I did a mother and son portrait a while ago, so I guess a mother and daughter portrait is a natural followup - and who could be a better subject than a daughter pursuing her passion, and a mother who supports her fully?
Mandy
This is Mandy, Dale's daughter. Mandy is an up and coming tattoo artist, currently working at Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I don't have the whole story yet as to how Mandy got started in the tattoo business, but I'm doing an interview with her by e-mail, and this post will be updated soon. But I do know that Mandy also has a degree in art, and has an awesome supportive mom. I mean, do you know any mom cool enough to let your daughter tattoo you? (well I do - now :)). You can learn more about Mandy here, until I get the interview complete.
Mandy's tattoo credits: Jim White of Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg, PA, Tim Kern of Tribulation in NYC and Stacy McCleaf of Chrome Gardens in Gettysburg, PA.
On another note, I have been pretty busy with the day job, and this blog has been neglected for over a month now. One of the reasons I started this blog was to have a regular forray into 'practicing' my photography. When photography isn't your day job or your main source of living, its very easy to let it fall on the wayside, especially if your day job is stressful and runs into overtime and into your weekends. It's really no excuse though, if it's your passion. I can't think of hours that I've spent mentally exhausted on the couch after days of night/day streches of work, that I couldn't spend outside with a camera - it would have been just as relaxing and restful. So - I'm making a new resolution - I shall call it the "spring resolution" - to be out with my camera at LEAST once a week, no matter what my schedule is. So far, so good for this week.....
Mike
Tattoos, I believe are a reflective process. Before choosing something that will be on your body for your entire life, I would think one would need to look inside for a bit in order to find that piece that finally calls out to him/her. More often than not, the tattoo becomes one with the person - [which is exactly what you want, by the way :)]. But I think sometimes we forget to look at the tattoo as an art form itself. So I chose to do this shot of the tattoo itself in a more reflective process, with a hint of the person that dorns it.
On a different note, my blog database seemed to have rolled back along with the backup, and I've lost two posts, and all the comments in the last two weeks. This is highly random, and very weird, and I've never seen this before; but I apologise to anybody who left comments in the last two weeks; I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to visit and leave a comment, and hope you will visit back again.
Chris
Tattoos. Love'em or hate'em, you can't help but admire the level of skill that it takes to create a work of art on somebody's body. They aren't always looked at favourably, though - even as recent as 10 years ago, they were associated with gangs and criminals. In the recent years however, it has experienced a resurgency, and they are more mainstream than ever, infiltrating people from every walk of life.
To me, tattoos are personal. They are permanent. They are constant reminders of the reason you got them. They are almost like your announcement of your existence to the world.
Given the nose-snubbing tattoos take with the more affluent/well-to-do population, combined with how many of them actually have tattoos, its interesting to see how many people from all different backgrounds and jobs have tattoos. I've always wanted to capture these people with their tattoos, and thanks to Jade, an awesome tattoo artist, I get to finally do it.
I'm not very good at studio lighting, even after attending one of Don Giannitti's great workshops :) - with the terribly helpfulness of Francesco and what I learned at the workshop and info from the never ending source we call the 'internets' ;) , we got through this shoot; so this is first in a series of portraits that will be part of the The Tattoo Project"The Tattoo Project".
This is Chris.