On the Question of Greatness

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

Let me just break convention here and start right off with my premise that staying in your comfort zone will preclude you from being better in your photo work. At least that's what I believe. I'm unconvinced that you can do the same thing over time and improve your overall skill set. You may not want to be great. In fact, to my recollection, I don't think I've ever heard anybody say they wanted to be great at photography. Its always "I want to be better". Either way, I'm going to say I'm certain you won't do so by simply "shooting the things you love"...without stretching yourself.

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

Let me get a little deeper with that. I shoot the things I love. I shoot the things that make me feel good about what I produce. However stagnation occurs in photography when you ONLY shoot the thing you are most comfortable with the same way you've always shot it. You don't grow and you don't expand your horizons to Betterland. I don't care what it is that you shoot, you can always add a little twist to it. Do the same thing but utilize a more involved process. Want to shoot landscape? Cool. But how about getting out more than just 20 miles from home? How about doing it at night? Pull out the tripod and cable release and get some stars involved. Ever head out when every body else is heading in from inclement weather? Maybe some light painting. Get creative. What else can you do at night. Leave the steel wool alone for a while though. In full disclosure, I've used it to some great achievements. But I'm sure as hell tired of dumb butts not being safe with it and stupidly destroying landmarks and local monuments.

How about a different lens perspective? You do portraits? Okay, well maybe stop shooting wide open on that 85mm f/1.2 and utilize a wide-angle lens intead. Switch it up to some environmental portraiture. Get out of the studio and bring in the subjects surroundings that may tell a story of where they live. I mean, after all...are we not trying to tell stories with our pictures? Ever try light painting? Maybe some figure work utilizing a slow shutter and dragging your flash? What about seeing how to implement that stroboscopic feature on your Canon flash (Repeating Flash for Nikons) and seeing how you can creatively incorporate it into your favorite genre of work.

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

I mentioned that I don't hear many photographers ascribing to be great...only better. I can't say I know why that is. And I would imagine there are different definitions to the concept of "greatness" and maybe most photogs only aspire to be the best they can be as opposed to being recognized as the best in their field. And then I guess you'd have to find a way to measure greatness. Is it an attribution to how well-known you are? How popular you are? How much money you make or what you drive? And then can you define it by their greatness in photography or maybe their greatness in business. There are certainly those who are great at photography education. As well as those who are excellent in photography marketing. Do these go down in the annals of great photographers.

Peter Lik has sold the most expensive photographic work to date at $6.5 million. The New York Times makes the case that he is more of a businessman (to paraphrase mildly) who does photography in that despite selling an estimated $400 million in fine art sales, his work rarely fetches the original sales prices on the secondary market. So then those who buy his work as investors are purportedly in for a shock should they choose to reappraise their investments in the future. Don't get me wrong. I ain't hating on the guy. I'd love to have his business model. I can't fault it by a single shot.

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

"Arguably, the person best versed in Peter Lik comparables is David Hulme, a fine-art valuer based in Australia for a company called Auctionata. For years, he has been getting calls from Lik owners around the world, and he finds the calls depressing.

“People tell me all the time, ‘I’ve been in touch with the gallery, and they say my photograph is now selling for $150,000 a copy,’ ” he says. “So they want to know what they can sell theirs for.” 

A tiny fraction of that sum is the answer. A subscription service called Artnet — which bills itself as the most comprehensive database of its kind — captures the resale value of Lik photographs by cataloging auction results, and the most anyone has ever paid for one his photographs is $15,860, for a copy of an image called “Ghost,” in 2008. (It’s a color version of “Phantom.”) After that, it’s a long slide down, to $3,000 for a copy of “Eternal Beauty (Antelope County, Arizona)” in 2014. Fifteen images have sold for between $1,000 and $2,500, and four have sold for between $400 and $1,000. Another handful failed to sell. And that’s it."

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

So does he go down as a great photographer? You can't deny the man makes bad ass imagery. The only real question is is it worth what its selling for. I can't give you any advice on how to be great. I'm for damn sure not great, myself. I can tell you and teach you how to be better. I can do that. I can also define who I believe are great to me. Well, let me at least say who my favorites are. Everybody agrees Ansel Adams is the Michael Jordan of photography. Particularly for me, greatness is epitomized in Edward Weston, Harry Callahan, Gordon Parks, Sally Mann, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Carrie Mae Weems, Diane Arbus, Jerry Ulesmann, Spencer Tunick, Helmut Newton, and Imogen Cunninham.

Art Model, Covenant © 2016 Terrell Neasley

Of those, my personal faves are Weston, Callihan, Mann, and Parks. Of course, there are other photographers I like and many more who have taken iconic images, but I can't say I follow their overall work. I'm not a Steve McCurry fan, but who can not be a fan of "Afghan Girl". Of my aforementioned list, (of which, is not exhaustive nor comprehensive), only Spencer Tunnick is of a more recent ilk. For me, I think greatness is defined over the career of the photographer/artist, although I do include Mr. Tunnick as an exception.

Who knows? I guess if you're always striving to be better then greatness will take care of itself. At the very least, I think any photog owes it to themselves...NAY, even to US...the viewing public, to put out their best work. Anything less is cheating yourself and ME!

Eleanor Annetta Callahan (1916-2012)

 "Eleanor"

I write about a lot of things on this blog. Sometimes I write about current situations I find myself in, or bits of interesting information that might prove relevant to my readers. In a nutshell, this blog is representative of inspiring and informative aspects related to photography and modeling and how it all impacts or relates to me. Well, I just found out yesterday from a Facebook posting by friend and fellow mentor, Dave Levingston that one of the transcendent art models has recently passed away... Eleanor Callahan.

“I never complained, whatever I was doing. If he said: ‘Come quick, Eleanor — there’s a good light,’ I was right there."

It can be difficult to understand who Eleanor Callahan was without talking about her husband of 63 years, Harry Callahan. And if you don't know Harry Callahan, the photographer, you mind will probably go to Clint Eastwood's character of the same name. Don't do that. Harry Callahan is one of the consummate Masters of Photography pioneers mentioned in the same breath as Edward Weston or Alfred Stieglitz. Harry passed away in 1999, but for much of his career he photographed what was around him. He was the opposite of Weston who explored the western United States. Callahan is better known for walking the streets of his hometown, but the majority of his inspiration came from shooting his wife, Eleanor. She posed for him anywhere and everywhere. In fact, she is best known as the Model Who Never Said No and she'll tell you just that. If Harry called for her on the spot, she came running shedding her clothes as she went.

It might be just a simple way the light was falling on something outside. She'd sit for him and then go back to doing whatever it was that she was doing. She was photographed while she slept, when she was pregnant, outdoors, indoors...it simply did not make a difference. I do not believe Edward Weston would have amounted to as big of an innovative photographer as he was without Charis Wilson. In the same way, I do not think Harry Callahan would have amounted to the influential photographer he became without Eleanor. She was a willing subject in hundreds of his images.

“He just liked to take the pictures of me,” she told an interviewer in 2008. “In every pose. Rain or shine. And whatever I was doing. If I was doing the dishes or if I was half asleep. And he knew that I never, never said no. I was always there for him. Because I knew that Harry would only do the right thing.”

"Harry Callahan: Eleanor and Barbara",
DVD

I mean... think about it for a second. Can you imagine of Eleanor was a mean-spirited or stifling wife who balked at the notion of being photographed nude? Harry would have found another subject, possibly but it would not have been the same. He would not have been able to call on another model at a moment's notice and thus miss much of the fleeting inspirational moments that could so quickly captivate his imagination. There would have been no since of intimate connection from such a familiar perspective that we tend to take for granted in his images. One of my favorite images of his is a shot of Eleanor lying on her side with her back to us while 3-year old daughter Barbara is silhouetted standing on the bedroom windowsill. You couldn't have that shot with a model you pay to come by every now and again. If Eleanor was not the person she was, Harry would have walked by that room, saw the scene, and walked off to his refrigerator to get a beer and brood in front of the TV. But because she allowed him to fully explore his photography, his creativity, and to experiment with various concepts, he was able to achieve the greatness that we know of today. Harry would photography different landscapes and double-expose it with an image of Eleanor. Some say its because he saw her in everything he looked at.

So as is were, I've been a fan of liberating wife/models like this since I started doing nudes. Harry shot her both clothed and unclothed. Some of his most noteworthy work is of Eleanor and Barbara in the park. Interestingly enough, both Eleanor and Charis Wilson, survived their husbands and both died at age 95. So that proves a theory I've been working on. Women who model for their husbands live longer! It was also quite the coincidence that only 15 minutes before I saw DaveL's post, I was reading about Eleanor in the book, "The Model Wife", by Arthur Ollman, which I will get into in another post. I also just ordered (while in the middle of this post, no less) "Eleanor", by Jullian Cox.

The Newest Muse

“I never refused when he wanted to take a picture,” said Eleanor Callahan, the 91-year-old widow of the photographer Harry Callahan. “I never complained, whatever I was doing. If he said: ‘Come quick, Eleanor — there’s a good light,’ I was right there." - New York Times "The Artist's Wife: A Constant Muse Who Never Said No"

Chris St. James has been gracious enough to feature me on his Universe d'Artistes blog a number of times now. However his latest post on me is a recreation of an interview we did a year ago. He's added to it using some of my own posts as well as dialog/commentary I've made on his own blog. Its truely remarkable to witness this man's imagination and I felt very honored to be worthy of his time, energy, and creativeness that produced his 21 November 08 posting of our interview. In fact, go ahead and click over to it now. I'll wait.....

Welcome back! So what did you think? The man's a genius, is he not?

In other news, I'm still working on wrapping up this year's final projects. I've got just a few more to go, but lots of edits. I was hoping to take advantage of the holiday season with some more freelance work, but I'm not sure if its going to work out as I may have liked. Four or five good projects would have been nice. So now I have goals for next year. For the time being, I stick with my endeavors to shoot more subjects other than nudes, retool my business persona, and manage my workflow and activities better. At the same time, I've desired to try to take some time to relax a bit. You know... SLEEP! I think it was last week or the week before whereby I was averaging 3 hours of sleep a day and for the longest, I hadn't even slept in my own bed. Much of my rest time came with my head down on my keyboard or my neck cracked over sideways as I slouched over in my computer chair. Crazy, I know. Well, I'm trying to make a concerted effort to do much better at prioritizing sleep IN a bed, for more than 5 hours at a time. If I can get at least 5 hours in the bed a day, that'll be sweet and I have been doing better at it. There have even been 2 days this past week where I slept 9 hours...straight!

The images you see here are of my latest muse. I've worked with Lessa, Lissa, and now Melissa. She was referred to me by Faerie and even though it took a while to actually meet, I am so glad we did. I shot her last week sometime and the experience was marvelous. I made reference to her in the last posting about being a homie from Texas. She's the one who we share the experience of both having our first jobs being at Braum's Ice Cream. Grandy's is another place we discussed missing so much. They've got some of the best fried chicken for when momma ain't making it at the time. I tell you this girl is full of energy and imagination. I am sooo glad I got to finally meet her. It was one of those things were we just hit it off right as I stepped into the door. We didn't get to go through all my normal interviews and such. In most cases, I have to insist on at least some of my basic protocols. In this case, we had a mutual trusted friend, so I knew she was cool and she also works as an art model, thereby I know she's already comfortable with being nude. Basically everything else I needed to know we covered via email and we just made it happen. The woman is a great in conversation and so darned intuitive. We'll be doing this again.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Please take it easy, relax with family and friends, and make this a safe holiday. Also enjoy these featured artist links. Both of these are models I have been in dialogs with from deviantArt. The first is ModelDonna. There are some models who simply have that "it", and Donna is definitely one of them. I made a comment that she's someone I could probably photography exclusively. I think I could make a career off this girl alone. And then there is AlexB244. I've just started a series of work on the mature woman. Alex has that grace and beauty that is evidence the art model can go on beyond the limits of time. The supermodel has a shelf life of 5 to 7 years. Not many are able to make it beyond 10. The art model is different. She can go on as long as she desires. I wish it were a truism that the art model is the ideal woman by whom young girls measured themselves against. And when you look at Alex, you know for sure that your real beauty is to the core. Photoshop is only a layer deep.

Here comes the heat

"Sisters"

“I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing. To me, that makes photography more exciting.” - Harry Callahan

It was 108 degrees here in Vegas just a few days ago. Its cooled off a bit, but the the thought of the coming scorcher days ahead makes me wonder how it will affect my ability to shoot. At the beginning of last summer, I arrived in Las Vegas and was amazed at the heat. I'm from Texas. I can recall the temperature dancing around 120. I remember watching the news and hearing about the number of visitors to the state who would succumb to the heat via heat exhaustion, or heat stroke. I remember playing basketball or riding bikes in the noon day sun and thinking nothing of it. Vegas heat is nothing like Texas heat.

"Yeah, but its a DRY heat".... Well, there may be something to that saying. This low humidity heat is like oven heat. Set your oven on 450. Wait 15 minutes and open it up. Stick your head in. That's akin to Vegas heat. My challenge is being able to find locations to shoot for my Las Vegas Art Models Group. All the water and springs are drying up, but there are still interesting places and locations to shoot in without water. The trick is getting a secluded place that doesn't have many visitors, is easy to get to, AND doesn't become unbearably uncomfortable to the model or other photographers. Hiking miles and miles into a location isn't fun for the photogs that attend my workshop. Being naked for 3 hours in the sun isn't cool for my models. Solution: Get the hell out of Las Vegas.

Am I moving? No, not yet anyway. What I mean is to head up north to shoot. I was out scouting locations with a group member in Mt. Charleston. There can be a 20 degree difference in temperature in the mountains. Again, finding a secluded spot is the primary concern. As everyone is trying to get out of the heat, they head to the mountains. Also, hiking up a mountain to the location may be a challenge. My friend and I headed down the 40-some odd mile Mormon Well Road located not far from Mt. Charleston. You can't do that road in a regular car. You have to be in something with some clearance. We explored that road up in between the mountains, but its an arduous drive. The road seemed to shake and vibrate my guts loose and that was at a maximum speed of 20 miles an hour for about 2 and a half hours. At one point, we stopped so I could get a picture. My camera didn't work. Talk about your heart sinking. I was despondent for the rest of the ride. Fortunately, it was just the CF card door was shaken open. WHEW! Otherwise that would have sucked.

Right now, I am trying to put together a workshop with the glorious London Andrews. She'll be here in Vegas next week and if I can get a few photogs to participate in a workshop, I can make enough to pay her. She'd be the first professional model to be featured in our workshop. I primarily want to use local talent, but 4 to 6 times a year, I'd like to give my workshop attendees experience with a professional. I am especially intrigued by the traveling models. I've had several of my models ask how girls travel the nation from gig to gig and be successful doing this full time. I think that would be good to know as well. Its got to make for a great story and I can't wait to hear London's. I just hope to be able to do this workshop. It's kind of a last minute thing that we've put together. Somehow or another, I've got to make it happen.

I came across this funny Sesame Street video with William Wegman's weimaraners Batty and Bettina. Batty poses as a model. If you can't see the video below, > click here <

Just Keep Shooting

Quote of the Day:

"I photograph continuously, often without a good idea or strong feelings. During this time the photos are nearly all poor but I believe they develop my seeing and help later on in other photos. I do believe strongly in photography and hope by following it intuitively that when the photographs are looked at they will touch the spirit in people." - Harry Callahan

I came across this quote by a fav photog of mine, Harry Callahan. I've commented on him before in -->this blog post<-- last October, which is actually based on a reference to his wife Eleanor. For me, its somewhat fitting because lately, I havent been doing any specific photo projects that have a dedicated purpose or goal. Between running my art group and other priorities, I haven't been able to put together some concepts that I might endeavor to act on. So instead, I elected to just keep shooting. No self-publishing, no contests, no nothing other than refining my craft, stufying my trade, and getting better. I've wrote about this before, but this quote reminded me of what I am doing and why.

I'm certainly glad to have a few models that don't mind being available when I want to just shoot and some whom I am available for when they want to be shot. I got to work with Faerie again for such an occasion. Especially now, when stress and gas prices are at an all time high for me, its so relaxing to be able to go shoot a model for no other reason than we've both got some free time and we each desire to be on our perspective ends of the lens. I'm sure I'll shoot her some more, be it in different places or circumstances. It just doesn't get old. Isn't she just gorgeous. Hmmm, I wonder what she's doing tomorrow...

I did come across one other video clip similar to a project I plan to do when I have the right model and circumstances to pull it off. Its of a photographer who records his photo shoot of a nude model who poses for shots at a public bus stop. Capturing people's reaction while ignoring passing traffic is not an easy thing to do. At least, I would not imagine that it would be. Not to mention avoiding arrest. Its still a fun video, nontheless. If you can't see the clip below, ->click here<-. If any of you readers have any experience shooting public nudes, I'd be much obliged for your suggestions. Share your experiences on how it worked out for you if you've tried it. I'd especially love to hear from any models who have braved the public frontier. What were your challenges, concerns, and problems in setting this up? Did it take a team effort? I'm not referring to streaking, but rather to posed shots. Seeing a naked model get horse-collared in a tackle just wouldn't look pretty. Might be funny, but I can't see the beauty in that. So I'm not interested in streakers. Enjoy the video.

The Artist's Wife

Whew...the Pro vs. Amateur debate sure drew some interest. I like that. Its good to exchange ideas. Univers d'Artistes has postings and relative commentary regarding the matter. My post just before this one was featured on this site as a different perspective to that of Marcus J Ranum. Iris Dassault, the professional model I am constantly harping about, also added some timely and poignant insight to the mix which was added at the conclusion of my addition. The saga continued the next day with a post from Gunther Vandenven and more commentary from Iris. Its definitely work the look, so check it out. The only element we missed was the voice of a true amateur model to provide that unique perspective. I might have to see if I can solicit some and then I will let the issue rest.

Another interesting point regards a few articles I came across that discuss figure modeling or life drawing models. I'd like to share some of them with you by way of the following links. The first one is most interesting to me, which is a New York Times article by Carol Kino written just this past week on the 2nd of October. I relate well to this particular article because I sincerely adore the photographer who spends much of his time photographing his wife. One of my initial inspirations was from a friend Malcolm Glass and his wife as I recall one image of his wife done in a spontaneous moment of unique opportunity for which they were able to take advantage of. This article is touching because, although it is referencing the exhibition of the late artist Harry Callahan, it is done from the perspective of his wife of 63 years, Eleanor, who is now 91 years old. The article is titled "The Artist’s Wife: A Constant Muse Who Never Said No", again, by Carol Kino of the NY Times.

Other article of interest that may be appealing to you includes this one which I thought was funny. "My 11-year-old is drawing nudes? What do I do?" Its an advice column done by a reader who writes in to Dr. Gail Saltz for help with her son who is allowed to draw the female form by his artist dad. The mom is hoping Dr. Saltz will take her side on this. See who's side she ends up supporting on this. I'd love to hear your comments as well. Do you agree with the Dr's. advice? Now enjoy these recent abstracts.