.: suspended above thin air :.

this is a tryptic of a dancer i shot in the studio. she is a friend of mine in san francisco. her name is michele kitchen. i plan to photoshop her into cityscapes, but have not shot the right images to do so yet. but i wanted to post these because i really love the feeling that she is suspended in midair. the flexibility and grace of the ballerina is such a beautiful thing to me, perhaps because it seems so difficult. when i do finally find the ideal locations in which to photoshop her, i will post those as well. photoshop compositing is a complicated issue. the lighting and perspective must be exactly correct or the eye will subliminally understand that something is wrong.

in the limelight

julie blackmon

julie blackmon astonishes me with her design sense. she photographs her children in her body of work called 'domestic vacations'. the surreal quality of her images juxtaposes well the truth that centers around family life. in her artist statement, she compares her work to 'a jan steen household' which is a dutch proverb from the 17th century that refers to "a home in disarray, full of rowdy children an boisterous family gatherings" (julieblackmon.com). blackmon photographs the "stress, the chaos an the need to simultaneously escape and connect". Her images are incredibly visually engaging with close attention paid to figure in space and placement of props. she also incorporates photoshop manipulation to create a surrealism effect. her work really inspires me.