#construction site

I would oscillate from kitchen to kitchen usually bringing my tablet with me because there was a spot that I could pick up an Optimum wifi signal, that was back when they were still my ISP before they started charging me for the air I breathed. Looking at the image I think this was unit 4A, I can figure that out because the sunlight hit the top of the building stronger than the lower floors, and also the orientation of the floor plan was mirrored in those top units and this one is clearly the right-side apartment.

The cabinets had been installed, but not the appliances. The place where the stove would go made such a nice alcove that I decided to step into the void and arrange myself to fill the space, ergo the name I have given this piece Place Holder [Sept 2017, Brooklyn]. I have posted this shot several times I think on my Flickr, Deviant Art and Tumblr and y'all never as much blinked. I realized from the back on my toes is a go-to pose for me, but the way my brown body looked surrounded by the orange-ish cabinets, my bare feet and the white dust on my ass really let you know I had been playing in the building for a minute. The added details of the hole in the tile-work and the debris on the floor just bought the entire story of the piece together for me.

The light is gentle and well balanced, the framing simple, a bit of a departure from my usual horizontal-focused work. I had found for full body shots that sometimes turning the camera, and getting a vertical angle was stronger than always thinking about how something would look hanging on a wall. It's easy to forget that I have no formal training as a photographer, and starting out I thought a landscape presentation was the best format for taking photos, only through experimentation I would learn to angle the camera differently. It's such a subtle adjustment you wouldn't even really notice the shift unless you were paying close attention to my artistic growth.

Lastly it's an image that is a love-letter to my body looking good, my waist seems snatched, my legs long & shapely, my hair with it's bits of browned tips is at an amazing length, looking full and healthy. I have never had the V-shape of others assigned male at birth, but more of a matching width of my shoulders and hips, not an hourglass but a bit waspy with a more rectangular luster. My skin is a perfect brown that feels smooth in the image, and uninterrupted by a single blemish or wrinkle. I am in my forties, actually the approximate age that my parents both died, at which my youngest brother decided to copy when he too left his worldly existence. But here I am alive, thriving and looking great, even if I am committing a little misdemeanor.

I think I have printed a 5"x7" of this photo, but something about Google Photos printing service distorted the proportions and wouldn't let me show the full field of the image, ergo I was not very pleased with the final printed result. I am not sure if the artistic merits of the piece would warrant me getting it officially printed, and framed unless of course it was invited to be a part of an exhibition. My reason for loving this piece is more personal than artistically relevant, and that is the thing that continually frustrates me between what others like and what resonates with me. It was a challenge when exhibiting, I would do a good job of getting by the initial curator, but the appetites of the art connoisseur was a bit more elusive to me. In the here and now all of that is moot, because I print the things I want to see, and live with, and fuck anyone who doesn't agree with my choices.