Richard Warren has a thread going in the PoP Forum on Lusenet about his photographs of vegetables and the unadorned human figure and his struggles with their interpretation and success with various audiences. Cut and paste yourself there to see what it's about.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002W15

This is an image I made a few years ago which to my mind was about masculinity, propagation, aging and cycles of life. There's a second image (woman) which might follow when I find it to scan, and a third in the work's about a child but my son is too old now to fit the image I have in mind (it needs a baby). Here it is, say something... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

this is a spiritual image to me. according to my own experience/interpretation, it could be 1/2 of an Adam&Eve Kicked Out of Eden sort of thing. but i appreciate those archytypal ideas, whereas a lot of people today (maybe yourself t, i dunno) don't. there's also a dysfunctionalism happening with the severed cock, which fights the very inherint masculinity which is otherwise inherint, creating a very active dynamic for me. it really questions masculinity to me, rather than glorify it, which i think to any man (or woman, indirectly) with open eyes in the last 10 or so years will feel immediately: what the hell is masculinity? a question which will never get old, at least while it still IS a valid concept...

the other aspect which gets me is the age thing, but moreso as a comment on current technology rather than simple youth/death cycling. the man is in great shape, and the...what the hell is that, a jalapeno (sp?) on steroids?...is in extreme antithesis to his health, not merely old compared to his being young. but also, could technology and our current lifestyle trends be the cause of not only the severe condition of the cock, but also its un-attachment to its owner?

it also reminds me of l. bobbitt. ouch.

-- shawn gibson (SeeInsideForever@yahoo.com), February 19, 2000.

Hi Tom,

Congradulations on the brilliant idea. This is definitely an artistic nude image. What I like about it is the fact that it is not only artistic but also disturbing. It is not another one of those cliche abstract nudes which puts me to sleep sometimes.

One criticism, however, is about the lighting. According to me screen, the light is a bit too harsh and maybe a bit to frontal. Swinging the "body" light to the model's left slightly more will probably give you better modelling of the leg muscles. As is, the leg looks too rounded and smooth. Even the Abdominal muscles suffer from this flaw a bit.

-- David Hou (dna2367@hotmail.com), February 19, 2000.

I personally don't see much of a bobbit theme.

What I see is a beautiful sweep from the thigh, up to the chest, down the arm, where the skin goes from smooth to covered with veins, leading up to a gnarled pepper. The shadows illuminate meaningful details.

To me, it has nothing to do with eroticism (and doesn't even hint at it, thank goodness). It has to do with a contemplation of mortality.

-- Ed Kang (ekang@cse.nd.edu), February 20, 2000.

no, me neither, really. i just figured i'd end lightly and humourously after what felt like such an academic response to tom's beautiful photograph.

-- shawn gibson (SeeInsideForever@yahoo.com), February 20, 2000.

Thanks for speaking your mind(s). I try not to be too objective when dealing (photographically) with the body, Preferring to use gesture and rhythm to convey a state of mind or whatever it is I'm trying to address which is usually hard to put into words. A sort of visual haiku that defines a specific topic but makes no judgement or definate statement. I want people to put themselves or someone they know into these images and not implore or preach a specific agenda.

The scanner is about 10 yrs old and the print is on Ilford Fiber Matte, which has a reflectivity similar to skin, but yeilds no d-max in a scan.

The light is a 3x4 ft. softbox just outside the frame with no fill at all. I was much more concerned with the form of the gesture than with the cut of the musculature and didn't want to deal with the shadow detail (if you know what I mean). It would have been distracting from the other interpretive possibilities offered.

It's a difficult print from a 665 neg (I had to use polaroid) so holding tone in the thigh and the arm required specific manipulations that the print holds but my scanner won't.

Thanks again for your comments, I'm now motivated to find a baby for part three of this series, I'll post the feminine image in the next few days... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), February 21, 2000.

p.s. It's an eggplant well past it's prime... t

-- tom meyer (twm@mindspring.com), February 21, 2000.

Hootch is for husbandman handling his hoe. Hohohoho, Mister Finn, you're going to be Mister Finnagain! Comeday morm and, O, you're vine! Sendday's eve and, ah, you're vinegar!

-- fw (finneganswake@altavista.net), March 17, 2000.