Wednesday, January 12, 2011

SHOTS wants The Body



SHOTS is requesting submissions for its issue The Body.   I wonder what they are looking for, or hoping for.  Makes me wish I had been into photography when my ITP was acute--now *there's* a new view of the body. Anyhow, I am certainly no Robert Mapplethorpe, nor Edward Weston nor Tina Modotti (see link below for a good look at some of her photos).  I'm thinking of photos about how people manage their bodies in relation to society (sounds pretentious, doesn't look it), looks and fashion and hopes, like those statues whose certain part has been rubbed shiny by women hoping to conceive. 

I took this pic one morning at the Paris/Montparnasse cafe Cafe Odessa. As we were finishing our coffee and tartines, a delivery truck pulled up.  Six men and one woman in traditional butchers' outfits jumped out and proceeded to unload a nice fresh carcass of a fine pig.  They trundled it over to the tables on the terrace, set it up so that it looked pleasant (considering).  Our favorite waiter seemed to be expecting them:  he provided them with glasses of white wine and orange juice, and brought a glass for the pig as well, then a table cloth so that the pig looked ready to partake.  The butchers provided the cigarette (definitely a French pig).  I suggested a fork, but we couldn't get it to stand upright in the trotter.  Everyone, and I mean everyone, sprouted cameras and stood there snapping away.  All the while, a professional photographer with three cameras with enviable lenses photographed us, and a young woman sat with a notebook quietly writing down what people were saying.  It was quite a stunt.  I still wonder what the set-up was:  performance art? feature for a magazine? thesis project?  This particular photo appeared in Superficial Flesh in their Fall 2007 issue.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=AMO&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=modotti+photos&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=kcwtTZrAAYL2tgPHq5HDBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CDUQsAQwAA&biw=791&bih=478

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