Sign of the times Fascisca the 2019 version based on Ingres' La Grande Odalisque When Fascisca was created back in 2005 it never occurred to me that fascism was anything but a thing of the past, at least for most Italians. Ingres' La Grande Odalisque, the inspiration behind Fascisca. The...
NAUTILUS A new entry in the Metamorphosis series. After 6 years of gestation, the Nautilus photo shoot in Amsterdam is the latest addition to my Metamorphosis series portfolio. Sometimes the gestation period for a picture runs from months into years. I met Silvia, a dusky Portuguese...
Sometimes I come back to a picture with a new idea, usually to add something - such are the wonders of Photoshop - despised I know by many purists but manna from heaven to someone like me who never knows when to stop. In this case I have tinkered with a 2006 picture called...
A hundred years ago few anywhere suspected that the most deadly war of all time was about to break out in six months time. What occupied the minds of Britons was whether women should be awarded the vote or not, the disruptive campaign the Suffragettes were carrying out and the Liberal...
Sirens and mermaids in English are two different creatures but one in the same in Italian. Both belong to the menagerie of mythological females who lure men to their doom. In the case of the siren it is her voice that holds the fatal power, with the mermaid her sensuality. Etruscan...
Sometimes when I do a picture it is simply because I admire a work of art so much I just have to take it on myself as a sort of homage to the original; but I do wonder if people will say, 'so what?' Perhaps this is one of them. It has neither any particular note of irony nor does it re-interpret...
Some of my pictures have been shot in the studio or more often in some one's sitting room and the background added afterwards. Photo-purists can bale out at this point. On occasions I know from the outset that elements will have to be added later, Bernarda and Galèt (right) for...
Vargas or 'Varga' was the most famous pin-up artist of all time. I came across him in the 60s when I found piles of Esquire magazines in my uncle's library dating back to the war years. The Varga gatefold was to my teenage eyes the only memorable part of the magazine. Esquire magazine was...
I have had to dig into my archive to find a shot that a musician saw on my website and wishes to use on his album cover. I got out my transparencies box and started rooting through the work of 10 - 25 years ago to find the 5x4 I was looking for. This was one of a series of shots done for a...
What is it that makes a painting more or less erotic? The subject? The pose? The beauty of the sitter? Surely all three but there are other important elements as well. The “Tepidarium” by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, painted in 1881, is made up of a number of elements that would not of...
This is the second photograph I have done based on Ingres’ Grande Odalisque (the other is Casalisca). Ingres is one of those artists who can give a certain comfort to artists who have passed middle age as several of his most famous works were painted towards the end of long life. The Turkish Bath...
The painting Chloe, which could be the most famous artwork in Australia, hangs not in a gallery or private collection but, unusually for a work of art, in a Melbourne pub, Young and Jackson's. The Parisian model, Marie, committed suicide after a tragic love affair aged only 21. After a...
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