Who are you and what do you do? Hi I’m Wven and I am a creative. For the past 15 years I have lived & loved in New York. All the while documenting my life’s little adventures through my writing and photography and combining it all in a book. The last 2 years I have been on a sabbatical traveling around shooting as much as I can. And focusing my concentration on the various projects that surround my book. Outside of the book I am preparing for my very first show. I am having the time of my life right now doing exactly what I love. I feel positive and excited to share this with the world.

Who would you like to meet living or dead? I’d love to meet and hang out with Jack Kerouac. There is something about the beatnik lifestyle that I find really romantic. The jazz, the style, the idea of getting by and still being happy, creating, writing, drinking, drugging & whoring. Traveling across country & out of the country experiencing life with no regrets. Small adventures in the discovery of self. Growing richer inside then pouring it all out in written words. Painting beautiful and amazing stories for the minds picture show of the reader. I love the power of the word. I have always been inspired by the writers of that time. Especially Jack.

What do you like the most about yourself? It’s hard to say what I like about myself out loud, but If I had to say, I like is my style. And not necessarily in a fashion sense. Although I do like to think I dress myself well. I mean more of my way of being. I’m very laid back, relaxed, cool and down to earth. And being from Costa Rica the whole Pura Vida lifestyle keeps me healthy inside. Pure life, everything is cool. I love to laugh and be happy and positive. It’s the one thing that I like most about myself that gets me through whatever life throws at me.

What is your most treasured possession? I guess if this was the same question as If there was a fire, what would be the one thing I would grab. It’s a bit of a combination of the same thing. A binder of all the film negatives I have ever shot and a back up hard drive of my entire life’s work. The negatives is something that I really cherish. Those photographs are pure, beautiful and untouched. I love that about film. And I always will.

What makes your work unique and memorable? I think the thing that makes my work as a photographer unique is because it’s very real, personal & I do very little to no retouching. I don’t set up lights, have makeup artists, hair people, or wardrobe. It’s me and whomever I’m shooting. No real models. When I started shooting I shot people I had intimate relationships with, close friends, lovers, & girlfriends. And in a lot of ways I still do that. These are all real women that in one way or another have been in my life. Shooting strangers is a bit weird. I don’t like shoving a camera in a persons face. I like to hang out and make pretend I’m not really there. I love everything about women. So I can easily get lost in the little intricacies in the simplicity of a woman making herself sexy. Some of my favorite photos are the ones where for that split second the girl forgot I was even there.

What is your favorite quote? Jack Kerouac’s… “ The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”

http://myfriendsmysins.com/

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Meet Sabine Pieper. He lives and works in Berlin Germany. I have not read much about him but his work alone speaks profoundly of his vision and passion. He reveals beauty by using sultry colors in his illustration. Sabines eye is pure seduction. I am clearly in love with his work! 

To see more of Sabine’s work, click on: PIEPER

xoxo Karin

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Great images cast the photographer as storyteller, sometimes acting as documentarian, sometimes a manipulator of the truth.  Whether it’s fact or fiction, photography and the tradition of storytelling walk hand in hand.

This spring, enter your finest photo story – whether it’s a single  image or a series.  Grand prize winners will be chosen from both the professional and student categories.

APA|NY also invites you to join them for a celebratory launch event in honor of the 2009 competition winners (party will take place at a Manhattan NYC venue, in May 2009).  

ENTER NOW

Panel of Jurors

Prize Details

Last year’s “Tell Us A Story” Photo contest Winners

APA | NY Chapter: www.apany.com

APA National: www.apanational.com

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A quote found in Carla’s Gannis Bio – “I learned that just beneath the surface there’s another world and still different worlds as you dig deeper. I knew it as a kid, but I couldn’t find proof. It was just a feeling. There is goodness in those blue skies and flowers, but another force– a wild pain and decay–also accompanies everything.”   – David Lynch

Carla’s words… Appropriating from memory, mythology, and a familiar collective consciousness, the digital works I produce invite viewers to experience our inescapably mediated lives “through the looking glass”, where sexuality, power, and class issues reverberate in idiosyncratic juxtapositions.

On a conceptual and technical level these tableaus consist of fragments that are reassembled at oblique angles to their original context. They are not meant to convey logical conclusions nor to allow for easy categorization.

I feel akin to past and contemporary artists, writers, and filmmakers who uncannily deconstruct rigid notions of reality and perception.

The extension of this sensibility with computer-based applications is only natural to me as a reflection upon the Digital Age in which we all coexist.

I was introduced to Carla’s work by a great and dear artist friend who new Carla first hand. I was completely enraptured by her and her art. Sometime after I had the pleasure of meeting Carla in person. I thought she was just as sensational in the flesh as her photography and her paintings are.  She is a fantastic artist!

To learn more click on: Carla and click on: Gannis

Carla Gannis is having an opening :

Pablo’s Birthday

Date : Saturday, April 18, 2009

Time : 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Location: 528 Canal streets – NYC, NY

xoxo Karin

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S

I started Shooting Self ports at the age of 11, so I suppose I always wanted to be infront of the camera and create images.
When I was 10 years old I developed an OCD called Trichotillomania (is commonly known, is an impulse control disorder or form of self-injury characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair or other body hair) in my case it was my head that I was pulling from. By the age of 18 I had to wear a wig, not because it was cute, but because I HAD to, my hair was pretty much a bald patch mess. Puberty was extremely hard and so was being social. All I wanted to do was hide or be like the other popular girls. Instead I gravitated towards the brainy kids, the less socially acceptable kids, the kids with the highest test scores I wore wigs to both my proms.
 

Dating was even harder. No swimming, lots of rude questions from strangers, and yes I was teased, a lot. I went home many of days in tears, even in my late 20′s. I would tell a boy I really liked my secret and see if he put any distance between us. Later I picked very abusive and incompatible men due to my lack of self esteem. I felt undeserving.
After 9/11 I wanted to re teach myself darkroom skills and start shooting again, I was more interested in Photo Journalism than anything else. I set up a darkroom in my laundry room. I had taken a roll of self portraits for an online voluntary photo essay.
I got lots of feedback, and a few request from other photographers to model for them. It took off fast from 2002.
and I felt like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. I was taking back the self love and right to feel beautiful, and modeling has been my incentive to gain control over my OCD. To this day I live with it, but I owe any existing control and confidence to my modeling. It drives me. I know my worth now.



Favorite book: The Architect’s Brother – Robert Parke Harrison
Favorite film: Seven 
Favorite song: The Chauffer – Duran Duran
Favorite quote: rom the movie Delores Claiborne-Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.
Ideal meal: Fried Whole bellied Clams, With Fried haddock, Fries and Onion rings topped with dill tartar sauce.
Favorite garment: Brown Bear hat
Favorite website: www.cuteoverload.com
Favorite place: Idle Awhile in Negril Jamaica
Favorite vice: pot
Favorite artist:   Akiko Ida & Pierre Javelle of  http://www.minimiam.com
Favorite photographer:  Helmut Newton of course!

Your perfect day begins with waking up to my 3 sleepy puppies and ends with crawling back in bed with them.

Your personal sexy is? my sarcasm

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In my box!

My Blond Adventure… 

To see more of Karin click on : MORE

Chanel Necklace and belt {curtesy from Gabay’s} Word on: Gabay’s

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Check out this short feature/documentary of Siege’s work.

Watch Television Profile of Clayton James Cubitt, aka Siege in Sexy Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

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Photographed by Cynthia K. Cortes – Self Portrait

Click here to see more…

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