SARA - WITH BENNETT'S TUMBLEWEED

I was showing a visitor around my studio - he had just purchased one of my Milagro photos.   He saw this photo on my wall -  "I have to have that one."  he said and pointed to a framed copy of - Sara - With Bennett's Tumbleweed"

I suggested I would print one right away if he could you wait.   "Print it."  he said.

I told him there was a story behind this print.   Some time ago my partner, Sue Bennett, decided she wanted to do a photo of a model with a tumbleweed so one day we went out into the desert north of Flagstaff and found the perfect tumble weed.  Sue kept it in her studio for years - never made her photo.  One time I asked her if I could borrow it - she didn't say no,  but more important she never said,  "Yes."   Sue was killed in an automobile accident over 5 years ago - the tumbleweed still  hung in her studio I borrowed it - took it to my studio and made this photo for Sue.  An homage.

And as a note - I attribute much of the success of this photo to my wonderful creative model Sara - 

BIG MOUNTAIN _ NAVAJOS

Jane Benally

     Big Mountain is not really very big.   But it is important.   Big  Mountain is 

on the Western side of the sprawling Navajo Reservation  - here in 

Northern Arizona.   I made these photos in 1978 while working on a series of 

photographs to bring attention to a group of traditional Navajo People who 

were being forced off their land.   We made a book - "Endangered Dine".

 Dine is the name the avajo call themselves - it means "The People".

Joe Benally

Daniel Ashkie

Biakeddy

Now after 30 years I have decided to re-introduce the Big Mountain - Navajo

 series and wanted to do something different with the presentation.   

I have been pondering and experimenting for over a month - and 

yesterday came up with this Idea - and after some more experimenting 

and some adjustment like it.  There will be more tan 20 photos

in the series - and i will exhibit them next month.

Ashkie Bitsie

The Milagro Series

Milagros

Milagro, means miracle.

A milagro is a little Charm used to help fulfill a vow to a saint or the 

Blessed Virgin Mary for their intercession to God for a request or a favor 

like a saved marriage, a child restored to good health, an 

economic gain or a catastrophe averted. Milagros as used in

Latin America and Mexico have roots in Pre-Columbian

 America and Europe.

The photographs in this series delve into the ambiguous boundary between 

natural and supernatural.

Bernadette Chavez , my model and I made these photos about 14 years ago 

when we worked for a couple hours two or three times a month.

Most of these photos were made with an old 4 x 5 press camera on sepia

 Polaroid film.   By using photoshop and layers I added the photos to 

scans I made of old ambrotype cases.

Four Other Favorites

Here are four other favorite models.   I am fortunate to be able to work with

  these awesome women.  They grace my studio. my camera,  

my eyes and hopefully your eyes.

You can find them on my website www.albumerotica.com

Brenna

Ida Mae

Irene

Erin P

MICHELLE 7

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FAVORITE MODELS

I always prefer to work with a few models often rather than a lot of models just once or twice.   From time to time I will post photos of some of my favorite models from over my years of photographing models for my website Album Erotica.    Here you will see Tangent, Kaylee, Joceline, and Brandi.   Each has her own look and style, which determines the way I work with them and the way the photographs look.

Here is one of my beliefs about being a photographer.   Photography is an act of submission.  I submit to my models, when I photograph a landscape - I submit.   When photograph a flower - I submit.   When I make a portrait - I submit.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS AN ACT OF SUBMISSION.

NATALIA - MUSE

NATALIA - MUSE

NATALIA - MUSE is a 228 page book celebrating three years of creative collaboration between photographer John Running and model Natalia Faina.  You will delight to over 200 photos edited into a compelling sequence.

The photos are strong, sensual, and erotic.  The book is a celebration of the three years of creative interaction between model and photographer as they muse each other.

Natalia My Muse

Natalia was here for a few-days last week. We have been working together for 3 years, we had a kind of anniversary celebration - good food, wine and creme brule with frangelica. We celebrated the blessing of being each others muses, colleagues, artistic partners and friends

We also dod an impromptu shoot until 2:30 in the AM

Delight with light with play with photos

A new model

I saw Allaura in Model Mayhem - she is from Phoenix - We agreed we should do some work together. she drove up here yesterday - we played, rambled through prop-land, made lots of photos. She is the best new model I have worked with in some time. I love her look, her figure and most of all her attitude. We played, created, and made photos.

I reconfigured my studio for the shoot - used a octabank and some flats to scrim off the light. I love the light.

Love the photos

The Hopi Series

Homolovi
Hopi Social Dances

HOMOLOVI - HOPI SOCIAL DANCES

I photographed the Hopi Social Dance Group - Homolovi on the 5th & 6th of July, 2008. I had this unique opportunity, when the Hopi Social Dance Group - Homolovi was scheduled to perform on Heritage Square during the Fourth of July Weekend. I invited them to used the Flagstaff Photography Center to change into their traditional clothes. I set up a studio space and made these photos prior to and after their performances. Their dances in the square worked - because they brought needed rain.

John Running has been photographing American Indians throughout his forty year career as a freelance photographer. His book “Honor Dance” celebrates his work with Native Americans. National Geographic Photographer, William Albert Allard wrote about him in the preface to Honor Dance.

"Running is perhaps best known for his photographs of Indians, but instead of considering himself a specialist, he considers himself to be simply a photographer of people, this is an important distinction. The kind of approach this photographer takes in his work is transferable to any part of the world, to any society. He is never just photographing the trappings of religious beliefs or the costumes of ideology; he is always photographing human beings."

William Albert Allard

GENETIC IMPRINTS - the books

Two versions of my book Book - GENETIC IMPRINTS are available on book blurb. The larger 11 x 13 is available in hard or soft back the smaller (10 x 8) has fewer pages.

GENETIC IMPRINTS

GENETIC IMPRINTS : : MUSE OF THE IMAGE

The image comes first.

In the beginning, before there was language, there was a non-verbal way of comprehending the world. There was the image. Now, except in our dreams, we tend to translate images into words.

Recently, I made a series of photographs in my studio of women with wild animal skulls. Now that I have made these images, as I am trying to find words, it comes to mind that these photos are more about something from our distant past – from all the way back to the time of the ice.

I recently read the idea that, back at the time of our emergence, the female - the woman - was more than a fertility deity. More than a mother, she was also the first practitioner of medicine and magic and that, in fact, she was the Creator. Back in our stone age emergence, God was female and this still imprints our genetic codes.

For me, the image comes first. I see it in front of me – a woman holding an animal skull. I suggest to the model that this is about life, not death. She works with some direction at first but soon it seems to me that as she carries and caresses her animal totem she becomes a soul carrier and spirit guide.

I react to this by submitting myself to the model and her intuitions. We become collaborators as we respond to GENETIC IMPRINTS.

Genetic Imprints