CThru.com Presents Tony Ward

Picture Party King

……Ted Adams has a wonderful knack for converting his living room space in to the hottest party in town, “picture” party that is. That’s right, Ted’s home located in the heart of South Philadelphia doubles as Southwark Gallery, an exhibition space that several times a year pays homage to the photographic image. The next event is on October 31, 2009. He and former Philadelphia Inquirer photographer/curator Eric Mencher teamed up several years ago to put on a very unique one-night photography group exhibition/reception in the confines of Ted’s home environment. Past participants have included such distinguished artists as Harvey Finkle, Jenny Lynn, Lawrence Salzman, Zoey Strauss, Daniela Sessa, Kass Mencher, Ron Tarver, Robert Asman and others. If you ever get a chance to meet Ted, ask him to invite you to his next party. You don’t want to miss it! To learn more about Southwark Gallery, log on to www.philadelphiaphoto.net/southwark ……….

Charlene Lanza

…..No stranger to the studio, pin-up artist Charlene Lanza and TW met through a mutual friend, fellow painter and guest blogger Mikel Elam back in the nineties while they we’re hanging out regularly in Soho. Recently, the artist and the photographer met again for a portrait sitting and to introduce her latest works to our growing audience. Ms. Lanzel is an American artist, originally from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Born in 1967, she started to paint with passion at the age of five. Self taught and determined to exhibit her works beyond the confines of a small town, she moved to New York City at the age of 20 and has been enjoying the creative process in the Big Apple ever since.

We are delighted to introduce a sampling of her work to you. To learn more about Charlene’s painting’s, log on to www.charlenelanzel.com…….

Nirvana By Mikel Elam

…..Guest Blogger, Patrick Breslin a professor of Speech Communication at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida; writes a commentary about Mikel Elam’s state of “Nirvana”, the studio’s Painting of the Day…….

Mikel Elam’s painting titled “Nirvana” depicts a male figure seated in meditation. The painting is a partial patchwork: the figure’s head encased in an orange square, the torso in a dark gray one. The background contains light colored disks, gold leaf squares, and dark purple 5-spoked behandled circles reminiscent of Buddhist icons, all ensconced in rectangular shapes. The dominant shade at the bottom of the painting is also purple, suggesting a base or ground, and philosophically linked to the icons; the top is adorned with swaths of blue, suggesting sky.

The meditator in the painting is a multiracial collage. The head appears African; the torso a shade of bronze; the lower abdomen and legs partake of a dark Caucasian complexion; the arms lighter—the left hinting at orange, the right bordering on pink—, and both terminating in an empty space of unpainted hands.

The title of the piece suggests several interpretations. Nirvana by definition refers to the ultimate peaceful state, and the multiracial makeup of the subject of the painting seems to propose that the blending of races, or at least their acceptance of one another, might lead to a peaceful existence. In the context of meditation as understood in popular culture, the lower abdomen whimsically lacks a navel, the historically clichéd object of meditation, causing the viewer to wonder whether the meditator in the painting is a holy incarnation not born of a woman. The viewer observes that the head of the subject does not fully connect to the body; the two are separated by a strip of the orange color from the box that surrounds the head. One could read into this that the nirvanic state of the meditator is all within the mind, disembodied, the concept of which does align with classic Buddhist perspectives.

The goal of meditation is enlightenment, whose common metaphor is light. Meditation is practiced in the mind—in the head—, yet the color scheme of the meditator’s body in the painting casts the darkest shades on the head and the lightest ones on the nonexistent hands, reversing the typical expectation and intimating that perhaps through the hands one expresses one’s degree of spiritual development, as Elam may be attempting to do in this work.

Pat Breslin Vulcan Days

Selfy's

……When the email arrived with an attached photo of an attractive woman holding a book entitled Orgasm, it certainly got a lot of attention at the studio. An assistant commented “she must be a fan”. The planning, the execution of the picture was clever, striking and the model was exotic looking. The book that she was holding was published in the year 2000 by yours truly. It was quite a compliment.

We learned that the picture was a self-portrait or “self’y” as Alejandra Guerrero affectionately describes her passion for often making herself a subject. It has been exciting to watch the talented Columbian born, 30 year old, rise to the rank of international photographer.

Alejandra calls Chicago her home and is currently where she resides. However, she also shoots in LA and is currently abroad working on various projects in Scotland and England at the present time. It is our pleasure to offer you a sampling of the ambitious work of this talented young photogrpaher. To learn more about Alejandra’s work, log on to www.alt-er-ego.com. …………

Kissing A Fool

www.alt-er-ego.com

www.alt-er-ego.com

www.alt-er-ego.com

www.alt-er-ego.com

Lovers Kiss

…..Guest blogger, Atomic Bombshell weigh’s in on the Art of the Kiss……….

Movie Kiss

If Helen of Troy’s face could launch a thousand ships, kissing can definitely inspire timeless, artistic creations. You will always remember your best and worst kisses. I think this is because a kiss can leave an imprint on your soul. So much passion and longing can be felt with a single kiss. An ultimate chemistry of connection and sensory, that you share with another person. While there are some people who are not natural born kissers, if you feel strongly about the person you are with and you are open to experience, take your tie and discover kissing together. After all, we all hate those kisses that leave our faces chaffed! Some of the best stories and paintings were inspired by the beauty of the kiss. I wish everyone would take their time and explore the sensual Art of the Kiss!

Street Musician, Philadelphia, 1994

……Every time I think about the life and work of Harvey Finkle, he reminds me of the good fortune he has had in his life. A beautiful life partner, close knit family and a passion for something that each day brings him great joy. That passion, to our benefit are his photographs. Following a long tradition of documentary photography, Harvey Finkle is the Mother Theresa of passionate photography. He began to excel at his lifes work in his early years, receiving a Social Work degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. From there, his education lead him to picture making which helped him define his social causes.

On Thursday, October 15th, 2009 The Constitution Center of Philadelphia will recognize his legacy. A press release has just arrived at the studio from Bread & Roses Community Fund of Philadelphia. Tickets are available at the door. You don’t want to miss this event!

Tent City, Philadelphia 1995

Tribute

The Bread & Roses Community Fund will be honoring social documentarian, Harvey Finkle, at its annual event on 10-15-09 at the National Constitution Center. Harvey is a still photographer, whose interests are social, political and cultural. His career has centered on photographing marginalized and disenfranchised people, including low income and homeless families, refugees and immigrants, the disabled and the Deaf, as well as groups working for economic justice, peace and human rights. The tribute will exhibit 75 photos reflecting the groups and people that he has photographed. His work can be seen on his website, harveyfinkle.com

www.HarveyFinkle.com

It is hard to believe that a decade has passed since I published my first two books on erotic photography with the charming little bookstore, La Musardine located at 122 rue du chemin-Vert, Paris. Friends in the states informed me about the renowned French publisher, and its hardcore counterpart Alixe Editions. At the time, the late 90’s, I had found an outlet for publishing my most challenging erotic work under the creative direction of Penthouse founder and publisher, Bob Guccione. Many of the pictures that were originally photographed for Penthouse, were later published in my first two volumes Ogasm and OrgasmXL, under the editorial supervision of La Musardine owner Claude Bard and his insightful assistant and Anne Hautecoeur.

My first visit to meet Claude and Anne was a short walk from my apartment in Menilmontant, through the beautiful Pere Lachaise cemetery, were many notibles were laid to rest. A short distance to the unique erotic bookstore, La Musardine is mixed in with a variety of apartments, business’s and delicious French pastry shops, that are located along the busy Parisian street, If you don’t pay careful attention as you got close to the address, you could easily walk past it, as I have on many occasions. Once you enter the shop, hundreds of books lining the walls of the quaint environment overwhelm you. Erotic titles that you would never imagine would ever be published could be found in La Musardine’s extensive library. It was an education in itself, just looking around at all the literary works and photography books published on the subjects of sex and erotica. I knew at once that I found the right publisher for my vision and erotic imagination……..

www.MikelElam.com

Guest Blogger Mikel Elam, “I think this self portrait says a lot about me and my work. My paintings have been mostly about signs and symbols. It started early in my life when I began to notice patterns of numbers shadowing my everyday existence.

First I thought it was just chance and then as time passed, I realize there are very few coincidences. In portraiture and figure studies there are a great deal of measurements used to create an accurate representation. As an expressionistic painter, I use my emotions and my imagination to create images which are symbolic to my thoughts. In essence, they become these dreamscapes and very surreal in nature. I am interested in that place which is somewhere between reality and the ethereal.

……I’m sure everyone has heard by now, a legend of Photography, Irving Penn passed away yesterday peacefully in his home in New York at the age of 92. Another legend of photographic history is gone and hundred’s of thousands of Penn fans around the world will reflect on his life’s work and how it impacted the developing visions of those that aspired to be as great as he was. I tried to find a picture in the files that represented his influence on my photography. An image came to mind that I produced in 1993, simply entitled “Hailey”.

That picture represents what I felt most about Penn’s approach to picture making. The image must possess three intangibles; taste, class and style. Only Penn’s lighting could be taught if you had the patience to truly observe what light does for a picture. He possessed the intangibles in spades and that is what I loved most about his work. It was just a few months ago that yours truly was invited to participate in a group show at Galerie Hiltawsky in Berlin to pay homage to the legendary gatekeeper of fashion at Vogue. He will be sorely missed. It’s good for the world that he left all those great pictures…….