Ok now that I'm home, I read through every post. It's very clear that "Sly" hasn't read a single thing I wrote or she would know this is a question on the perspective of our common knowledge and that in no way did I say anything insulting about the model, I also think you are miss-representing my image as I don't have any other examples of the theme of the project as most were shot on digital. Furthermore I never once said "grade school dropout" nor eluded to nor directly stated that she was in any way uneducated. And in fact in the photo series she is choosing knowledge and purity over ignorance and sin, so I think you just want to cause drama and have no interest in actually understanding art and philosophy nor the sociology of our times. If I were to direct a classification of insult I would say more than anything that you are insulting her honor and putting her down, and that you are entirely misconstruing the situation for your own ends. Which I can't fully understand what they may be.
Furthermore I find your view of my latest model post to be the kind that causes artist to hesitate and hold back their art for fear of criticism from someone who might not be interested in art of a broader conceptualization. I say this with no malice or intent of attack. Your work is beautiful, I especially appreciate all the pregnant women, I too find them beautiful creatures capable of the only true creation. But I find no concepts or themes of commentary in your work, no message, just beauty. I look to speak on my work, more of trying to cause my work to invoke a dialog about the world and how I view it and how I want it to change. I don't have a full project to lay out and show you nor a full book to mail you so you can see the full theme of a particular work, so you'll have to just accept my word that many of the individual images are only part of a greater whole, and pieces of a message. I also post a lot of only partially complete images here, partially out of paranoia over the concern of theft of my imagery, and also because posting my work motivates me to continue on and to complete more and more things.
I've never been good at titles and I don't really "title" my work, the way others do, so the title on one image here, may be something different on a different day in a different place. I know that's confusing but until I actually make a print, it remains an arbitrary and ever evolving title.
It's clear from looking at your body of work that the nude form, especially the healthy and pregnant form, is a driving force for you, I'm hoping perhaps that the mothering instinct in you has caused you to react without fully understanding the situation as part of just natural instinct and if you actually read through the total of my responses you would see that I am both responsible for my models and also defensive of them.
I can understand how a woman who holds the ideals of a healthy female body and then sees the image of a woman who is malnourished could be upset by it and lash out.
But I ask you Sly, again(and Ken as well for that matter) to fully read my statements AND all the responses that follow, I think you'll perhaps realize that if nothing else I am not in any way saying that she was a stupid girl, just ignorant of photography, just as I am ignorant of child birth, of starvation, of wealth, of drugs, of the navigation controls of the airplane I flew in last week, etc.
If you wish to explain yourself further or discus this in any more negative ways i ask you to please do so in private, I find your comments about my work and the models in them to be offensive and non constructive to me and insulting to them and their hard work. Especially the comment about the school dropout as I would never say such a thing and it shows how poorly you understand what's going on here.
Sorry of what I've said was harsh, I still respect you both very much as artists, you are both more experienced than I am, with a lot more collected work to draw from, often completed works, where I still have not completed any of my book projects, nor had a private showing of any full project. But I know enough to know that someone who might like an Ansel Adams image might not be able to fully appreciate a Gregory Crewdson image. Very different styles, very different themes...
~Stone
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