2012 In Review

By far the most wonderful event that happened this year was on a personal level, I got engaged to the most attractive and captivating woman. We met on a photo shoot in the desert which is no surprise I suppose, become instant friends the first day out and our relationship flourished rapidly from there. I have such a good feeling about where this is all heading, for us as a couple and our work as a team in photography. There is an amazing level of satisfaction and compatibility between us and I feel extremely fortunate to have found her.

It was a year of new adventures and good times, some with people I met for the first time and many with some cherished friends that I've worked with for years. It was another year of countless blessings, doing something I love dearly with the most amazing people I've met. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the following...

Running Aground

January 1, 2012 and Pearl and I were out in the desert, this year, the same as last year, my first and last shoot of the year was with my dear friend. We went out 17 times in 2012 and every shoot was amazing, a couple of years ago I told her I would never get tired of working with her, she didn't believe me, probably still doesn't! 

Between Earth & Sky

In January I was very fortunate to be able to attend the annual Photo LA party hosted by Patrick Alt, so much photographic talent in one room! During the event I got to meet Erin the Artist, a very talented self portrait artist and also had the opportunity to work with her. Erin, Pearl & I went out to shoot in Lucerne Valley during her visit to LA. 

California

Also in January I got the chance to work with Holly Loveday, I had been a fan of her work for a couple of years and it was fantastic to finally get to meet her in person, we actually worked together twice in 2012, she's so sensational.

Desert Shores

Also in February I was asked to contribute work to the 2nd edition of The Atlas of Contemporary Nude Photography "EROTICA", a wonderful honor!

Slipping Away

Then, before the month ended I got the chance to work again with Itzeeru, it had been over a year since our last shoot and it was so great seeing her again, we worked out near Indio and I was able to capture images for my flower series. I love working with her so much!

Always

Conundra and I have worked together going on 4 years and we got to go out 3 times in 2012, this image is from a very special shoot, she had introduced me to Pablo Neruda, The Captain's Verses. As I was reading through them I found one that really hit home for me, "Always", it was so great to collaborate like this, truly a special memory.

Sweetwater Bridge

In February I had the pleasure of working for the first time with Katz Pajamaz! What an amazing person and incredible personality, she is art. Her drawings are fantastic and her modeling, wow, we went looking for locations and ended up in the mountains, it was so cold I had thoughts of giving up and trying again at a later date, Katz wouldn't hear of it, "Just get the shot" she told me, "I can always warm up afterwards."

Lightbox Gallery

A photo I had done with Pearl was accepted Lightbox Gallery's show, "The Artistic Nude" and I was able to make the trip up to Oregon with Pearl. It was an incredible weekend, the opening was well attended and there was a lot of beautiful art on display, we also got to spend time with my daughter Jennifer who lives up there.

Rock Castles

In March I was able to get together with Iota Art whom I had met a couple of years ago at a DM Gremlin open house events in Long Beach, she had taken a short hiatus from shooting and chose me to shoot with upon her return. We went out 3 times in 2012 and each time was just amazing, she's so graceful and artistic, she also does these amazing drawings and has a seemingly endless supply of ideas and concepts, it was an honor to get to work with her.

Watching The World Go Round & Round

On a very unseasonably cold morning in April I went out to Lucerne with Brooke, part shoot and part just desert adventure, yes, that is snow on the hills and we had quite a time trying to keep warm. You wouldn't know it by the pictures though, when it comes to photography and the desert Brooke is 100% enthusiasm, and it is addictive.

The Workshop

Another first time for me was getting to work with Wyldcat at the end of April, what a great day and what a talented model! This shoot started out wild in fact, 5 minutes after arriving at the first location a group of 3 showed up who were there to do a fashion shoot, so we drove on to a second location and after shooting for 15 minutes some guy shows up there to eat his lunch. We kept moving and at the third spot captured the image above, the rest of the day went perfectly though and we got great pictures. 

Get Back Here

In May I met the absolutely wonderful, beautiful and enchanting Shelby Katz, I got to work with her 3 times in 2012 and each time was exceptional! Shelby is so much fun to work with, her positive attitude and fun loving personality is absolutely contagious, and might I say, addictive. 

Ages

I also had the opportunity this year to work with 2 male models, I worked with Rusty Shacklford 3 times in 2012, he's incredibly creative and enthusiastic, with many great ideas for images, one of the best things about Rusty is out on location he is always thinking ahead.

Untitled

Eric was also great to work with and was a great accompaniment to Shelby Katz, I worked with them together twice in 2012 and it turned out to be great fun!

Flight Of Stairs

At the end of May I was able to get together with NevaehLleh for another trip out to Lucerne Valley, she is always amazing to work with, and we had just found out that one of our photographs had been chosen for the "Nude But Not Rude" show at Linus Gallery in Pasadena.

Linus Gallery

On June 15th I got to attend the opening of "Nude But Not Rude", to my surprise NevaehLleh, Pearl, Wyldcat with her SO and my friend Dave and his SO also showed up. There was a lot of really great art on display and the event was very well attended, NevaehLleh and I also did a video interview for the show which was posted on the gallery's web site.

Study Of Form

Later in June I had the great pleasure of working again with Mila, who was traveling through southern California on her way to northern California on a road trip. She let me have a day with her for a grand desert adventure and we took full advantage of it, starting in Apple Valley we eventually made our way up the truck trail through the San Bernardino mountains and back to Orange County.

Take It Back

I had admired Felicity's self portraits for quite some time, and when the "unlikely" event happened that we got to shoot together, it was magic. We took a 3 day road trip at the end of July and I was smitten, but this only served to whet our appetite for more time together. We made a plan for her to return a month later then we did 3 additional road trips and spent 18 days together. Felicity is an incredible artist and photographer as well as a writer, her creativity just flowed and I'm looking forward to many more times shooting together with her in 2013.

At the beginning of October Felicity and I created a calendar of our best work from the time we spent in the desert.

In October I published a book of my work with Pearl, 'Taken by The Magic' which covers 2 years and all the genres of work we've done together. I will always love working with her.   

What Can I say

In December I met Alessandra, (the subject of my previous blog), we were scheduled to shoot once more prior to the end of the month but time was too short and the weather here had gotten really cold. I am looking forward to getting together with her again in 2013.

Just before the end of the year I found out that I passed 10 million views on my photos on Pbase. Hard to believe these photos have been seen so many times, this number is simply staggering to think about.

I'm looking to 2013 with much hope and anticipation, Felicity and I already have quite a list of ideas and concepts to begin working on as soon as we can. I'm also looking forward to continuing work with some of these other amazingly talented and creative people, with any luck it will be another year of art and magic.


"As far as I am concerned, I can only say how much I regret such an admirable discovery should have come so late! The possibility of studying such images would have had an influence on me that I can only guess at from the usefulness which they have now, even in the little time left me for more intensive study. It is the tangible proof of nature’s own design, which we otherwise see only very feebly." ~Eugene Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) - quoted in "French Primitive Photography", Philadelphia 1969 [cited in "From today painting is dead – The Beginnings of Photography" (catalogue of exhibition in The Victoria & Albert Museum 16 March – 14 May 1972 p. 48), caption to item no. 532 showing photographs of nude models taken from an album belonging to Delacroix. The models are said to be in poses arranged by Delacroix.]

Alessandra

On December 3rd I received an email from someone who had found my work online, Alessandra told me she was writing to request a photo session with me. She said "Your work is the first I have seen to integrate this warm setting with the naked body, in such a tasteful and classy manner."

In my reply I asked about her availability, but also mentioned that the weather conditions in the deserts, in December, can be quite unpredictable. I didn't want her first experience modeling to be her last.

Nothing On Daylight

After trading a few brief messages via email and text we set a date to go out and shoot on the 9th, the forecast seemed most promising in the low desert where the high temperatures were predicted to be in the 70's, but with winds so the canyons seemed a good choice. The high desert was more iffy with temps in the mid 60's, so our destination was still somewhat up in the air. 

Soft Distance

Looking back now I don't know if it would have made any difference, Alessandra was amazing and never for a moment did I think about it being her first time, or our first time shooting. The weather was perfect, warm with a slight breeze, it was simply a beautiful day to be out in the desert.

Solitude

I can't wait to get together with her again. 

Grain Of Sand

"Every artist, in a sense, is missionary. He tries to convey a message to his fellow man – he communicates the awesome presence of truth and beauty he discover in the world around him, in its lakes and mountains, trees, rocks and plants, in its living creatures. Down through the centuries poets, sculptors, painters and now photographers, have also been striving to grasp and immortalize the beauty of the human body, both male and female. I see in these forms the elemental relationship to the large forms of nature; a sense of strength like a rock – fluidity like water – space like a mountain range. If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual twentieth century. We seem to have a need to turn innocent nature into evil ugliness be the twist of the mind. Woman has been target of much that is sordid and cheap, especially in photography. To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman, has been my mission – the reason for my work." ~Ruth Bernhard

The Nude

Some B&W nudes I've done with Felicity.  

As You Like It

At one point in time I wasn't a fan of averting the model's face, or, leaving it out of the image all together, the issue with the face however is when it's included, the photograph becomes a nude portrait because the face personalizes the picture.    

Window Light Lines

By averting or avoiding the face, the photograph becomes more of a study in body, light and lines.

Shades Of Grey

In years past, photographers would more often be shooting nudes with acquaintances, friends or lovers, things were not like they are today now that we have multiple modeling sites on the Internet where photographers can virtually shop for a model.

Sanity

Also, being friends or acquaintances and not models, many times the photographer was required to keep the identity of the model confidential.

The Pause

The nude.     

Selective Focus

"Edward Weston understood thoughts and concepts which dwell on simple mystical levels. His work--direct and honest as it is--leaped from a deep intuition and belief in the forces beyond the apparent and factual. He accepted these forces as completely real and part of the total world of man and nature, only a small portion of which most of us experience directly. . . . And it was Weston who accomplished more than anyone, with the possible exception of Alfred Stieglitz, to elevate photography to the status of fine-art expression."--Ansel Adams

Opposite Sides Of The Clock

Just after I had posted a photo from our first day of shooting titled 'Remnants of time', Felicity visited a Museum of Art and spotted a reproduction of Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory'. Then later she searched for an image of a nude with a clock on DeviantArt, to see how many people had done nudes with clocks, and to check if anyone did them in a desert. Inspired by the coincidence she sent me links to the pictures she had seen and asked what I thought about shooting with a clock in the desert.

Missing The Time We Had

I very rarely use props when shooting nudes and was at first hesitant, but the less I thought about the clock as a prop and more as a concept, more as a symbol, the better I liked the idea. So when Felicity returned in late August we went shopping for the largest clock we could find. 

Untitled

Time and timing was to become a key in both our relationship and our work, with precious little of it we were doing as much shooting together as possible. It was on our first day together that I began to feel we had a really good connection, I was loving the work we were doing together and we were both loving being together. By the third day we did not want to part company, she didn't want to leave and I didn't want her to go. 

Untitled

She had barely just left and within 24 hours we were talking about a return trip, in 48 hours we had the dates figured out and we were making reservations.Then we proceeded to count down the days until we'd be together and shooting again.

Mind The Time

So we attempted to fit as much shooting, and as many concepts, ideas and locations into that brief time we had, and we may have tried to fit too much into those 2 weeks. We barely had time to review the images we were making, and no time really to just relax and enjoy the time together.

Slave To The Clock

As we get older time becomes more precious, and this time with Felicity even more so. She's back home now, 1/2 a planet away from me so now we live on opposite sides of the clock, but we're still planning future photo shoots together. We found more than just pictures in the desert when we were together, and what happens next only time will tell.

Turn My Back On Time

"The magic of the desert is a riddle. Not only does it defy putting into words, but I have never found the person who felt that he could even shape it vaguely to himself in thought. For one thing, it is in its essence a contradiction. The desert is the opposite of all we naturally find pleasing. Yet I believe that its hold upon those who have once fallen under its spell is deeper and more enduring than is the charm of forest or sea or mountains." ~Joseph Smeaton Chase

Pieces Of White

"In a world still largely stigmatized against nudity, one begins to wonder what it is that inspires these people towards works like theirs." ~Felicity

In her just published book, Pieces of White, Felicity tells the story of how she began doing self portrait nudes, and has included 37 of her best images. This book is exceptional, it is a very personal and intimate look into who Felicity is and how she began shooting self portraits, it's about turning adversity into opportunity. Find this book here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3666453 Or by clicking on any of the photos on the blog.

Self-Censorship: Tres

"My story has its origins rooted deep in the coercion and craving for acceptance in a particularly damaging teenage relationship." ~Felicity.

Ridges and Bumps

Her work is truly exceptional, as is her attitude, she is a pleasure to be around and hopefully I will get the chance to be with her and work with her a long into the future.

Chasing Shadows on Rainy Days

"The second turning point, then, hit one morning when I glimpsed strong sunlight on myself. And, once you've seen the light, it's not something you can, or want to, let go of." ~Felicity

Light Waves

"To date, natural light is still my favourite light source for pictures, for the richness it gives to the gradients in photographs." ~Felicity

Afternoon Whimsies

Once she saw the light, her work took on an entirely new meaning and took on a new direction, Felicity has been able to elevate her work from snapshot to fine art. I highly recommend this Beautiful book!

Straight Edges

Everything is shared by everything else; there are no discontinuities. - Frederick Sommer

Taken By The Magic

I've just published my second book - Pearl - Taken By The Magic

Taken By The Magic

I've based this book on my work with one art model, Pearl and I have made many trips out to remote desert locations under all imaginable conditions, simply for the love of art and the ability to create. This book represents the work we've done together up to the present and I've included some of the images we've done based on individual concepts we've come up with, it's not all desert as you'll see. 

The idea behind putting this book together has been on my mind for almost 2 years

What others have said of our work:
"A true muse can have an unparalleled influence on an artist, and inspire a wealth of creativity, Together the artist and the muse blend into a force
of overpowering imagination that grows, matures, and continues to bring a
sense of inspiration to all of those who bear witness to their combined
works.
Having watched David & Pearl's work together over the years, I began to
wonder just who is the artist and who is the muse. They communicate on a
level of trust, and a respectful pushing of each other's boundaries to do
more, to seek an internal originality that allows us, their viewers, a
glimpse into their paired vision. Being able to witness the beauty they can create together is a magical experience, all on it's own." ~Brooke Suzanne, Photographer- Rebelflowers Photography

My muse: Pearl. Three simple words but they signify a great journey that these two have gone on together. I first connected with D Winge Photography at place on the internet called, of all things, Deviantart. I was immediately attracted to the desert scenes and soon found that one of David's primary subjects was a woman called Pearl. These two together consistently created some great art. It was here that I first gathered an understanding of what a muse really is. Now I spend a lot of my time shooting looking for that ultimate connection. You and your muse. Thanks for the fantastic inspiration you two have given me. Now all I need is a muse. ~Kurt, Kurts Stolen Moments Photography

Distracted

"Photographing someone is one of the most intimate things you can do between two people, capturing a little piece of their soul, one frame at a time. It requires a real amount of trust and respect to get something amazing, but the relationship between the Muse and Photographer is something altogether different. A Muse inspires the photographer to be better, they bounce off each other to create something more than either could do individually. The Muse/Photographer relationship not only needs trust and respect but also requires friendship in order to really flourish, if you put all these elements together the images that come from it are always that much better. This relationship is evident in the work that David and Pearl produce because all of their images display this certain magic that can only come from this sort of connection." ~Scott James Prebble

Captivated

"In all the world, there is nothing more intriguing or incredible than the impact of a muse on an artist. In the realm of the photographer, that relationship can become something even more, two artists, the one with a camera, the other with an ability to perform for the lens. Together, they truly can make magic, and here we have a perfect example of a Pearl before the Lens, interpreted and captured by a very gifted photographer, David Winge. I am pleased to call both of these amazing artists my friends." ~Marion Z. Skydancer - Owner and Artist in Residence - Dragon's Chyld Studio

"I've had the pleasure of working with David, the "D" in D. Winge Photography. The man is an inverse hurricane. He is a calm, quiet force of nature on the outside with a stormy, passionate soul that makes itself known through the unblinking, hard eye of a camera. This combination of calm passion allows models to be comfortable to reach, explore and experiment. I've also watched David work with Pearl. While they shoot they speak far less than one would think. Pearl reaches, David captures and together they make art." ~Dave, Luminon Photography

"A photographic portrait cannot be a mere mechanical recording of fact; it bespeaks some kind of relationship between the photographer and the subject, a relationship that must precede the moment of the photograph. Though the photograph is only a two-dimensional artifact, it is actually a record of a conversation between the photographer and the subject. The photograph now speaks for the subject while the photographer is silent. But though silent, he is not unheard. For in a good portrait there is a revelation: the subject reveals some truth about himself or herself and the photographer reveals some truth about himself or herself. So a good portrait is about human truth." ~Al Ziontz