Thursday, October 1, 2009

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As many of you may know, I often have random thoughts (particular when alcohol is involved). "Why do we drive on parkways & park on driveways?" "How did military intelligence get its name when it seems like its anything but?" "Why do people knock masturbation when its at least sex w/ someone you love?" "What are the mythological archetypes between today's heroes & what links do can be made drawn upon established heroes from the distant past?" "Where can I find directions & the supplies to build a working Star Wars lightsaber?"

In fairness, none but the last are a Farenell Photography original but it does kinda illustrate how scatter-brained my mind works.

All kidding aside, my editorial instincts were reignited recently in wanting to do something w/ a social message. I'm still actively working on my "Critique of the Unsatisfied Relationship" series...

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...& my "Grip of Anorexia" series...

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...but either my ideas, my subjects personal stories, or my ability to translate them to a visual medium is not speaking as clearly as they used to. Whatever the deal is, I'm in a holding pattern. Stuff like this happens all the time, so I'm not to worried about it.

Somewhere along the way I got thinking about cancer. According to my mom, my maternal grandmother was constantly afraid of that while growing up. I think it had something to do w/ it running in the family. Not sure exactly. Then my thoughts drifted to she & my little sister. Then I got thinking about all the people I worked w/, 95% of them being women. This is not to say I don't mind working w/ men, its just a numbers thing.

My shoots are more like a social exercises &, for better or worse, I start to care about what happens w/ them afterwards. Granted they are free-willed individuals & whatnot but I care about their well being long after I've delivered what I was supposed to deliver. This is another reason why I have to actively control my exuberance. Because I'm like one of those knuckleheads who has a one-track mind. If I weren't told to go (expletive deleted), every now & then. I'd probably drive people nuts.

Because I work w/ so many women, it got me thinking about Breast Cancer. If you think about it, the breasts are as much of a physical manifestation of their gender identity as their genitalia is. The difference being breasts can be seen (whether they're covered w/ a bra over a shirt or in a bikini top or bare-chested) in some respect. Just think of how many women get implants in the hopes upsizing will improve their self-esteem. Yes, its overally simplistic but I bring it up to prove a point.

My original idea for this series is to illustrate taking the simplicity of a Richard Avedon BW portrait, combine it w/ selective coloring for the pink bow, combine my models being topless to drive the point home, & viola, Breast Cancer Awareness!

Like my Ana series, the overall hope is that the more people discuss a taboo subject, the more likely that an individual will be brave enough to take the treacherous first steps they may need to get said help. Again, probably overally simplistic but that's the premise I'm running under.

In terms of this project...I've tried playing w/ the ribbons as stand-alone cuffs (like how the old school Playboy bunny waitresses) but were dropped due to me sucking when it comes to figuring out what to do w/ hands. The toplessness was also dropped as a prerequisite when I continued to ran into the complication of having volunteers who were gun-shy about baring their breasts for a good cause. Considered everything & left the toplessness simply as an option if they were open to doing so. Nice to have to drive home the point but not completely necessary.

All that being said, I used Nancy (shown below) was my first volunteer.

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This entire series is a work in progress. Hopefully, its one I'm able to do more regularly if I can get more volunteers.

If anyone has any suggestion in actually recruiting Breast Cancer patients, I'm all ears. I was blessed w/ working w/ one & her daughter while out in Boston & it was one of the most worthwhile draining shoots I've ever done (you'll be seeing some of those later this month).

Feel free to opine about any part of this entry if you wish to do so. Just keep it civil.

Enjoy.

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