The flower gallery for this month was again provided with the great assistance of my friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. I really could not do this without their valuable input and hope the pictures do them justice. Shout out then to Chris at Flowers To Yours and to both Wendy and Nina at Brambles Florist. Check out their web sites at the highlights above, you will not be disappointed. That is it for this month, so please do come back in May.
Thank you x
Welcome back to the March blog update and all it has to offer.
I would just like to say a fond thank you to my friend and work partner of many years Tyler Dyce. As we speak she is very heavy with child and so is taking it easy. This is obviously a life changing event for her and I sadly doubt that we will see her again infront of the camera. Which is a shame as it is like the end of an era for me. Yet still all my love goes out to her and her new family for the future.
This then has sharpend things in my mind as I no longer have a muse that I can bounce ideas off, so what shall I do? I have said before that I am physically finding it hard to get around and even stand up too long. My heart doesn’t beat as it should and I get tired easily. So I am giving serious thought to retirering from doing fashion shoots and only now do flowers and still life images. I have four shoots left to do - Covid permitting - but aftert that nothing booked in. I have had thirty one years at this and for the most part enjoyed it all. Its been a great ride.. But now might be a time to stop.
We shall see…. Watch this space as they say.
Look out for the new project gallery called ‘X00 Multiplies’ and a thanks to everyone who has supported me this month. From my dear wife Amy to Chris and Wendy at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours.
To Tyler … I have been and always shall be your friend. I owe you so much. Good luck, no ill will and ‘Luv Ya’ still x
For this months digital art I have had a theme on the late Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. I watched a biography on TV about him and liked his work so did some research on him and his style. Here are six gold inspired images, in a style like the great artist. … but nowhere near as good as him.
This is a new gallery project all about buildings and architecture that have a symmetry about them. In point Art Deco design, which sadly they do not have in my town. But they do have some great modern buildings that a designed with thought. It is all in black and white for effect, thank you to Amy for her support.
After a brief time away from this project, I finally found the strength to go out and do a bit for the sound of the suburbs gallery. Thanks to Amy for her help on those days.
I got my hands on a great selection of flowers this month and got straight to work on them. The flowers come courtesy of Chris and Wendy at the brilliant Brambles Florist and amazing Flowers To Yours. Check their links out as you will not be disappointed. Thanks also to Amy for her help and a few extras from the garden she put in.
I would very much wish to dedicate this months flower galley to my friend Tyler Dyce x
Welcome back to the blog and its the end of February already. My how the time flies by when your doing bugger all ? Since a type of way out of this Covid-19 imprisonment is coming to an end I can start to plan a way back for more new shoots starting in about the middle of April I hope. If it goes ahead, we shall be proud to show you all a new model who goes by the sweet name of ‘Moyondafoluwa’ A very pretty melanin beauty, and someone I am very much looking forward to working with.
Anyway before then please enjoy this months offerings of work from the home studio and a look back (not in anger!).
Thanks x
Rather than say ‘nothing new here, so move along folks’, this month. We have a sort of new, a more … reimaged … look at some old pictures done in 2019 of the amazing Tyler Dyce, taken at the City War Memorial on a cold weekday evening. So heres to her and looking back with fond memories..
Tighten Up x
Sunflowers is a theme this month. With help from our friends Chris and Wendy at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours, I took these images of Amy minus her pretty face. Choosing instead a Sunflower and an orange roll neck jumper. The three images are titles ‘Sunflower Head,’ ‘Sunflower Kisses’ and ‘Sunflower Smoker Choker.’
Something different this month for the still life / fine art. I used flash to give me a very hi-key look for these pictures and then completed the effect with photoshop. Thanks to Amy for her help amongst my many swear words and curses.
We got there in the end.
Another productive flower shoot in the home studio with absolute thanks to my friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours. Chris and Wendy sorted me out with such a great selection of flowers, which is no mean feat due to the covid lockdown and brexit ramifications. But here they are. Hope you enjoy them and pop back next month to see more?
Welcome back to the new years gallery kick off and sadly no model shoots to show you. It does also look likey that there won’t be a proper studio shoot until maybe April or May the way this Covid-19 situation is going. I know I don’t need to be reminded of it, as we are all suffering, but I just wish I could do something in a studio away from my four walls.
But like I said, we are all suffering one way or another.
Anyway, I managed to do some digital art this month after a break and do some more stuff for fine art and projects. There is also the flower work that I am so grateful to still be able to do with help from Chris and Wendy at Brambles Florist and Flowers to Yours. Not to mention, and not forgetting, my wife Amy who always helps me with the pictures.
One more thing to look out for is a review from Lens Culture of my efforts I submitted to one of their awards for Fantasy Art. Its not a bad review, worth a look … it’s at the bottom of this months flowers and quite a lengthy read.
Well thats it for now. Enjoy the blog and catch you next month.
With a lack of model shoots going around I have chosen to create some more, nature based digital art this cold month. All that is with the exception of the ‘Levitation (Trumps Gone)’ picture and the syfy moon over water image.
Only a handful of still life / fine art this month and again with the theme of decay. I made some new backgrounds, hopefully give them a more harder edge this time around. Thanks as always to Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours for last months (now gone over) flowers.
A few new pictures for this project, this month. A drawing of my wife that hangs on my living room wall. A fan. A door latch to the back door and some fetching marigold gloves. I know, not the most exciting stuff, but it is supposed to be a gallery of the everyday in black and white.
With this Covid lockdown Part III going around, I know its hard for suppliers to get their hands on a lot of things. Flowers being no exception, but my friends at Brambles Florist and Flowers To Yours, Chris and Wendy have done a great job for me and pulled some rabbits out of the bag. Thanks to them both, in no small way and to Amy for helping me take the pictures.
At the end of 2020 I entered nine images into a Lens Culture ‘Fantasy Art’ competition. While I did not win, they did however give me a good review of my work.
Have a read.
Greetings, Lujon Rael, and thank you for sharing this beautiful work with us.
Without being similar, your fantasy art images reminded me of the classic work of William Mortensen, an early 20th-century photographer whose work characterized as a mixture of stylized portraiture with fantasy narratives, and cinematic style. Mortensen was inspired particularly by horror films that lead him to create a body of work of demons, witches, and other mythical entities.
Like in Mortensen's work, your images demonstrate a mixture of many elements, both traditional and contemporary. Elements of fashion or glamor photography blend with the traditional horror iconography but without getting entrapped into a repetition of overused themes and approaches. Cinema and Literature also seem to offer you inspiration as you create your fantasy world.
Some of the pictures obviously investigate the same theme, showing off your focus and dedication to an idea, as well as your willingness to explore it further. Pictures 1, 3, and 8 are a good example of a study on a particular theme through variations. The title Jinn informs the viewer as to what kind of entity you examine. Technically all three images are well-made so the criteria as to which one is the best picture are obviously subjective. In my opinion, picture 1 seems to be one step ahead. Eye contact is the critical element for my decision. Whereas in pictures 3 and 8 the creature appears mostly as a spectacle, in picture 1 she is challenging the viewer to look at her, and by extension to communicate with her. But also narratively the picture appears to be denser. The red color, a direct reference to blood, optimizes the grotesque element, making the image more effective.
Images 4, 6, and 7 could belong to the same framework, as each of them appears to explore the mythical and the trivial at the same time. Ordinary house objects obtain meaning through correlation with the human body. These objects turning into body parts, illustrating paradoxical creatures that look simultaneously familiar and alien. I find that you should continue working on this idea, but seeing the work as a long term project and not as an occasion to make some singles more. If you find my idea interesting, make sure that the pictures that will be parts of this series will have a tight general aesthetics, that makes them be visually cohesive. Among the three you have here, picture 7 appeals to my artistic sensibilities a little bit more than the other two do. It is perhaps the soft contrast that somehow controls the grotesque element from too emphatic.
Pictures 2 and 9 change the perspective you approach the subject. This time it is a detail that defines the whole and not the opposite as in the rest of the work. Picture 2 is technically beautiful but I feel that you have tried to quickly bargain with the subject. The snake-tongue human is a pretty stereotypical fantasy scheme. I would prefer to see something that attempts to take that scheme to the next level. Opposingly, picture 9 is more interesting. The act of decorating your body with jewelry obtains new meaning through the correlation with vampire iconography. This picture could also show you a path to follow, a theme to explore. Think about it.
As for image 5, again, you have tried to blend the iconic with the contemporary, and to some extent, you have done a very good job. Perhaps it would be better to avoid titles that explain the concept of the picture, especially when you are using icons everybody understands. I mean that the image obviously explores the iconic figure of Madonna, making the title sound tautological. Do not forget that titles and captions should extend the language of the image.
To conclude, in one way or another, your pictures manifest an inherent curiosity for human behavior and attitude. The combination of mythical with contemporary gestures is a really interesting and promising theme. I recommend you keep on exploring it and I would like to see how it is going to evolve. For the moment, I wish you the best of luck in the contest.
Take care.
Well what a year this has turned out to be. I am sure you have no need of me telling you … we are all suffering. But still you must do what you can or face going mad. Being optimistic I am trying to look on the bright side of things and hoping next year is going to be better. So raise a glass for 2021 and a fart to 2020 !!!
I hope you all have a great Christmas and better New Year also. Thanks to everyone who helped.
BTW I did not win that compertion … oh well, bummer !!!
As I am sure your all aware there is no model shoots until February 2021, covid permitting. But I do need to round up this years meagre offerings with a slideshow. So thanks to all involved in these shoots … you are all the sultans of swing. To Monalisa Moyo, Suzanne L, Divya Ram, Tyler Dyce, Lee Henshaw, Nuria Do Prado Rael and Sonia Greatorex See you all I hope in next years shoots.
I hope x
Music: ‘Sultans of Swing’ Dire Straits
Here is a one of Project image for the ‘Noir et Blanc’ Gallery. I was taken in my front room with me on my couch looking up at the ceiling. The light you see highlights the picture of Amy just below to the bottom right.
