Week # 1 Valeria Podoynitsyna

Filthy Dirty Series

By: Valeria Podoynitsyna

   

This series started as a look into Los Angeles and it's night culture; The people that come out to play when most of us go home for dinner. What interested me most about this idea was the fact that Los Angeles was so intricately lit at night - it was a theater and the people that came out at night were the characters in its play. It was incredible to realize, for someone who has lived here all her life, the effect night time had on the citizens of this town. During the day, it seems these people do not have the same freedoms to express themselves. However, at night, there seems to be a different rule and so, we see the affect of the sunset. Here, we are looking at the subculture of Drag Queens in Los Angeles - their stomping ground. I followed Sissy Debut and some of her friends around town and captured what their lives consist of. Considering the fact that I was anticipating this world to be so extremely different from my own, I was pleasantly surprised. They like to joke about sex, they love to sing and dance, they drink, perform, and take care of their friends, amongst many other qualities. It was a wonderful experience to take a glimpse into their lives and I hope to continue to photograph Los Angeles and its many diverse subcultures.

Please visit my website, www.ValeriaP.com for a more in-depth look at the series and other works.

Also, Check out my flickr page for images that are not on my website :         www.flickr.com/photos/valeriasphotography

Best,

Valeria Podoynitsyna

Week #1: Marisa Howenstine, Photographer

A Project to Last the Rest of My Life!

As a conceptual photographer, I'm constantly drawing on outside resources to inspire my photo shoots. A painting, a poet, a prop, a song, a book – these are just a few things that have inspired me throughout the years I've been shooting conceptual work.

As a side note, I'm known to occasionally entertain a guilty pleasure of mine – visiting tarot card readers (even though 99% of the time they're completely inaccurate)! While getting these readings, I've generally found the tarot card illustrations to be dark and depressing in nature – not to mention the fact that they're not very stylish, which is something I notice as an artist who is drawn to aesthetically pleasing things. I did a little more research and found a spiritual bookstore that had a wall sectioned off for tarot cards. It was interesting to note that all the cards were illustrated. Not one single deck consisted of photographs – and in that moment I discovered my latest photo shoot inspiration!

The first tarot card I decided to interpret photographically was the character of "The Fool." I had set builders create a corridor with 6-inch nails driven through each of the corridor's panels. My model being barefoot in the set and holding onto a bouquet of balloons that could pop at any moment illustrated her as "The Fool" character perfectly.

A tarot card deck consists of approximately 80 cards. One card down, 79 more to go!