The controversy begins

I had the privilege and pleasure of FINALLY shooting my piece de resistance, “The Blood And Sins Of This Generation”. I have not released the final image yet, as I’m still doing some work on it. I did, however post a few behind-the-scenes images on Facebook. I’ve been planning this shoot since last October, and anyone who is close to me has been hearing me ramble about it for MONTHS on end. SO…. I figured that a few out-takes and behind the scenes photos would be fun to share.

I put up several photos, including this one of myself with my model, Amie. Someone reported it to Facebook as “inappropriate”, and it was removed. I now have to sign all of these stupid agreements that I understand the terms of facebook usage, that I agree not to post inappropriate material in the future, etc. What a pain in the ass! At first I was really angry. A few minutes have passed, and I have regained my perspective. Of course it happened. That kind of response is what this shoot was calculated to evoke.

The final piece is layered in symbolism and social commentary. I’ll give you the short of it right now: On the first level, it is a recreation of a firing squad execution, inspired by the execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner by the state of Utah in 2010. My goal is to create a photograph that is incredibly repulsive, to evoke even a small part of the horror that is the reality of our society’s practice of capital punnishment. To do this, I decided to sexualize it. My decision to sexualize the scene is a satire upon the right wing portion of society’s tolerance, and even fascination with, violence. The naked, sexy girl, of course represents the repressed desires of this same portion of society. The fact that she has been executed is a representation of the way many people must “kill” their desires, because they are unable to come to terms with them in a healthy way.

In summary, I am:

• depicting the revolting reality of capital punnishment
• satirizing and critisizing the dichotomous hatred and fascination with sex
• satirizing the tolerance of violence and intolerance of sexuality in mainstream entertainment
• raising questions about 2 conflicting models of moral accountability (I have not given this any treatment yet… it’s a longer story, and I’ll write more about it soon).