TonyWardStudio.com

LouPop Collection

Posted on May 19, 2012

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Editor’s Note: To learn more about the life and times of LouPop and the collection of vernacular photography, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click the green icon.
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Photo: Courtesy of The Estate of Anthony Colagreco.

www.PhiladelphiasDentist.com

Editor’s Note: May 17, 2012 – To contact Dr. Jeff for consultation: 215-592-4747. Sponsored in part by Dental Health Care Group.

Photo: Bob Shell

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Bob Shell

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……….Nothing new to report on my case. But I really don’t expect to get a ruling from the court until around the middle of the year. Courts move at their own speed, and the general rule seems to be the longer the better, because that means they are actually considering everything. My case generated a massive amount of paperwork, and the court must go through all of it to consider my claims.

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I got a letter the other day from one of the models who worked with me on the bondage book back in 2003-04. She said she got to wondering about what had happened to me and did a Google search and found out where I am. Like every model I ever worked with, she knows that I am not guilty. I told her about TWS and suggested that she post here about what it was like to work with me, so maybe she will.

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One lawyer I know made the point that the cops and prosecution had from June 2003 until my trial in August of 2007 to search for any model I worked with who would say anything negative about me. They couldn’t find anyone. If I really had been the serial molestor they portrayed me as being, they ought to have been able to find at least one of my earlier victims, but they found no one. That should have meant something to the jury. I don’t think they really thought things through and simply voted with a knee-jerk reaction.

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I also don’t think the jury understood how sentencing works. Not one of the sentences they gave me was very long, and I believe they assumed that all of them would run concurrently. Indeed, running sentences concurrently is the norm. But in Virginia the judge makes that decision, not the jury, and the jury can’t even be told that they have the option to recommend concurrent sentences. My judge ignored the VA sentencing guidelines and ran my sentences consecutively. The guidelines called for 1 1/2 to 3 years. But the Virginia guidelines are merely recommendations, they carry no force, and judges routinely ignore them. I don’t know why they even bother to have guidelines.

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If the jury in a state of Virginia case asks the judge if sentences will be run concurrently or consecutively, the judge will tell them that it is none of their concern! The jury is not allowed to know!! But the law requires that jurors be fully informed prior to their deliberations. None of this makes any sense, since a jury can intend a light sentence and a judge can arbitrarily convert it into a very long sentence. The more research I do on this, the less sense it makes.

About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Center, Pocahontas, Virginia for involuntary manslaughter for the death of one of his models, Marion Franklin. He is currently working on his appeal.
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Editor’s Note: To read more letters from prison by Bob Shell, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click the green icon. To learn more about the case log on to www.BobShellTruth.com.

LouPop Collection

Posted on May 15, 2012

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LouPop Collection

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LouPop Collection

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LouPop Collection

Editor’s Note: To learn more about the life and times of LouPop and the collection of vernacular photography, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click the green icon.

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Photos: Courtesy of The Estate of Anthony Colagreco

Wedding Dress

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Natalie Franke

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INTRODUCTION

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……….It all began with a question, “If I don’t like the way I look in my images, you can make me skinnier – right?” The bride looked at me questioningly across the table, with an insecure and completely serious stare. She did not hesitate in asking the question, she was not joking nor would she take my response lightly. As a professional wedding photographer, whether or not I am willing to digitally alter the human form has become an issue of increasing concern for my clients. My ability and desire to make these virtual alterations has a direct impact on which weddings, and how many of them, I am able to book each year. Sitting across from this bride to be, I was suddenly I faced an issue much greater than I was ready to understand.

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Wedding Day

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For me the question was not whether I could manipulate her images to make her resemble her bridal magazine covers – airbrushed, nip-tucked, and perfected in Photoshop – but whether I should. A trend that flourished across the magazine and advertising world was now filtering down into the wedding industry and was affecting soon to be brides on a deeply personal level. I couldn’t fathom why a young woman wouldn’t want to be herself in her wedding photographs, let alone where she would find the audacity to ask her wedding photographer to sculpt away her arms, waistline and all of the “imperfections” that make her uniquely beautiful.

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What happened to cause this cultural and societal mentality? At some point in the feminine race for the ideal, natural beauty was no longer enough. Teaching young girls to simply love themselves was traded for an increasingly scrutinized and virtually plastic portrayal of womanhood. Why do women feel the need to deceptively change themselves in the digital darkroom rather than accepting themselves, embracing their unique and natural beauty?

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Photoshop

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Even more perplexing is that the majority of women who inquire about digital manipulation have, in my personal opinion, already met or surpassed conventional notions of beauty. But somehow these women, despite all attempts to make themselves fit into the mold that society deems to be perfect, are still so dissatisfied with their nautical image that they desire to be digitally altered. The drive to reach ‘perfection’ has become magnified across nearly all aspects of our visual culture and women are being affected to a degree that I find extremely concerning.

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As a professional photographer, an image-maker, and a young woman, the ethical rules governing the manipulation of images are so blurry, so undefined and debated that they are arguably nonexistent. Levels of digital manipulation vary from photographer to photographer and the expectations from clients are equally as opaque. And even with stronger ethical guidelines in place or a system of identifying images that have been altered in some way, will it do anything to stop the self-inflicted comparisons being made by impressionable young women?

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Although my brides may or may not be aware that their magazine covers and favorite fashion models undergo drastic digital alterations, this falsified perception of beauty will still have a deeply ingrained impact on body-image and perception of self. The conscious awareness that an image has been manipulated, may not stop their drive to compare, scrutinize, and compete with the societal ideal that lies before them. It doesn’t change the underlying associations between what is naturally possible and what is digitally sculpted in Photoshop.

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Photoshop Pharmacy

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All of these issues and questions initiated my search into the implications of the digital manipulation of photographic images in the media. This exploration is equally motivated by my drive to define the implications of these practices as a photographer as well as my concern over the welfare of young women, like myself. It is both a personal and professional area of importance, which has pushed me to question the very morals of my own artistic practice. Before I step forward into a career in full-time photography, before I begin this new life as a creator of visual culture, I must be aware of the impact of modern photographic manipulations.

About The Author: Natalie Franke is a professional wedding photographer based in Washington D.C. and has recently completed her Visual Studies senior thesis at the University of Pennsylvania. To learn more about Natalie Franke, log on: www.NatalieFranke.com.
Copyright 2012

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To Be Continued……….

Love

Posted on May 10, 2012 BY A.H. Scott

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……….It’s ironic that some of those who are most vocal against same sex marriage are those who have dinosaur bones in their own closets. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, here in NYC, said that ‘it’s a sad day for the children’. WTF?!!!! Now, I know I’m probably going to feel a little pitchfork in my butt for saying that. But, c’mon, Catholic Church. You above all other institutions want to talk about sin. Look inward instead of outward for what sin truly is. And, then there’s Mitt Romney who says “I believe marriage is between one man and one woman”. And, when I heard him say that, I was waiting for him to add ..”I believe marriage is between one man and one woman….and one woman….and another woman. WTF? That’s the history of Romney’s own ancestors of multiple wives. And, of course, Newt (Mr. Married Again and Again) Gingrich. And, all the other hypocrites down the line speak morality for themselves only. So, those who have all these rights already (and never have to enter a court to validate them) are always bitchin and moanin about the destruction of the institution of marriage, if gay men and lesbian woman get married would live by the words they love to always spout; show some Christian compassion and brotherhood and – LET LOVE RULE..!!”

Copyright 2012

About The Author: Editor’s Note: To read more of A.H. Scott, go to the search bar at the top of the page: enter name and click green icon.

Smile: www.PhiladelphiasDentist.com

Editor’s Note: April 26, 2012 – To contact Dr. Jeff for consultation: 215-592-4747. Sponsored in part by Dental Health Care Group.

Jennifer Cole

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Jennifer Cole

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MOVING ON

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……….Here is something I think everyone ought to know: Sometimes in order to get anything done, or maybe just progress to the next step in life, you need to have your heart broken. The emotional devastation caused by heartbreak – forces us to exist at an emotional bottom so low that there arises only 2 options: 1. We Die, or 2. Climb out of the hellhole we have found ourselves in.

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This dilemma is actually a good thing. It is not only the state of misery that teaches us so much, but it is also important to understand the journey and the reason for the misery (when we thought we were happy), where we must realize, acknowledge, and accept the truth of the situation in it’s entirety. Upon acceptance, there is no turning back. More importantly, opportunity is now so obviously in the forefront, that wallowing simply isn’t an option, nor do I feel the need to even pretend it’s an option anymore (turning back, that is).

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Editor’s Note: To see more pictures of Jennifer Cole, go to the search bar at the top of the page: type in name and click the green icon.

Lorena

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Lorena Nicol

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Illocality.

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Erotica intrudes on the illimitable grotesque. The erotic experience is paradoxical, at once infinitely expansive but also divisive. The notion of privacy establishes borders within the erotic moment, as the subject is isolated by subjective perceptual experience that is pervasive. Genuine passion manifests as all-consuming, and thus illimitable.

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Lorena

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True carnal understanding arises internally and from the expression of grotesque (unre?ned) impulses. The erotic moment does not have an isolated locus, but engages the entire self. This includes what is visible to the intruder and what isbeyond the intruder’s experience. The erotic moment acts previous to super-egorestraints that might modulate its primordial traits.

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Lorena

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To this end I propose an image of self-examination – the activity of analysis, the primary purpose of Philo as a space. My composition will showcase an intrusion on a moment of seeking internal understanding. The viewer should understand herself as having interrupted the subject’s concentrated effort to understand the erotic moment by engaging with it. Within the piece, the principle symbolic element will be the juxtaposition between the insistently polite/sterile setting of the Philomathean meeting hall and the blatant engagement with grotesque/unclean subject matter (in this case, literally mud).

Copyright 2012

To Be Continued……….

Andrew

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Andrew Jakubowski

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………The image that I envision is a mishmash of roughly applied body paint and color-driven sensations; it also includes a body position that excites but does not reveal. This image is based on a personal belief that the erotic is a state of mind resulting from the desire but inability to know reality. For me, the act of body painting is an extension of juvenile tendencies, a return to the very stage of life during which human curiosity (and ignorance) is at its peak. It denotes playfulness, innocence, and imagination – all of which contribute to my erotic, sensual, and sexual feelings.

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Andrew

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Within the context of Philo, this image is a seemingly striking juxtaposition against the wealth of knowledge present in the halls and possessed by the members. However, I contest that such knowledge is the result of innate inquisitiveness:  intellect itself is a product of refined interests. Therefore, the image gets at the root of what Philo is as an organization. It is a reminder that we are all motivated by childish curiosities and aroused by the unknown. Both the book and the body serve as means for satisfying our personal desires.

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Andrew

To Be Continued………