Monday, April 25, 2011



The concept of Christ rising from the dead which some would define as a form of rebirth gives many of those who celebrate Easter a valid excuse for starting afresh. That Easter almost always coincides with an early spring means that a rebirth or reawakening of perennials in the garden marks a new garden with a potential of being a better this time than last year.



For me Easter is a better day to transfer the almost always failed promise of the New Year’s resolution.


Some who might be reading this might wonder what racy pictures of an elegant woman who has the custom of smoking in bed with an Easter Monday resolve to start afresh.



The correct word that links that apparent disconnect might be justification. For years I have been in the quandary of not knowing why I keep wanting to photograph beautiful women while at the same time that I attempt to justify the taking of these pictures in cheap hotel rooms, in bed and even smoking.

Logic tells me that at age 68 I should look at these pictures (and just imagine the ones I am not able to post here because of my self-imposed rule of blogging “decency”) with the fondness of a rosy past. I should look at them and tell myself that I was an idiot as there is no justification for such a thing.

But as I look at these pictures in light of all the pornography (and badly taken photographs) of the present I find that they have a quality of restrained sexuality that suits me fine at this time of my life. They are elegant and well lit. The woman, Vantana was her name, is beautiful and lissome. What legs! What a chest! Her face is so chiseled, not quite hard, not quite soft but a nice in-between.



I look at these pictures and tell myself that even though I am an old man, if I can find subjects who will pose for me I should pursue the subject even if I have no justification. How’s that for a an Easter Monday resolution?










I took the above photographs on October 1994 in room 618 of the Marble Arch Hotel. I used a Mamiya RB-67 Pro-S with Ilford FP-4 processed at 100 ISO in Kodak HC-110. As far as I can tell I did not light these pictures so I had my Mamiya on a tripod and I used the mirror lock up device and a cable release to minimize camera shake.