There are moments when I wonder why I do this blogging thing. And then there are moments when I feel like it's one of the best things I've ever done for myself. There are those who will visit here and feel like they've just come upon one of the most self-absorbed people on the planet. And there are those who will read a little and look at some of the pictures and totally get what's going on. And there are those who won't get it at all and still keep coming back because they're thinking that at some point they're going to get where all of this is going. Well, if you haven't gotten it yet, let me help you out a little.
I've been feeling life intensely ever since I can remember. I was born with the doors and windows all open - everything comes in all the time all at once and man oh man does it get crazy here inside me sometimes. I create things because it gives all of this energy moving in me and through me, somewhere to go. I write because I'm trying to figure out who I am. My life is often chaotic and I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make it simpler, which feels most of the time like an exercise in futility.
Continue reading "Congratulations California..." »
First mate Paolo on one of my sailboat trips through the Greek Islands asked if he could play with my camera for a few minutes while we were having a beer at a little cantina on the island of AntiPaxos. I don't usually let people play with or take pictures with my cameras but he didn't so much ask as he just took it out of my hands saying, "Fammi vedere un attimo." Let me see that a minute...
Notes on this picture of me that Paolo took:
I don't have a grey beard. It's the zinc in the sunscreen.
That's my natural hair color and those are my natural curls.
I'm glad my legs were together, aren't you?
I cannot even remotely imagine my body anymore without my tattoos. I used to sit or position my legs so that it didn't look like I was trying to show off my tatts. Now I don't care - I sit the way I'm most comfortable and if the tatts show they show and if they don't they don't. That's how I know my ink and I have become one.
Continue reading "The Real Me [with caveats]" »
Most of you know by now that I've been photographing nudes for most of the 25 years that I've been shooting professionally. I love the naked human body - I love mine and I love those of others. It's a fascination that started very young and extends way beyond the parameters of sex and/or sensual desire. I've tried explaining it over the years and always feel a little frustrated that I can't quite put into words what it is that I like so much about naked bodies. So these days I mostly let the images speak for themselves.
Starting somewhere in the early to mid eighties there was a renaissance of sorts where nude photographic images are concerned. Nowhere was that more obvious than in the photographs of naked or nearly naked men. Women's bodies had already been explored in depth through countless photographer's eyes and offered to the public vis-a-vis magazines like Playboy and Hustler. But the naked male remained something of a taboo here in the States until photographers like Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts started introducing us to unabashedly erotic images of men. The floodgates opened and pretty much overnight our world became awash with men in various states of undress. Where women's bodies had been used almost exclusively to sell, now men's bodies were being added to the mix. And guess what? It worked.
Continue reading "Rethinking Nudity..." »
Years ago I worked with Diana Dennis, a dancer turned professional body-builder. I have thousands of pictures of her that we created together and as is often the case I've forgotten about a lot of them. In my journeys through my archives I often come across images that I forgot I had - some of them worth scanning and others just fun to look at and remember their origins. After the jump are a couple of images of Diana that I actually quite like and have decided to add to my online portfolio. Since they're full-frontal nudes I'm keeping them off the front page of the blog and letting you make the choice as to whether to look at them or not. They're all clickable if you wish to see them larger.
Continue reading "Diana Dennis..." »

The koi & lily pond I created for Steve Benson is a year old this month. It's been fascinating to watch its evolution and to feel the satisfaction that comes from having done something that came together so nicely and is so much a part of the earth. Here's a pictorial as we follow a year in the life of a pond...
February '07
March '07...

Continue reading "A Year In The Life Of A Pond..." »
I think I know how Mr. Frog feels sitting all day between his rock and a hard spot. A few weeks ago I sent a general email message out to everybody on my various lists and asked them not to forward mass forwarded messages onto me anymore. And now I'm in the dog house with people I actually like a lot and care for who were incensed that I'd make such a request.
I have several different emails and each of them serves a specific purpose in the scheme of things. I'm in communication with a lot of people all over the country and for that matter, all over the planet. Forwarded cutesy messages with blinking bunnies and baskets of adorable golden retriever puppies come at me sometimes by the dozens. I long since stopped reading them but every once in awhile when I make the mistake of caving in I find an admonition at the end of it to forward it onto 12 people and if I do I'll have 12 years of good luck or something extra special will come my way in 15 minutes.
grrrrrrr.....
Continue reading "Between A Rock And A Hard Spot..." »