lube.

 

Diptychs II – CandyPoses

If you needed any more proof of how amazingly revolutionary the intraweb is, try and imagine any other way for a black gen-x photographer from Pittsburgh and a Lebanese/Polish gen-y feminist from Virginia to not just meet, but to become creative partners.

I first saw CandyPoses on ModelMayhem [I think] a year or so ago. I followed the lin to her blog and found an articulate, opinionated and occasionally pissed off young woman balancing a career as a nude model with her orientation as a feminist. While I usually cringe at anything that involves “isms” or “ists” I found her both beautiful and interesting– an irresistible combo to me. I added her to my mental “model wish list” without ever expecting anything to actually come of it.

Photographers tend to “suck up” to models they’re hoping to work with — sometimes to an embarrassing degree, taking care to always tell them what they [think they] want to hear in a given interaction, even is said photographer thinks the exact opposite. What made my conversations with Candy different was that I had no idea/hope she might even like my work, much less consider being a part of it. With this mindset, I felt free to openly disagree with things she said online, often coming into her own blog to do so. It’s not like I was burning bridges or anything, as I never thought there were any to burn. I can only assume that the reasonably intelligent and honest way I conducted myself in these encounters is what created the bridge that eventually connected us. Whatever the reason, something made her contact me about the possibility of working together — an idea which thrilled me, though I tried to be as cool about it as I could at the time. How was I to know that all the “fine art nude” work she’d been presenting was only a part of the story? After a few months of back and forth communication, we managed to negotiate the geography gap and meet at the February Collingwood Arts Center shootout. I actually didn”t want to go to the shootout at all, but I’m glad she coaxed me into it, because I learned how cool the CAC shoots were and now I’m a regular there.

We shot for a good 2 hours that day, with Candy braving my embryonic genderplay/strapon ideas as well as a 55F basement. Not only did we get some amazing stuff, we found that we had more in common than you’d think a pornographer and a feminist should. We actually keep in touch more than before, emailing frequently and even giving each other shouts in our respective blogs. Right now, she’s in the process of writing the foreword for my next covet book — I have no idea what she’ll say about me, but it will definitely be something to think about, whether you agree with her or not.