Low Tek Photography

Divya found me last Summer in order to shoot her for a latex outfit she had just bought. She had never modeled in a latex outfit before and she had been dying to try it out. After realizing she’d have to purchase some lube for an outfit for the first time in her life, and me recommending a particular brand, she knew this shoot was going to be special experience.

She arrived and we shot a couple of outfits before our time was up. I had an interesting idea I wanted to try out and Divya was more than excited to try out something most people would consider a prelude to kidnapping. She took it in stride and even managed to keep her cool as I restrained her arms to her body.

It took me a few months of mulling it over to settle on an idea for the last shot. The first few attempts didn’t go right and I abandoned the piece until I came back to it this morning. Just like Lucid Manifestation, this image means a lot to me in a surprising way. Since late last year I’ve been slowly coming to terms with a condition that I have called Depersonalization Disorder (DPD). What is odd, is that DPD is a recognized condition but no medications have been developed for it, and no treatment recommendations have been established. In fact, so few people actually know about DPD that when a person actually enters an intense depersonalized state for the first time they often believe they are the only ones who possess the condition.

Its terrifying for some. And life shaping for others.

So during this time I’ve been in a state of reflection about my entire life. As a result, my priorities have been weighed, examined and reshuffled. It wasn’t until this morning that I realized why. This is my second attempt at trying rebalance it.

Everyone has good years and bad years. 2008 was not a good year for me. Personally and financially a lot of circumstances came to a boiling point in my life. Other creative folks out there will understand and know that an artist under stress is an artist that can’t function. Most people have an outlet that lets them deal with stress. For me, that outlet is my art… until everything goes to shit like it did in 2008. Like many folks, I had a lot things on my mind that forced me re-prioritize my passions in life. Unfortunately, on the road trip of life my art and photography got the bitch seat that no one wanted.

I didn’t shoot quite as much in 2008 as I had in 2007, and the work I did manage to produce was not the quality I usually allow myself to create (or see the light of day). There were some exceptions, but overall I was distracted, depressed, and completely unmotivated to work on anything. I’d love nothing more than to say that “I’ve gotten out of my ‘funk’ and have taken steps to prevent it from happening again,” but I’m human.

Many people when they see my work believe that I’m up to my eyeballs in contract work, or that I make redonkulous amounts of money creating work for magazines and art galleries. The reality of it is that I don’t make nearly enough money to keep doing this for long. So when the opportunity to make money comes up, I jump at it like Amy Winehouse searching for her crack-pipe in an oversized purse. After doing some contract jobs, I found myself enjoying my artwork for the first time in months. Then some asshat just had to piss on my rainbow. The Story of My Life.

On Christmas Day, I got into a battle of wits with a wannabe music manager over a stupidly simple shoot that I did earlier that month for one of his music groups. When it came time to payment however, he had an interesting way of paying me through Paypal. While I was too distracted with getting the studio ready, I fell for an old Paypal trick that I should of seen from a 100 miles away. I didn’t notice it until The Wannabe decided it was time for him to fuck someone over on Christmas. Needless to say, it was enough to knock me back into a funk.

Even though I’ve dealt with it my own way (still own the copyrights bitch), I’m still contemplating going on a hiatus or taking a permanent break. We’ll see what 2009 holds for me. Regardless of that I decided it was time to post up something before people started thinking I was dead.

Earlier last year my friend Jacky contacted me about doing some shots for her portfolio, so we set up a small shoot. She was so happy with the photos that she recommended me to a friend Meg who set a shoot up with me a few months later. Below are some of shots.