18 January 2017

A Butterfly Emerges: How One Woman Came to Redefined Her Life

Jungles of El Salvador 2015 touring waterfalls
I'm way past due on doing my photo books. 2012 was my last book that I did, an annual of all the nudes I shot earlier that year. I've done books for other people since then (travel, bereavement, and commissions), but not any of my own books for my own art work. So I've put my mind to three projects and this is the first one.


This is my latest art project, an intimate, sensual, and even explicit pictorial narrative of a woman's transformation from a stifled life to one of her own will and exploration. She's made life changes after a divorce that now prioritize travel, exploration, and being much more positive about her body. There are over 230 full-spread images in this book and two editions are available. Both are hard back and large format. However the higher priced of the two editions is printed on the best quality heavy paper the publisher has to offer. The other has a dust jacket and printed on premium paper, but not the heaviest stock.


This is the largest book I've done to date, primarily because of the volume of accumulated work over about three years. Trying to curate these edits down to the maximum allowable by the publisher was quite the daunting task. I could have easily added another 500 images to this collection and I am considering a separate volume with nothing but cell phone images...easily another 1,000!



I titled this art piece, "A Butterfly Emerges, How One Woman Came to Redefine Her Life", because its very appropriately describes her life's journey to this date. I won't get into specifics, but suffice to say she has come to terms with where her life has brought her and has chosen to live much more liberated going forward. She's my personal muse, companion, and soul mate and we've chosen to share our adventures in this series of work with more to come.

Copan Ruinas, Honduras 2015


The butterfly honestly embodies who this model is on several levels. A delicate creature, emerging from her past to find her wings and fly skyward. Fitting with this analogy is the story of transition and transformation. Often when you hear of butterfly used as a verb, as in "to butterfly a fillet", its often describing the act or splitting something apart, almost in two and then spreading it open. As you will see in the pages to follow, we've chosen to not shy away from exhibiting this model's natural tendency to be seated with knees high and spread open. She truly relaxes and is most comfortable with her legs "butterflied", if you will.



And for my part, I photograph the nude. All of it. I do not shoot to miss, cover, or hide genitalia. I use discretion in some cases and then again not in others. I know I run the risk of over-saturating your senses with pussy shots (and even penis images in some spots), but again, I remind you of my volume dilemma. We have photographed in and around our home and studio, but our journey has also taken us on travels throughout Nevada, Utah, California, the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and three months in Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.) We enjoy camping, backpacking, and day trips.

El Salvador. Yes, sometimes it got THAT hot!
Therefore I ask for you, the viewer, to try to see these images and my art as the way it was intended; as a real-life depiction of a woman's emergence into a will of her own and shared by myself. It is intimate, provocative, and yes, explicit. However, I have faith that you can see through all of that and see the journey for what it is and enjoy my artwork.



You can see previews of this journey on my Blurb bookstore site. I must tell you the edition with the highest quality, heavy stock paper is damn sure worth your investment. I will generally sell a single piece of my art for 5 times that amount and in this case, you get more than 230. Its more than a book of a hard binder and pages. My hope is that I have been successful in my attempt to stimulate your senses and bring you into our experience. Click on this link. Buy my book. I know you will enjoy it.

Thank you.