I started since I love to show the beauty of a naked body.

It was to go straight to the source of a mystery. Become familiar with the thing that draws me even to do any art. My other art covers the still life, not the molten flow of some other person, who by some other reason entirely comes to me. We are enjoined at the hip of exposing ourselves. My fears as a lonely person and as a writer/artist, who tends to intellectualize rather than partake of what truly drives me. I can't remember now when it was that I took my first roll of someone nude, but it must have been as Loki said to think that I could take them better, to transcend what had been done before, but it is always that the subject, the person herself, since I don't so much care about the male form, I know it, and it is too real, to blandly normal, non-mysterious. I wanted to build relationships with people I longed for visually. It was perhaps a desire to conquer by becoming so familiar or at least to be in front of something that created such desire and then to capture the essence of who that person is.

A friend of mine wrote me last night about a current body of work that has nothing to do with nudes. He said, "Your photos not only capture the essence, but also capture the inner meaning of what you’re photographing."

When I photograph nudes, I want the truth of what I am feeling and doing to come out. I want the truth to be there. It is kind of like the philosophy of the Jo Hari Window, except that I've learned of late that it is often not wise to let everyone know or everything out because it diminishes credibility, makes others uncomfortable with the obvious. I seem to think that this obviousness if not obvious, I subject my audience to the small-mindedness of myself, but because I've truly enjoyed the work of Todd Hido (www.wirtzgallery.com/exhibit...e.html), for example, where what seems bored exotic dancers hired for the "same old" shoot -- male photographer with a camera -- look back at him, posing for the paymaster, half-complimented by the fact that someone pays them for something they've never really created, except of course, they've had to stay in shape. But, Hido's photographs talk about that. They talk about the breath-taking beauty of the female as well as her humanity, which is akin to Marilyn Minter's (www.salon94.com/artists/20...orks_1.htm) work. I guess I am trying to break myself free from the addiction to beauty. Cutting down Mother Nature's trees because the forest scares me. I don't want to be drawn to something so often, something so powerful that it reduces me to a mere impulse. I am a dick-for-brains and an intellect for civility-sake.

I have even written a book that seeks to eloquently present that men are "Fragile egos in search of a pretty face," which is a statement from Playboy's current issue.

I photograph nude women because I am not in love. I photograph them or paint them because the fantasy of them turns me on. The reality of loving someone requires that I can no longer see them as mere beautiful objects, but then as reflections of myself.

Wasn’t it Picasso who said that every painting was a painting of him?

I started because I craved the freedom that come with sharing pictures of my body. It is a creative outlet for me and I am so thankful Tribe has made this safe place to share.