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When I taught high school the students would ask if they should go to art school or university, a lot of them thinking if they only did art school then they wouldn't have to "waste time" taking the humanities or science or English courses. I usually tell them those were by far the most valuable classes I had and will lead your art to deeper ideas beyond the thousands of silly creature graphics I see coming out of straight art/ design schools.
I steal ideas wherever I can. Movies and songs are the two main sources but mythology, news stories, history, dreams, cultural interests, the skills of the model, sometimes the city itself all come into play. Last year I posted shots of my kids that I did under the influence of the Danny Boyle film Sunshine and this "Electrogoth" character is equal parts Edward Scissorhands, Tetsuo Iron Man, and a Caryn Drexl image of a model with something in her mouth.
This image of Wife used a mural of flag-as-hands around the same time the radical immigration law was signed by Gov. Brewer. Wife is Macedonian and although cops would never go after her because she is of clear European descent, I can remember the lengthy and sometimes mindboggling process towards earning citizenship to a country that always seems tiptoing towards fascism in one respect or another. Anyways, news-as-influence here.
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Anyone who visits my house sees I have a huge collection of masks, and besides scifi/ adventure movies I grew up loving comics. Even now I have a superhero concept complete w/ costume, mask, graphics etc. waiting to be shot with some brave model. Anyways, the mask-collecting is what led to this image. It didn't make sense just to shoot the model wearing the mask because that really doesn't say anything, so she held the mask at arms' length and we got something more unique.
There are plenty of types of photography I haven't ever done-- health/ fitness, lingerie, cars and swimsuit to name a few-- that end up generating shoots that are coming up by virtue of being things I haven't done, but in a way it is more difficult to draw inspiration from other photography in my photos because it feels too much like repeating what I just saw.
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