thomascwaters.com

Posting this is totally different for me!  But in the midst of the heavy political stuff, doesn’t some absolutely beautiful photographs sound like the perfect break? These images are amazing and gloriously colorful. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did. This is one of my favorite from the whole set, but please follow the link and look at them all!

http://1x.com/photos/member/9290/27127/

While my shots are nothing in comparison, these reminded me of 2 sets of images in my past. The first, are photos of the fort at Belfast Maine, I took them while studying at at the Maine Photographic Workshops. The second was a falling down house in Ohio near where I was living. My Great Aunt Florence who was a wonderful amatuer photographer, called the house images too busy. I remember her telling me to focus and tell a story in an image rather than try and capture the whole of it all. She would be pleased with how my work progressed I think. If I can put my hands on these images, maybe I’ll post some as a follow up to this post.

30 Incredible Examples of Urban Decay Photography | Inspiration.

If you are in London, check this out!

The evidence for same-sex desire has often been overlooked in the past, but museums and their collections can allow us to look back and see the diversity of human desire and gender throughout history.

‘Homosexuality’ as a way to describe a single category of behaviour is a modern European term, but same-sex desire is not a modern western invention (as has sometimes been claimed).

The British Museum has a large number of objects that provide evidence that desire between members of the same sex and fluid ideas of gender have always been aspects of human existence and experience, although they are culturally constructed in a variety of ways.

BRITISH MUSEUM GOES HOMO on HOMOVISION.TV – gay tv, london video news, gay interviews, gay clubbing, gay health, gay comment and gay views… on Gay London videos and news, gay interviews, gay clubbing, gay health, gay comment and gay views on HOMOVISION.TV.

I have, for weeks now, meant to post photographs I took at the 1987 March on Washington. As I began to scan the images into digital form, I realized just how bad most of the negatives are- the color looks cross-curved, and the dust spots are horrific! But as good as my intentions have been to either rescan them or do some touch up, I haven’t done either. So here are the images!

A ton of different emotions come up as I look at these images, and I wonder what types of images will we see this weekend in Washington?

There are more images to scan- mostly Black and White film, but here is what I done so far. I hope you enjoy them!

http://gallery.me.com/thomaswaters#100008

This photo and description linked below, posted to Facebook reminded me of a negative I found and have always wondered what the story behind it may be. Most people thibk if film as coming in a roll that you can put in your 35mm camera. Or at least that was the case before digital photography took off so big. But really film comes in/came in many sizes including sheets of 8″ x 10″ film that would be used in a view camera. I found this old and horribly damaged 8 x 10 black and white negative at a used bok and junk store in Santa Barbara about 15 years ago. The negative was in such bad shape, I couldn’t get a very good print with it on a traditional enlarger, but I kept it none the less. Recently, I tried scanning it on my HP flatbed scanner and here is the resulting image with no real manipulation.

The guy is clearly sitting on the others lap, while the guy on the bottom is playing with him in some way- some hand gesture or tickle that he looks as if he thinks is not in the camera view. What do you think is the story here? What is their relationship?

Facebook | Robert Peterson: Illegal.

Last week I wrote asking questions about the upcoming March on Washington, which seems destined to happen even though many are unclear if it is the right time or the right action to produce results. There are good reasons to go to Washington and march, and there are good reasons to put one’s time, energy, talent, and resources to use in other ways.

All of this got me thinking about my first March on Washington, which was 1987, and I decided to look for a series of photographs I had printed and exhibited in the months following that event. I had left my job as a teacher enrolling in a photography program just a few months before the  march, and it was that school program, which prompted me to go to Washington. I had been active in the Columbus activist community a number of years earlier, but had been away from it for a while. But I read a short article in the Advocate, about the Names Project Quilt, which was to be displayed for the very first time during the March weekend. One of my assignments for school, was to be a multi-projector slide show (a dinosaur type of production that died when digital images and video projectors became standard conference resources.) and I had images in my mind of how pictures of the quilt and quilt panels would work for my slide show. Additionally, the local news weekly, In Pittsburgh, was going to print a story by a local writer about the March, and I was asked to capture photos for the article. It was perhaps one of my very first free-lance photography jobs!

In Pittsburgh did use some of my photos, as did the local gay paper, Out Magazine, and towards the end of that first semester of my classes, I hosted my 2nd exhibit of photographs. The first had been a series of older images hung in a local gay restaurant. Mostly pretty decorative images, there was nothing that really held the work together as a body of work, but it was a chance to show my work and hopefully sell a few photographs. But this exhibit of the March pictures was more of a real exhibition! This would be a series of documentary style work. And not only would they be images I made, but printed myself. So I selected a number of images, cut mats, and attached them to the wall of my dining room and living room for a reception.

I have kept those matted prints all these year, although in less-than stellar archiving conditions. After some of the posts and comments, I went to dig out the images, and since then, I’ve been working on putting together a photo gallery for the web. Initially I thought I would simply scan in the prints of the images that were matted, but the print quality wasn’t all that great to begin with, and 20 years of poor treatment wasn’t helping. So, I pulled out the negatives and have been busy scanning them into the computer ever since.

More than the physical act of scanning, this has caused me to really think deeper about marches in general, the potential for the upcoming march, and remembering more details of my 1987 experience. That is the fun part, remembering and pondering. Unfortunately, the physical part is rough. Prior to this schooling, I shot nothing but chrome film, and have never used Black and White film at all.So not only was I learning a new type of photography, but using tools like film I self-processed and printed. Needless to say, only a few months into the program, I was still not too good with these new tools.

I expect to finish all of my scanning this weekend, and then begin to select images and put together some sort of slideshow or video or something, but I thought I’d post this image as a start.

@Cocoa_Goddess72 DM’ed me on Twitter with a link to this Slate article which is a very interesting read. Personally, I am pretty stupid when it comes to hip-hop and rap, and in general really struggle with it, except for the dancing! I could sit and watch dancers hip-hop forever in total amazement. But the music, the lyrics? I struggle. Even in the struggle, I’ve had a certain appreciation for the way rap is a “new” use of poetry in a radical role, subversive to the status quo and attacking back against the White Upper Class that oppresses black youth. Or at least I think it could be that, except that from the outside, the misongynist and homophobic lyrics seem to have become their own status quo. but here comes a Slate article that can help me better grasp this idea of “no homo.” I encourage you to chech it out and read it all, even if you aren’t too sure about it. I think there is a lot going on and some really awesome ideas in there.

But I want to leave you with this video clip of lesbian hip-hop performers God-des and She:

Have you ever had a Social Media Crush(SMC)? A SMC is where you are following someone on Twitter, or you are friends on Facebook or some other new media connection, and as you read their tweets or status updates, see their pics etc, you come to think, Damn, is this person something! It generally isn’t a physical kind of thing, at least not for me, although in my experience, I usually end up thinking whomever the object of my SMC is pretty cute, but that is always secondary to those things that attract me: most often a person’s personality and the way it shines through in their text, pics, and so on.

Honestly, I have a few but two in particular come to mind. And, yes, my partner of 10 years is completely aware, and I haven’t done anything wrong. For me it would be a shame if they were anything other than a crush. That just means I’m aware of sensing an attraction, and allowing that energy to invigorate me, mostly in a creative way. I feel inspired to reconnect with my artwork- with being an artist- and make artwork. And that, is a wonderful gift.

I call it a crush because there is a certain, almost stupid adolescent quality to it. I remember my first girlfriend (I did date girls at one point in my life) and the way I thought about her, looked at her, and the whole of it- a crush. The first of my two current SMC is an artist who used to live here in Pittsburgh but has moved on to find his dreams in another place. I have actually met him, but only briefly, and he wouldn’t know me at all. That helps keep it just a crush, plus he is probably half my age. Haha. I think he is a very talented artist, and part of what this is about for me is two things: He both reminds me of what I was like at his age, and he reminds me to seek out those qualities in myself that I have over time, either forgotten or ignored. I read his status reports and view his pics and  wonder, where did I start to get so routine and safe in the way I live my life? Where is the passion and curiosity, and willingness to explore all that is inside of me and outside of me- where did that go? And he is so beautiful and handsome, and I so often don’t think I am anymore (I’m old now). and it reminds me that I am as beautiful as I allow myself to believe I am. Not to mention, it prompts me to admit that sitting and watching TV of an evening is no way to have washboard abs- I need to get my ass to the gym for that.

And when he is sad for his heart has been broken (again), I feel grateful for the years and the maturity that allows me to love myself with or without that outward affirmation of another’s affections. I may not be a young thing, but I am wise from the life I’ve lived and that is just as wonderful as can be. And all of it, the ups and downs reminds me to make art, and be what I am- all of what I am.

I call it a crush because it has a certain silly giddiness attached. Like I would be embarrassed to actually say hello, and yet I’d want that so bad I can taste it. My other crush lives so far away, that it is unlikely that we will ever be in the same city at the same time. His name drives me nuts! Isn’t that just too much? He too is creative, but not so much of an artist, and I feel reminded to seek out my creative side in all that I do at work and otherwise, as I read him write of his work in the office, and the things he does for recreation. He has a new tattoo, and I feel encouraged to push myself past a boundary, and out of the safety of the status quo. And he is smart and funny. I think I am of course, I am all of that, and if I am not now, I could be, right?

And as much as I want to meet and be in-person friends, I don’t want that either. For how much of this is all real, and how much is just the way the picture is painted in my imagination? And it works for me by inspiring me just the way it is.

I call it a crush because nothing will ever come of it- not in the sense of a deeper relationship- one outside of my imagination. I have a man who loves me for what I am, all of what I am, and who is there for me. His is a real love that isn’t always as shiny and “perfect” for real means it has the blemishes as well as the gems.

These are inventions of Social Media where following someone on Twitter, watching them on Youtube, exploring their pictures on Flickr, or writing on their wall in Facebook brings anyone close even if they are halfway around the planet. This ability to learn about someone like this could never happen in a face to face way. Social Media provides both an intimacy and a safe distance at the same time.

But my crushes suggest to me that there is more to me than I am aware and if I seek that out, I have even more to bring into my real relationships, romantic and otherwise. Crushes come and go, but the lessons they teach, the glimpses into the hidden parts of me are priceless.

Photo by kampol likitkanjanakul, pop. FASHION STYLIST

We are opening our 25th Anniversary season on august 17th and 18th from 7-9pm at East Liberty Presbyterian Church (corner of penn ave and south highland) We are located on the 3rd floor room 332.

Please join our organization! We have some exciting opportunities this season

1- Holiday Concert at Carnegie Music Hall with the Edgewood Symphony on December 19th
2- Spring Concert at Kelly Strayhorn theater on April 16th and 17th, 2010
3- Pride Concert ( for selected singers) at Grey Box Theater on June 4th, 5th and 6th, 2010

Feel free to email me if you have any questions. Auditions are easy. Come meet us and lets see how you can join our RCC family.

Best

Andres Cladera
Artistic Director
Renaissance City Choirs
www.rccpittsburgh

I don’t remember how I first came across Christopher Dallman. It was probably  Twitter, or Facebook, and if I’m honest, his handsome picture had something that made me go further and get to his website and that took me to purchase some of his music and I was hooked.

This is his first official music video, and it is both lovely and moving. The song is tremendous and speaks me me in a big way. Hope you enjoy him as much as I do, and please support artists like him trying to make a name! Buy his music!

YouTube – Christopher Dallman – OVER MY HEAD – Official Music Video.

Yesterday, I wrote:

how are we going to position our needs so that always and through out his entire presidency, we are demanding attention for actions that will be good for us, and thereby good for everyone

And since then, I’ve been feeling like I need to go further with that statement. As I sat down this morning to write, and read over all that I wrote yesterday, I think I need to elaborate for 2 reasons, so here goes.

The first is easy, I hope. My point of the blog post was to point out that action within our government system will not come because one person, like the President will make it all happen, but rather because we all demand that change, and seek it by full participation in the democratic process. “Full participation” to me means getting involved at all times and in ways, and not just silently casting a vote.  If every GLBTQ person was calling, writing, and meeting with their elected official and asking those officials to do the right thing, we would see change. So few people actually follow through and the elected officials get tons and tones of angry hateful communications from those who are anti-gay, and do not hear from us.

This needed communication is not about firing off a quick email. That will merely be lost in the thousands of emails the elected officials already receive.  But an actual snail-mail letter or better yet, a visit/meeting with the elected official- that will be the right way to go.

The second point may or may not be a harder one to make, and I’m framing it as “equal rights or special rights.” Those things that GLBTQ’s are seeking, must be demanded in a way where it is clear how they are about Equality, and not just about gay rights. By this I do not mean that we need to hide or downplay how they impact gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people, but rather, how laws that protect us, strengthen us, our families, our communities, in ways that are good for everyone, all families and all communities.

For example protection from discrimination for transgender persons. This is important not just for transfolk, but because transfolk are everywhere, in every community, the community is stronger with these protections. The missing piece is often visibility, and the radical right works to demonize and capitalize by fear mongering. Framing the issue in the ways that these laws benefit the whole and relate to our key values f equality help battle the demonization of some.

The flip side to this is to articulate the ways in which change impacts real people and real lives. In the marriage equality battle, the issue needs to be framed in terms of real lives. How will allowing two men and two women to marry- how will that  impact your marriage and your life? It is easy for most anyone to get caught up in some distant generalized rhetoric about redefining marriage.  But when you come down to it and ask, how will my (same-sex) marriage to my partner really change your marriage to your (opposite sex) partner,  or your everyday life? answers change. The fear mongering appeals for what will happen can then be shown for what they are- empty fear tactics. I don’t mean to suggest that it will all be easy, but a change in the way things are framed can make a difference.