom, my soul was dying, and my art was struggling to keep me alive. I think all things happen for a reason and this new space, with this amazing wall changed me. When I reached the bottom is when I was, for the first time in some year, able to see a light of change. This space, these photo, and a reconnection with my soul pulled me out of a dark and scary place.

2010-05-02T20:22:00.007-04:00

Out of all the people I have photographed I have only returned to one to shoot with again and again.
Its funny because I can never show his face. Who is the man behind the mask.....

2010-04-30T08:01:00.009-04:00

I love the human body, and from my work you can see the male form is my focus. Its so interesting how it is the one thing we are so close to and still the one thing we are, as a society, so far away from. I think the nude still has a taboo around it. Male nudes most of all. I went to the photography show at the Park avenue armory recently and was on the hunt for male nudes. I knew it would be a battle, I weeded my way around landscapes and objects, over female nudes and down deep under it were some great male nude images. Seems to be the place you find them if your outside the "GAY"/ "erotic" market. Under it all at the bottom. Not to say some work does not get play because it does, its just interesting to me how and where it fits into the bigger picture. This set of images were shoot from 2006. The images are bold, I often myself, question some images and look at them and think, is this too much? Do they some how cross this line I have in my mind. I want so much for my work to be about an investigation into seeing the body in its beauty. Im not interested in being an "erotic" photographer, I find that way to easy. I know that there is a big difference between nude and naked. Between looking at something sensualy, and showing some one something eroticly. My work is about how I see things, or how I would like to see things, I think thats why all artists make things because in the world around them they are not seeing the things they are drawn to in the way they wish to so they manifest it for themselves.

2010-04-29T07:47:00.013-04:00

So I may be crazy but i figured if I am going to be looking back at shoots I might as well show everything. I found this shoot I did in 2006 at the studio I shared with the painter. After I moved in, about 3 mounts latter, Robert my studio mate fell and broke his hip. Well hit by a bike delivery boy wile walking his dogs kind of fall..... I was left with the studio to my self. I painted my big wall a deep blue black and started shooting Still life when I could not get a model to work with. On this day I had been ready to shoot a flower still when I found a model. I shot him with the flowers. It is the kind of shoot that again has taken so long to edit... We shot a lot of images and so many of them stand out. So todays post is this shoot. It begins the black back drop section of my work where all space is a void of black and the focus is on the body. I find the human form and flowers, nature, to be so amazing.

2010-04-28T07:37:00.008-04:00

I have been working on this project that has me looking at a lot of photography of the male nude.
I have galleries sending me photos now and the selections people make are so interesting. I am seeing so many images that look like well composed snap shots, and it has me thinking about my photography. I think because that is so far away from what I do. Its hard for me to impose a story onto my images or to take pictures that have that built in. I guess that is what makes my work mine, and maybe why I do it. I tend to build these settings and photograph the body in them. No story other then the truth of exactly what is in front of me. I think it matches my personality, and other activities that interest me, like doing yoga and massage. They are both so real. So much about being in the moment, being connected with the energy of that specific time and working with it. This set of images is from a series I did called CIRCUS, I think it was an attempt to add a story line into the images that ended up adding colors and shapes but no story other then where is this crazy place this model is shot in. Maybe that's a start....... Possibly if I went with a model to the circus and photographed it it would be something new.....

2010-04-27T07:52:00.009-04:00

After a wile of looking for models I began to cast my shoots on Craig's list. It turned out to be a good resource for me. It reminds me of going fishing when I was a kid. You cast your add an wait.... Seeing if someone on the other side will bite. Often its exactly the same as fishing and you hit a feeding frenzy. Some adds I would place I would have 10 to 20 replies, and a variety of people to consider. Other times your add just floats out in cyberspace with no reply. Or your line is cut... On Craig's list it called FLAGGED... When I left my studio on 2nd street I decided to look on line to see if I could find a new space in the city to work in. I was lucky and the first add I followed up on turned out to be the place. I packed my things and moved over to Broadway. I took a space in a large studio sharing with a figure painter named Robert. Robert was an old school, very classic figure painter. He had a long grey beard and GRUFF attitude. We hit it off well on our first meeting and soon I found myself tucked into the dark corner of his space. It had 2 windows that faced a light well that hardly produced light. In stead they seemed to simply allow smells from the light well to penetrate our studio. I looked at it as a challenge and switched from shooting with sunlight to shooting with studio lights. Of course I had no money so I grabbed a few clip on light from canal street and a white paper bag and returned to a style of lighting that I had developed in high school shooting pictures in my best friend mikes bed room. This story of the space came to mind when I looked at this shoot I call it painted bodies. It was the last shoot I did in that studio, space # 417. More images will come and many more stories but since I'm looking back I must be starting with this.

2010-04-26T17:26:00.013-04:00

Seeing work a new. The friend I shared this studio with was a very wise soul. We would sit and talk for hours about photos, music, and the act of creativity. She and I were fellow waiters at a Mexican restaurant on St marks place. She was the person I was paired up with when I was hired. She was given the job to train me and show me the ropes. We hit it off great, she called me Riley. Working together every day we got to know each other well and found that the draw of the night, late hours of drinks and party favors were something we had in common. Her and her girl friend had moved to Brooklyn and were using her girlfriends apt now as a studio, they asked me if I wanted to rent the small front room and I did. I have no idea what happened to Guinevere. I have tried and tried to contact her with no reply..... The last time we spoke was after I had moved out of the studio and we met for coffee. We sat on a bench outside in the sun and she told me that she was moving to Portland for a wile. Doing and apartment trade, and would be back in 6 months or so. She never returned. She once said that as artists we can make things that are often way before there time. Songs that we rite, photos that we take and then slip into a folder or a box because we cant relate to them. Then years latter we pull them out and they make complete sense. Life has had its ups and downs and the work that was foreshadowing that opens up and and comes to fruition. I kept that in my heart from the night she said it and have lived by the philosophy ever since. Who knows maybe our friend ship is just slipped into a box for a wile and some day we will meet again and it will all make sense. This shoot is a perfect example of this, I remember I met this guy at the cock on 2nd street and avenue a one night. I got his number in the dark and set up a time to photograph him. I figured it was one of the many late night plans that would never pan out.... I was surprised the next day when the buzzer rand and he was there for his shoot. I never looked at the pictures until today 7 years later, and I love what I see.

2010-04-26T08:03:00.011-04:00

Going way back all the way to the start with this set of images.
They have a pixeled look because my camera was small. It is the first shoot of the male nude I did in my studio in the east village. I met this model at a bar, he reminded me of some one very dear to my hart and I asked if he would pose for me.
The shoot used the amazing light that came into my room from a south facing window. The studio was small and I shared it with 2 friends, a musician and a designed. It was my first studio outside my home and it still holds an amazing place in my hart. I was not in it for very long, I think about 3 months before I was asked to leave by my studio mates, something about a family member moving to town and needing a place. It was a ground floor apartment, old and funky, on 2nd street between b and c, I think...... Life was a wirl wind for me then, a time of going out to late, drinking to much, and searching for something... I felt like a black cat sneaking around the city at night looking for a place to rest. Its amazing how different things are now from then, and how real the photographs look when I see them now. Its great to visit with them, look back and see what I was seeing, remember what I was feeling and remeber the friends and people of that time that have all now changed.

2010-04-25T12:05:00.009-04:00

I am back in the studio starting a new archive project so I figured it was time to start up the blog to show you what I have been shooting. Its funny I have a new job where I am looking at a lot of photography. I am working on building a collection of the Male nude for a client and it has me searching the world for images. Now that I am looking at so many other amazing images of the male nude I would like to start to share my work more with people. I hope you like. I will be going back and archiving shoots and pulling images to show. I do sell my work so if anyone is interested let me know.

This selection is from a shoot I did almost 4 years ago in an amazing studio I had on Broadway in NYC.