Stephanie Anne

A little post to celebrate the creative talent of my friend and fellow art model, Stephanie Anne.











I had such a fun and memorable time collaborating with her and our fellow photographer friends.

It will happen again.

When? Hopefully soon.

_______________

In sets of two, in the following order:

Steven Billups
Scott Nichol
Bill Earle

Voyage

I've known this for a couple months, but I wanted to make sure everything was in order and finalized before I gave the news.

I'm going to France for the entire summer of 2011, May - August!

I'll be working for an intensive life drawing studio about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Paris.
Six hours a day, 5 days a week for 12 weeks. Most of the poses will be 60+ hours.

So after the holiday season, I'll be busting my butt to travel and book as many photo shoots as I can in the U.S. before I leave for the summer. Please send me an email if you'd like me in your area.

I might be able to book some photo shoots in Western Europe while abroad, but it will be very limited, as the life drawing studio is my number one priority and commitment.

It's absolutely amazing the opportunities I've been given because of art modeling. I can't imagine what my life would be without it.



___________________

Scott Nichol.

If you're in the Twin Cities...

You should come to this gallery show tomorrow, Friday November 12, 7 - 10pm!

A photographic underwater series by Rhea Pappas.
Live photo-shoot with models wearing hand dyed scarves by Wendie Zekowski and jewelry by Jamie Ingham.
Hair and makeup by FiveTwoSix Stylists




Here's the facebook event link.

Here's the 526 salon link.


It will be a great time! Hope to see you there!!

two announcements!

Sorry for the lack of updates dear friends. Everything is well and good here. You know, life just gets in the way sometimes.

I don't have much personally to write about at this time, but I do have a couple of important announcements to make.

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First of all, dear friend Dave Levingston has 4 wonderful 2011 calendars for sale. One of them is a calendar of our travels this past summer to my most beloved location in the world - the North Shore of Minnesota. They come in two available sizes, and make great gifts for you and your artistically-minded friends and family.



Here is his link to all of his calendars.

And here are the two links to both of my calendars. the large calendar, and the smaller calendar.

------------------------

The second announcement is that some of self-portraits are once again included in a collaborative book project.



The third volume of the f-eleven series of photo books was published yesterday.

Information to order can be found by clicking here, and a full preview of the book can be seen here.

20 percent discount offer:

USD $ coupon code: PROMO
GBP £ coupon code: PROMO1
EUR € coupon code: PROMO2
CAD $ coupon code: PROMO3
AUD $ coupon code: PROMO4

100% of the profits of this book go to The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.


Over 190 images (including fine art nude images )
15 photographers
160 pages (premium lustre paper)
8" x 10" (landscape style)

Designed & Edited by WOLF189

featuring:

Brooks Ayola (nude portraits)
Ralph Barker ( fine art landscape + still life )
Matthew Cherry ( fine art )
Sita Mae Edwards ( fine art nude )
April-lea Hutchinson ( nude portraits )
Leo Lam ( editorial fashion )
Dave Levingston ( fine art nude )
Clay Lipsky ( portraits )
Frank Love ( street / documentary work )
Brooke Lynne ( fine art nude )
Ken Mierzwa ( fine art nude)
Trish Noble ( portraits )
Dave Rudin ( fine art nude )
Ward Shortridge ( portraits )
Wolf189 ( editorial fashion + erotic portraits )

f-eleven is a private photography group. Visit us at:

f - eleven books: [link]
f - eleven books blog: [link]
f-eleven facebook: [link]

Streamlined Backlog

I got an iPhone a little less than a month ago. Since then, I've been on the computer much, much less (but on my iPhone much, much more). Which is generally a good thing because I don't waste time surfing the web for silly things. But it has its downsides of course, because I generally just "check" things and don't "respond" much any more. And if any of you know me, you know that I never was too terribly quick on replying to things in general before.


I said I was going to blog on my trip again, but I never got to it mostly because there wasn't internet access the last week while in the UP of Michigan. And it was better that way because I got to enjoy the fabulous company and make awesome art. And believe it or not, I really enjoyed not being completely attached at the hip to the world wide web. I should make it a habit more often.


I have some SUPER exciting opportunities happening this year that I will share with you all soon enough. But until then, please enjoy some of the marvelous photos taken at the UP of Michigan.







____________________________

Mark Haskins.

Model alongside in the first photo: Keira Grant

chocolate + loveliness

The trip is going fantastic. I'm so, so, so happy I could make this happen.

For the first part of my trip, I'm traveling with the gorgeous, wonderful, and superbly talented Stephanie Anne. She is a delight to hang around with and to work with.

We met up in Pennsylvania and worked with Scott Nichol and Bill Earle, worked with Steven Billups in Delaware today and we're ending our travels together on Monday in Baltimore with David Hilton. It will be bittersweet, because I know we'll meet and work together again, but I just don't want to part ways.

But for the second part of my trip, which will be just under a week long, I'm going to a truly beautiful location, with two of my most favorite people in the world, and I'm meeting up and working with another talented model... but I'll just leave that a mystery until my next post.

Until then, here is some Chocolate Polaroid goodness of Stephanie and I, courtesy of Scott Nichol.

Off I go...

Tomorrow morning I skip town for a week and a half!

Toooooo excited. I need this, for many reasons.

The great thing about my job is that, not only is it my job, but its my passion, and I am so lucky that the people I work for are almost always the most awesome people on the planet. It's work AND play. I am blessed.

Not only that, but on this trip I'll be meeting and working with two models who's work I've respected for a long time. AWEsome.


I'll blog on the trip, for sure... how often, I do not know.



But I'll leave you with a self-portrait.


Until next time, dear readers, take care.

life is hard... let's control it.

Perception is everything. You've heard that here before, and perhaps from several other sources. It is truth, sometimes a very hard-to-swallow truth.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons why I like photography so much. Photography has EVERYTHING to do with perception, and visa-versa. Perhaps I've said that before too.


I'm starting to get ready for my upcoming travels to the East and to the U.P. of Michigan, and starting to plan for travels in the late fall and winter. As I'm in the midst of mentally preparing myself, because its been many months since I've traveled, I've been noticing a little bit of trepidation. I've been very conscious of this, trying to figure out where it's coming from. I love flying, I love meeting new friends, I love going to parts of the country I've never been before, and of course, I love creating art. Clearly, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. But I'm prone to worry. My first subconscious instinct is to find things that could go wrong - possibly to mentally prepare myself for problems, for failure. Even when every detail of logistics is figured out, there is always room for unexpected changes that are out of my control. And I think that's the real issue. Not being in control.

Control has so many veils of security. "If I am in control of this, or that, I will feel and be safe." It alleviates a sense of helplessness. And helplessness can be scary. The only thing you can ever control is your emotions and reactions to situations, everything else outside of yourself is out of your control. Period. Now, sometimes you can manipulate situations or people to get what you want... and I believe that's what fuels this obsession. Because sometimes it works! And if you're particularly talented at those skills and/or in a position of high authority, they might work a lot. But in the long run, especially if you're pushing for the wrong reasons, they will be detrimental.

I prefer trust. Trust that everything will work out okay. Because it always does. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't believe anyone should just sit back and do nothing to change a situation, especially if it's harmful to you. I'm talking about when you come to a wall that you can neither go around or knock down. The serenity prayer comes in handy here.


I'm in the middle of a particularly hard personal situation with a loved one. I desperately want to control it, to change it, to get the unwanted factor(s) out of their life and my life. And the first few days, hell, the first few weeks were horribly hard. Half the time, I was (both unconsciously and consciously) pulling out all my childish tactics to make it go away. The other half, I was purposely denying the issue / lying to myself, pretending that it wasn't even in existence or that it would go away. Then, when I couldn't lie to myself anymore, and I was tired of being a baby, I got on my pedestal spouting the morals of societal homogonies and ethics of popular opinions and methodologies. Woe is me! You're hurting me! You're making me feel this way with your actions/choices! For a very short time, I even tried to get a third party on the bandwagon (who was already on, but I thought "strength in numbers.") Then... hypocrisy slapped me hard in the face. And the realization that, although this is so very hard, if I learn to accept it I will have a much easier time continuing the very important relationship than if I resist it. So I've been accessing all the resources I can to understand it. And, low and behold, I have much more peace with it. I'm still not happy about it, by any means, but I am coming to terms with it. And all I can do is take a leap of faith, and trust that these unwanted factors will not harm the relationship I have with my loved one.

It's a huge leap of faith, and it is possible that I wont make it to the other side, but I'm proud that I have the courage to jump... instead of cowering in fear, sadness and anger.






_____________

Self-portrait. In-camera double exposure.

To the Chicagoan

This post is dedicated to my friend Jordan, a now resident of Chicago. She was just going to be there for the summer and come back to Minneapolis, but some opportunities arose that compelled her to stay in the area for good. She came back this past week to get some things in order for her permanent move. We spent some time hanging out, and then, of course, we had to squeeze in a shoot together.

To my friend in Chicago, may life bring you only great things, and new, exciting opportunities.

Next time, we'll meet up and visit - in your town. It will happen soon.

Much love to you, friend.





__________________

Matthew Scherfenberg.

I thought I was a hippy...

but this just proves it. ;)

Fellow art model Claudia from 'Museworthy' did a blog post on this quiz. I was intrigued, so I took it.

My top two results are "New Age" and "New Thought." Generally, I relate with the "New Thought" concept more.

Now, first of all... this is just a frivolous, trivial quiz for entertainment purposes only - obviously. Second, I don't fully agree with all aspects of either distinction. I have my own understanding of what my spirituality means to me, as I would hope all of you do too - otherwise we just follow the crowd blindly and don't reach in and discover our own personal beliefs.

Whatever - this is just for fun, and I wont be the slightest bit offended if you've already closed the page and stopped reading 2 minutes ago.




Free-spirited.... and extremely dizzy.





___________

Al Maleson.

Post-processing

Okay, so... I have to give a huge props to all you photographers out there. I have a better appreciation for you all after my recent adventures in post-processing.

I did a shoot for a musician friend a couple weeks ago; portraits with his various instruments for his soon-to-be website. And while I loved the experience, and had a fun time shooting with Kyle, I have to say that the post-processing was a pain in the butt. Now, admittedly, I did not have everyday access to the computer where the images were uploaded and processed, but it wasn't even really that extensive of work. Basic stuff... for the most part.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention that I've learned a thing or two, and promise to think twice after a shoot at how much work the photographer might have in front of them.

There's still no real excuse for not having images after 6 months. Absolutely no excuse after a year. Ahem. Hint, hint.

So that being said, I'll include a few from the shoot with Kyle.

when I needed it most

Okay, so, I'm going to go totally geektastic on all of you. Or maybe it's pure dorkaliciousness. But anyway, before I get to the sweet goodness of it, I need to describe what this means to me, and where I'm coming from.

I'm coming completely clean. You may not know me in real life or you may. Either way, I've been keeping secrets for a few months. And you know what secrets do? They eat away at you. I've thought that I should keep this blog as impersonal as possible, but that's just silly. The only thing people can really connect to are things in others that they can personally relate to. Our perceptions of others revolve around our own personal experiences. So, I have nothing to lose telling you all this, except my guilt and shame. The funny thing is, I've considered writing about this before, but I felt like I would be judged and therefore I would feel more guilt and shame. But what I sometimes forget, especially when I have an unwelcome guest in my home (I'll get to that in a little bit), is that the only person who has the power to make me feel anything is myself. One of my favorite quotations is, "Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter." I'm rambling... so I should move on and be more concise.

I've been going through a lot of changes in my life in the past few months. I'm in recovery - I've eradicated alcohol and marijuana from my life and I've been completely sober for over four months without a single slip or relapse. Some can handle those chemicals in a healthy manner and be functional (or not), but not me. I have an addictive personality, which is both a blessing and a curse. Stopping cold turkey was hard, but an absolute necessity, which in a way made it easier. I've also been trying to find a way out of my current living and home environment and start living independently, since I'm living with family that uses said chemicals quite frequently in my presence. Plus, I'm 24 - it's way past time I leave the nest. Overall I'm struggling to create freedom from the chains that hold me down. The biggest, heaviest chain, it seems, is the beast. Depression.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I've written about the beast before. And it can change; it sneaks in with slightly different disguises so you don't know to kick it out before it has already overstayed it's welcome. It always does its best to convince you that it's your friend, your companion, your confidant, so that when it's already made itself at home with you, you're afraid you'll be completely alone without it. It's a cunning, baffling and powerful little monster. It's (usually) never as powerful as the last time it made it's way into my home, but it's still quite sneaky. It blocks up all the windows and doors - there's hardly any sunshine, there's no sweet breeze, but worst of all, there's no way out - until you make it leave. But you can't just wish it to leave, hope it to leave or tell it to leave - you have to kick it out the fucking door. And only you can do it. No one can sweet-talk it away for you, no matter how much they love you. But the very frustrating thing is, it knows how to pick locks. One of these days I'll learn how to keep it out for good.

Anyway, enough talk about the malicious bastard. So, I've been listening to a lot of music lately. It's one of my many coping mechanisms. And lately I've been going back to my roots - choral music. There are many, many great pieces out there that uplift me, but by far my favorite composer is Eric Whitacre. He's the composer that wrote/arranged Lux Aurumque, the choral piece I put in my last post.

He is a compositional genius. I realize that choral music isn't everyone's cup of tea, but take 20 minutes out of your very busy day and I dare you to listen to these songs (which are three of my favorite pieces) and NOT get chills. But keep in mind, there is no substitution to hearing a top-notch choir (like the Concordia College Choir or VocalEssence [which both happen to be Minnesota choirs - we Minnesotans really know how to sing] in a live space. You just can't reproduce the sound, even with professional equipment and recordings.











I had been listening to these 3 songs yesterday and today. After a particularly rough weekend, I had been trying my best to get my beast off my back. They helped immensely, but I still felt I couldn't shake it completely.

Then out of the blue this past afternoon I receive an email, which reads:

Brooke,

A fan sent me a link to your blog entry "Light and Gold", and that got me snooping around your site, and I was compelled to write you a quick note. SUCH beautiful work! Truly gorgeous, inspired images - you have such an eye for the delicate and the subtle.

Perhaps our paths will one day cross; until then, please know that you have a new fan in Los Angeles.

With much admiration,
Eric Whitacre

I thought at the beginning of writing this post, that I was going to go all gaga about what this email means to me, but there's not much more to say. Except, it's furthered my belief in my understanding of how the world works, my spirituality, the law of attraction, and that there is no such thing as a coincidence.

I'm flying free and high as a bird waaaay above the clouds. I'll be up here a while.

I feel like this:







The deepest, heartfelt thanks goes to Eric, a true inspiration, who took a couple minutes out of his day to look and to tell me what he thought of my art, at a time when I needed it most.




___________

Matthew Scherfenberg.

Light and Gold

"Lux Aurumque" - Light and Gold

Light, Light
Light, Light
Light, Light
Warm
Warm
deep/dignified
deep/dignified
deep/dignified
Pure
Pure as if gold
They sing and sing and sing.



If there are such things as angels in heaven,
this is what they sing.






____________________

Mark Haskins.

Dave Kemmerling

The figure modeling scene here in Minnesota is small, yet due to the nature of the business we models don't cross paths much. There was one man who was trying to change that. He set up an organization called Phigural, which is intended to unite art models and photographers in order to create a more tight knit community/family of artists here in Minnesota.

Dave was a very established classic art model, modeling for local renown art schools and co-ops for over a decade. Within the last few years he branched out into modeling for art and figure photographers. This is how I came to know of him.

We started exchanging emails about a year ago, then this January I finally got to meet him at one of Doug Beasley's workshops at the Minneapolis Photo Co-op.

We only worked together twice, once at the previously mentioned workshop in January and then just recently this May at Doug's 5 day Dramatic Portrait workshop out in the Badlands. but we exchanged numerous emails, and got together a couple of times to discuss art and art modeling.

Dave was a very genuinely warm person, had an incredible sense of integrity, and was always so very kind and generous. He was full of zest and passion for the arts and for art modeling. He was a wonderful friend who I wish I could have gotten the chance to know better. His smile always warmed my heart.


On July 20th, Dave lost his battle to depression at 50 years old.


He will very much be missed. May he finally rest in peace.
















___________________

Martin Husch.
Steve Kemmerling.

BIG part 2

There it is, folks! All I have to do is sign it and ship it!

I'm really proud.

Photography: Natural vs Reality

Dave Levingston recently was expressing his position based off of critical comments/questions by his friend Morgan. Her main concern (in a nutshell) seems to be why aren't photographers asking models to pose in "natural" ways.

"This is about calling bullshit when I see it and it’s bullshit to say that someone is celebrating the beauty of the natural female form when there isn’t anything natural in the ways they pose or photoshop their models."

Okay, first of all, what constitutes "natural?" Here, I have a link to the definitions of "natural." None of those definitions seem to really fit what Morgan is aiming at, instead I think they cater to more of how Dave defines it. Dave asks his models to either mimic or contradict the lines or patterns of nature in the scene as he sees it. If models were asked to be photographed, posing like one would stand waiting for the bus, or lounging like they're watching tv, there would be nothing inspiring to photograph - in most cases. And that's not the definition of natural, that's just sedentary. Any way a person poses is natural, because the pose is emanating from themselves. They are not attaching anything artificial, or man-made, to their bodies, or doing something impossible that a human being cannot possibly do. That would be unnatural.

And my favorite type of photographic art is one that tries to imitate the impossible. But that's just me.

But I personally don't believe this is really the case at hand - I think it's mostly an excuse. I think Morgan is just pissed off at society at large for the way women have been perpetuated in the media and blaming it on how it has influenced their representation in artistic mediums. Specifically (obviously) photography. But every era in time has their own idealistic version of women - how they are considered attractive and sexually appealing. In this day in age, even I wouldn't fit that description. Yes, I am trim, but I don't have big breasts. I am not tall. I don't have that exaggerated hourglass figure. But I absolutely love the way I am, and I am thankful that I am lacking those physical attributes because I personally strive to participate in nude art that tries to separate beauty from sexuality. Of course, those two can't be totally separated, I realize, but I focus my energy in collaborating in art that does not excite sexual arousal. I am most excited by art that represents the innocence of the nude form; that we come from nature and we are all born naked, the amazing geometry and forms that the human body can take, and the unconventional beauty of "unnatural" posing.

I think people have this notion stuck in their minds that photography should depict realness. I think when people see a photograph, there's a part of their mind that views it as purely journalistic. But photography, when used for a tool in art, shows the artist's reality - and that's it. And their reality doesn't have to be real. That's the most absolutely wonderful thing about art. Art represents a continuum between fantasy and truth. Wherever the artist decides to stop on that continuum is their prerogative.

I think photography is involved in so much controversy because it most often does show truth in the scene. It's a snapshot in time, it captures the moment. No other medium has these claims that it distorts reality, because all the other mediums do that automatically.

I guess it boils down to, if you want to see "natural" photographs of people you'll have more luck looking in the newspaper (yes, they still exist - for now). Whatever you do, don't look at art.



On that note, here's an "unnatural" pose self-portrait.

BIG

Okay, this is a pretty big deal for me.

After I put my black and white photos on my facebook, someone contacted me and said they really liked my photos and wanted to know if any were for sale.

Uhh, sure. But are you sure? I mean, come on... I'm such an amateur.

He messaged me and told me to call him about the details.

We talked, and he wants a 32 x 48 of one of the photos I have in the previous post (I'll let you guess for a while).

Name my price.


I have my first print sale. Holy shit.


Now I just need to get the negative drum scanned, and post-processed correctly. And printed

BIG.

Of course, nothing is final until the check is in my hand.

But still...

whoa.

(::happy dance::)



-----------------------------

Here's two photos from my early summer trips to the North Shore.






Marek Lakotko.
Dave Levingston.

35mm

I branched away from my medium format fixation for once, and shot some 35mm.

I like.

This is off my bulk roll of TMax 400, and developed myself. I need to fashion a more effective way to hang-dry the negatives. It's never been a problem with the 120 since the negatives are only about 3 feet long, as compared to a 36 exposure roll of 35, which is more like 5 feet long.

These also need to be scanned better.

Details, details.

And one of my developing reels broke. That will make developing much less efficient, since I have 4 more rolls to develop.



Ah, well.


No nudes this post, but I hope you enjoy these nonetheless.

Superior Hiking Trail

Cascade Shore

Cascade Shore

Off the Superior Hiking Trail

Water Study

Leaf

Lilies and Ant

edit: some more...

Split Rock

Water Study 2

Flowers

Water Study 3

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Local Feature

I'm not really inspired to write as of late, but I did want to share just a few pieces of art I've helped create right here at home in Minneapolis recently.

















__________________

Marek Lakotko
Blake Fisher
Suzann Beck