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Ashton Kutcher, Beefcake, Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Dildo, Eminem, Errol Flynn, Gavin Rossdale, John Lennon, John Mayer, Johnny Depp, Johnny Knoxville, Justin Timberlake, Keanu Reeves, Lil Wayne, Love Navo, Mark McGrath, naiveboy.com, Orlando Bloom, Playgirl, Ricky Martin, Rock Hudson, Rolling Stone, Taylor Lautner, The Jonas Brothers, Tom Cruise, Zac Efron

WHEN A ROLLING STONE IS A MAN CANDY by Navo

In Arts, EXCLUSIVES, Magazine, Movies, Pop Culture, Top Ten on May 1, 2010 at 10:13 pm

‘He was no big deal, if ya know what I mean!” - Juliette Lewis (Brad Pitt’s ex), when asked what it was like to bone the hunky thespian.

“I am the new generation of masturbator …I have masturbated myself out of serious problems in my life. The phone doesn’t pick up because I’m masturbating.” – John Mayer, Rolling Stone interview, February 2010.

ROCK HUDSON

(LA) Even with the conservative and homophobic social culture in the 1920‘s, beefcake poses of male actors were used to highlight their physical appeal in America, with gay men as their primary demographic. Handsome Hollywood stars Tyrone Power, Guy Madison, Sterling Hayden and Victor Mature lead the rise of the shirtless hunks in the 1940‘s (the same period Rubber dildos became available). While the movie magazine money shots of swimsuit-clad Errol Flynn, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Robert Conrad and Robert Wagner, marked the beginning of Hollywood Man Candy in the 50‘s. Sadly, by the end of the 60‘s, when gay pornography became legal, the market for beefcake magazines collapsed.

THE DILDO AND JOHN LENNON

The large-scale manufacturing and distributing of rubber dildos was pioneered by Ted Marche in 1966.

A year later, Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason started a San Francisco-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and pop culture. They called it the Rolling Stone.

The cover boy for the first issue was the young non-buff John Lennon, followed by Tina Turner (Issue #2), The Beatles (Issue #3), Jimi Hendrix, Donovan & Otis Redding (Issue #4), Jim Morrison (Issue #5), Fiona Goldman (Issue #6), Jimi Hendrix (Issue #7), Monterey Pop Festival (Issue #8), John Lennon & Paul McCartney (Issue #9) and Jack Goldman (Issue #10).

THE MASTURBATORY ‘MUSIC’ MAGAZINE

In the 90′s, I went through school (from kindergarten to college) in the Philippines. In the same era, somewhere across the pacific, the 1990s became a pivotal point for 3 iconic American products: the Beefcake, the Dildos and the Rolling Stone magazine.

The era marked the resurgence of beefcake magazines due to a shift of interest in male gym culture in America. The 90s also marked the popularity of the silicone rubber dildo.

The period was also a decisive time for the 30-year-old Rolling Stone magazine. It was given a facelift to appeal to younger consumers: awarding coveted covers to much younger Hollywood actors and pop stars. And, voilà! A gay teenaged boy with raging hormones, like me, was in cloud 9 .

Suddenly the musician’s microphones were replaced by hard throbbing cocks. Rolling Stone magazine, effectively competed with the modern editions of homoerotic beefcake magazines such as Men’s Workout, Exercise for Men Only, Men’s Exercise, Men’s Health and the sometimes celebrity cover boys of Playgirl Magazine.

I don’t know what the editors of Rolling Stone were smoking but they really know how to showcase the Beefcake like no one does. Every single male actor and pop star is dying to sign up! My favorite was that recent swelteringly hot and twinky Zac Efron, shot in August of 2007. It made me realize it’s a good day to be gay in the US of A.

THE TOP 18 BEEFCAKE COVER BOYS OF ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

Rolling Stone magazine loves their white boys shirtless or wet. The magazine was not immune to the global recession, though. The Size of the ‘music’ magazine has become noticeably smaller in recent issues (or I’m just a size queen?). Enjoy my Top 18 Beefcake Cover Boys of the Rolling Stone magazine with their corresponding silicone rubber Dildos (some vibrate) of their Man Candies. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the goods, inch by inch.

Jann Wenner is still the editor and publisher of the current Rolling Stone editions.

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18. Ricky Martin, popstar (made in 1971)

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17. Lil Wayne, rapstar (made in 1982)

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16. Eminem, rapstar (made in 1972)

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15. Tom Cruise, superstar (made in 1962)

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14. Mark McGrath, popstar (made in 1968)

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13. Taylor Lautner, teenstar (made in 1992)

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12. Ashton Kutcher, moviestar (made in 1978)

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11. Orlando Bloom, moviestar (made in 1977)

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10. The Jonas Brothers, popstars (Kevin Jonas was made in 1987, Joe Jonas in 1989, & Nick Jonas in 1992)

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9. Johnny Knoxville, jackass (made in 1971)

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8. Johnny Depp, superstar (made in 1963)

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7. Brad Pitt, superstar (made in 1963)

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6. John Mayer, popstar (made in 1977)

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5. David Duchovny, tvstar (made in 1960)

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4. Justin Timberlake, popstar (made in 1981)

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3. Zac Efron, teenstar (made in 1987)

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2. Gavin Rossdale, popstar (made in 1965)

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1. Keanu Reeves, superstar (made in 1964)

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THE HONORABLES

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2009/10/08/the-ten-male-beauties-of-all-time-by-photographer-navo/

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info@navostudios.com

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Anna Wintour, Annie Leibovitz, Balenciaga, Bruce Weber, Calvin Klein, Carine Roitfeld, Cathy Horyn, Chloé, Condé Nast, Giorgio Armani, I-D, Jil Sander, Kate Moss, Keanu Reeves, Lope Navo, Mert and Marcus, Miuccia Prada, naiveboy.com, Nicola Formichetti, Philippines, Prada, Seijo Imazaki, Stephen Gan, Tim McIntyre, V Magazine, Versace, Vman, Vogue, VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN, Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris, WASP

WHITE SUPREMACY: THE MOST RACIST FASHION MAGAZINES IN 2010 by Navo

In EXCLUSIVES, Editorial, Fashion, Magazine, photography, politics, viewpoints on April 27, 2010 at 5:18 am

“At a magazine, everything you do is edited by a bunch of people, by committee, and a lot of them are, were, or think of themselves as writers. Part of that is because magazines worry about their voice.” – Chuck Klosterman, American journalist who has written for The New York Times Magazine.

“I hate racial discrimination most intensely and all its manifestations. I have fought all my life; I fight now, and will do so until the end of my days. Even although I now happen to be tried by one, whose opinion I hold in high esteem, I detest most violently the set-up that surrounds me here. It makes me feel that I am a Black man in a White man’s court.” -Nelson Mandela

THE DEMISE OF PRINT

(NY) I love visiting magazine shops as much as bookstores. Even though sometimes they’re as noisy as the city streets, these visits gives me the right visual rush I need as a photographer. My favorite magazine shops are where I brush up on my rusty Arabic.

The last conversation I had with some Turkish and Egyptian magazine vendors (in one of the largest magazine shop in NYC, now reduced to half its original size) is that magazine business is not doing well. This is probably the worst time in the history of magazine sales, at least coming from the people who sell the magazines as a livelihood. In fact, most of their outlets are closing down one by one.

About 400 print magazines closed shop in 2009 and it is predicted that more will follow in 2010. Most magazine shops (small or large-scale) around the city are also closing as a domino effect of global recession and the inevitable demise of the print magazine.

1540 AD

Staring at the floor to ceiling wallpaper of crisp fashion magazines, I can’t help but wonder why: “in the year 2010, a multi-colored country like America, and an ethnically diverse city like New York (one of the biggest magazine consuming cities in the world), all I see are white peoples’ faces with a sprinkling of token minorities.

Since 1540 AD (the American colonial era), Racism has been a major issue in the United States. Caucasians have, historically, dominated the country and it’s not a secret. The country’s minorities: Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab-Americans, American Jews, Irish Americans, other immigrant groups and their descendants, have carried the heaviest burdens of racism in history. Go visit the nearest magazine shop, flip through the “fashion magazines” within your arm’s reach and see for yourself.

Every other year a racism controversy will explode online, Naomi Campbell’s face protesting will be everywhere for a few weeks. Then, designers and magazine editors will try to mix it up a bit in the next few months. When the protesters go quiet, again, in the western front, the fashion leaders will revert to ‘normal’, which is ‘the color white’. Racism in fashion has always been a game of hide and seek: as long as the victims (minorities) don’t notice it’s okay. The breeding ground of racism is right in front of me, the magazine stand is full of blondes and for every dollar I spend to purchase a copy of the “white people’s” exclusive vision of a ‘fashion world’, I contribute to the century-old ugly tradition of racism in America.

HIGH FASHION ADS PULLOUT WHEN IT’S A NON-WHITE COVER

The fear of low sales and advertisers pulling back prevents editors from putting dark-skinned models or celebrities on the covers of fashion/women’s magazines (which, by the way, are mostly Caucasian owned). Fashion magazines claim being backed into a wall because a magazine’s main source of income comes from advertisers. It’s a “numbers game at the end of the day”, it’s all business nothing personal or racist.

OK, so you’re saying darker skinned faces don’t sell. Do the advertisers and magazine consumers also not want to see darker skinned magazine editors-in-chief, darker skinned fashion photographers, darker skinned editorial staff, darker skinned writers? Does it mean that people of colour are just that incompetent? Is there a reason minority voices and points of view are not represented in your magazines?

It is really sad to see our heroes: the artists, the visionaries, the so-called envelope pushers, the fearless fashion forwarders being tied up and backed against the wall. They’ve become like a Steven Klein image: helpless and defeated by America’s Racial Capitalism. People don’t want to talk about it, too. Nobody wants to talk about race especially if the race that is benefiting from the discrimination is the race of your heritage, it’s a dead dog on the side-walk that people don’t want to look at. It’s worse for the minorities who are not doing anything about it. Are we comfortable of the situation now?

Vogue was built on the foundation of white affluence and wealth like this images shows (obviously Anna Wintour's wet dreams)

...certainly not this women (probably were the slaves of those 'elite' white women above)

I think Ms. Wintour would even use one of these blonde fashionistas...

...before she even use a real life asian princess or an asian actress for the cover of her 'Nazi Fashion Bible' Vogue.

MEXICANS OF THE PACIFIC

They say Filipinos are the Mexicans of the Pacific, mainly because a person of Filipino ancestry will take on “Mexican jobs” like yard work, cleaning hotel rooms, and being caretakers in the aquatic Pacific rim nations. The fact is, among the South East Asian nations, Philippines has been colonized and forced to slavery more than their neighboring countries in Asian history.

Vogue Magazine was founded as a weekly publication in 1892 by the Caucasian Arthur Baldwin Turnure and was picked up in 1909 by the Caucasian Condé Nast. Everybody knows that “the fashion bible” a.k.a. “the world’s most influential fashion magazine today” was built on the foundation of white affluence and wealth as their core consumers.

The old money such as the Vanderbilt and Roosevelt families (Dutch-Caucasian descent), the Rockefeller, Heinz, and Astor families (German-Caucasian descent), the Du Pont family (French-Caucasian descent), the Carnegie, Getty and Forbes families (Scottish-Caucasian descent), some of them might have even owned Black or South Indian slaves sometime in history, depending on their locations. The White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP), in reference to white North Americans from the British Isles, particularly of English descent, who were Protestant in religious affiliation. It initially applied to people with histories in the upper class Northeastern establishment who, allegedly, formed a powerful élite. The same heritage of 99% of all the editors-in-chief, fashion photographers, editorial staffs, writers, interns, publishers, fashion models of every fashion magazines that ever existed in human history. Now where do the Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab-Americans fit in the pretty white picture of Vogue History? Where does an ‘Asian-Mexican’ like me fit in the picture?

KKK meeting? or Nazi Convention?

ANNA WINTOUR

Can you blame Vogue Editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, the proclaimed queen of American Fashion for following the hundred years tradition and point of view of all the Caucasian women that came before her, namely: Vogue US Editors-in-Chief Josephine Redding (1892-1901), Marie Harrison (1901-1914), Edna Woolman Chase (1914- 1951), Jessica Daves (1952-1963), Diana Vreeland (1963-1971), and Grace Mirabella (1971-1988), Vogue UK Editors-in-Chief Elspeth Champcommunal (1916-1922), Dorothy Todd (1923-1926), Alison Settle (1926-1934), Elizabeth Penrose (1934-1940), Audrey Withers (1940-1961), Ailsa Garland (1961-1965), Beatrix Miller (1965-1984). Vogue Paris Editors-in-Chief Cosette Vogel (1922-1927), Main Bocher (1927-1929), Michel de Brunhoff (1929-1954), Edmonde Charles-Roux (1954-1966), Francine Crescent (1968-1987) and the current Editors-in-Chiefs of Vogue UK and Vogue Paris Alexandra Shulman (1992-present), and Carine Roitfeld (2001-present) are all white.

Watch the 2009 documentary The September Issue (a desperate rebuttal to the 2009 book/film THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA to save the bitter Ice Queen’s face) and tell me it’s not proof that Vogue belongs to one point of view, one race. Designer Thakoon Panichgul is a sad charity/PR stunt and editor André Leon Talley is a silly token mascot.

If Vogue Magazine is the grand daddy of all fashion magazines that existed out there, it has set a trend, a blueprint (or a white-print?) and a tradition of having one unifying voice of fashion: the ‘white voice’. Unlike the other Vogue editions worldwide (Vogue China, Vogue India, Vogue Japan, Vogue Korea, Vogue Mexico, Vogue Taiwan and the newly launched Vogue Turkey) the western Vogue editions are the proclaimed ‘FASHION BIBLES for the rest of the world, because they’re “representative of a multi-colored nation”.

Most people who work at Vogue US actually believe they are part of human history. Every time they launch the latest cover they feel like they are contributing to the welfare of humanity, it’s in their memos, letters, e-mails, and notes: “we are making history”. This is the regular mantra that goes around the Vogue or Condé Nast office. Maybe one of the reasons most of the people who work there have a big head, like Anna Wintour (literally or metaphorically), they really believe they are saving the world with their desk jobs.

Here are the 14 Vogue US Covers that features minorities since it started with eic Josephine Redding in 1892, it seems cool right? 14 covers? well its over 118 years of Vogue US- it means 1,416 covers published and 14 of them are black women, what a remarkable breakthrough right? and this is after years of protesting to them and once in a while they'll listen and this is the outcome. 14 covers out of 1,416.

Keira Knightley’s Vogue US June 2007 “Out of Africa” cover story shot by Arthur Elgort (Caucasian). Vogue photographer Arthur Elgort was born and raised in New York, Keira Knightley (Caucasian) in Teddington, Greater London, England, and Vogue US Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (Caucasian) in London, England.

VOGUE’S GLORIFICATION OF COLONIAL RACISM

“American Vogue is a sad joke–the racism and elitist mentality of Vogue is astonishing. The few minorities featured in this magazine reek of tokenism and I would respect them more if they simply had no African-Americans, Asians or Latinos in their magazine. The fact that they hide their racism and ignorance with subterfuge offends even more.  Vogue magazine truly embodies all that is wrong in our culture while actually distorting all that is good–sycophancy and rampant cronyism abound while real talent is all but ignored. Unfortunately reading pop culture periodicals is work related but it gets very depressing.” Cathy Horyn fashion journalist, working as a critic for The New York Times, Magazines and newspapers she contributes to include: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, International Herald Tribune, etc. Horyn is known for her unflinching, even acerbic, reviews which got her banned from numerous designer shows; most notably Giorgio Armani. In 2002, she received the Eugenia Sheppard Award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She questioned the work and exposed the deal-makings of Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.  (http://www.racialicious.com/2007/08/18/vogues-glorification-of-colonial-racism/)

Gisele Bündchen (Brazillian) and LeBron James' Vogue US April 2008 cover shot by Annie Leibovitz (Jewish-American), was the third time that Vogue featured a male on the cover of the US issue (the other two being George Clooney and Richard Gere), and the first time with a black man. It was perceived as a prejudiced depiction of James beside the much smaller Gisele in a pose reminiscent of King Kong carrying off Fay Wray. Vogue US (of course) denied all allegations of racism as hidden context. Anna Wintour (British Caucasian) is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue US.

Vanity Fair's New Hollywood March 2010 cover shot by Annie Leibovitz (Jewish-American), featuring the actresses who embody the new muse of (white) Hollywood is one of the magazine's all white women issues. While race is still a hotly debated topic in the 21st century, with “racism” being the hot iron that no-one wants to touch, it is obvious that the cover definetly lacks diversity. There are no Asian, Black or Hispanic actresses added to the ‘Vanity Fair’ cover, in the same batch Zoe Saldana stars in the two blockbuster films of the year Avatar and Star Trek, Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for an Oscar best actress for the film Precious. Photographer Annie Leibovitz was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and Vanity Fair Editor-in-chief Graydon Carter (Caucasian) in Toronto, Canada.

Gabourey Sidibe and Dakota Fanning’s Vmagazine Jan 2010 covers shot by Dutch duo Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, is one of the very very few covers of the magazine that features a non-white since its launch in 1999, and everytime they feature a black celebrity/model they need to have multi-covers with a white celebrity/model (like this 'Size Issue Covers"). Vmagazine & VMAN Editor-in-chief Stephen Gan was born and raised in the Philippines, photographer Lamsweerde & Matadin (Caucasians) was both born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Ladies and Gentlemen meet Stephen Gan, a Filipino, born and raised in the Philippines with Filipino parents, creative director at Harper’s Bazaar, co-founder of Visionaire, editor-in-chief of V Magazine and Vman magazine and he loves everything white, this is one of those rare chances a minority actually becomes a powerful head in fashion but somehow lacks substance, and heads the opposite way, he rarely uses minorities in all of his covers (in front and behind the camera) and even trying to deny his roots as much as possible, talk about self-loathing.

Hispanic or Latino population in the US is 46.9 million (15.4%). Eva Mendes' Interview Magazine August 2008 cover shot by Mikael Jansson (Richard Avedon’s former assistant) & Jay-Z’s February 2010 cover shot by Craig Mcdean are two of the latest and rare Interview covers that features minorities since it was founded by artist Andy Warhol (Caucasian) and John Wilcock (Caucasian) in late 1969. Eva Mendes was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents, Craig Mcdean (Caucasian) in England & Mikael Jansson (Caucasian) in Sweden.

Asian population in the US is 13.4 million (4.4%). Greg Louganis’ GQ May 1988 cover, with editor-in-chief Art Cooper (1983–2003), is the second Asian man (part Samoan) on GQ Magazine cover, the first was baseball player Ron Darling (part Hawaiian-Chinese) of the New York Mets -1980, then Jackie Chan -August 1996 cover (born in Hong Kong), Tiger Woods -April 1997 cover (half Thai), Keanu Reeves -May 2003 cover (part Hawaiian/Chinese), and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Samoan) that equals to two Asian and Pacific Islander men every decade.

English of African descent officially residing in the UK currently number about 1.1 million (2.0%). Kate Moss in London's Independent newspaper Sept 2006 with designer Giorgio Armani (Caucasian) as guest editor, the Caucasian Supermodel with her skin done up to make her look black for the African issue - next to Moss's picture was a caption that read: "NOT a fashion statement." Indy's cover provoked a lot of head-scratching. And it lit up the online world with debate about whether or not the Kate Moss picture was an insult to Africa. Or worse, was it downright racist? Kate Moss was born in the UK, and Giorgio Armani in Italy.

Colonial mentality refers to institutionalised or systemic feelings of inferiority within some societies or peoples who have been subjected to colonialism, relative to the mores or values of the foreign powers which had previously subjugated them. As of 2004, Americans formed 2.4% of the total population of registered foreigners in Japan, with 51,851 U.S. citizens residing there. Ash Stymest's VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN (issue #1) July 2008 cover shot by Hedi Slimane with fashion director Nicola Formichetti marks a historical moment for fashion, the first major Japanese fashion magazine with all Japanese text that exclusively uses Caucasian models for covers, and mostly Caucasian photographers (Josh Olins, Steven Klein, Benjamin Alexander Huseby) since it was founded. Photographer Hedi Slimane was born in Paris, France with Italian, Tunisian-Brazilian origins, Nicola Formichetti in Japan to an Italian father and a Japanese mother and VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN Editor-in-Chief Kazuhiro Saito was born and raised in Japan.

French of African descent officially residing in France currently number about 4.2 million. Andre J (Patricia Field's stylist) and Caroline Murphy’s Vogue Paris Nov 2007 cover shot by Uncle Bruce Weber (Caucasian), is the first Vogue Paris cover with a black male and the fashion blogosphere called it "the Big Black Tranny in French Vogue". The fact that the minorities are being rarely used, infront or behind the camera, they should give them more dignity when they are. Photographer Bruce Weber was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld (Caucasian) in Paris, France.

2005 - $50 Million was paid to Class Members headed by Gonzalez in Abercrombie & Fitch Discrimination Lawsuit Settlement. 2003 - Three separate lawsuits in New Jersey, California and Ohio have been filed against A&F for having racist hiring practices. 2002 - A&F sold a shirt that featured the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White" with smiling figures in conical straw hats, a depiction of early Chinese immigrants. The man behind the creation of an A&F world of old money and Waspy right wing pretension for decades to the present is the caucasian photographer Bruce Weber.

The Devil really wears Prada? The book & movie suggest Vogue editor Anna Wintour does. Prada S/S 09 campaign shot by Steven Meisel (caucasian) is set for an all white season, the high end Prada has been consistently a force in exclusively using Caucasian models, black girls are token, Asians and Latinos non-existent. Before British newbie Jourdan Dunn walked the Prada runway in 08, the last minority walked for them in Fall 1997 (exactly 11 years) and she is Naomi Campbell. The last time a minority appeared in a Prada ad campaign? 1994, also with Supermodel Naomi Campbell. Prada, Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Chloë and Versace sent an all-white girl casting for the Spring of 2008. Miuccia Prada was born and raised in Italy.

THE FUTURE FOR MINORITIES

English is not my first language and I’m not a writer by profession (I definitely need an editor and proof readers badly to make all my ramblings coherent to avoid attacks from the Ivy League grammar police). Although I don’t have the armies of editors and proof readers Vogue Magazine has, writing in naiveboy.com makes me realize a lot of things about myself and my priorities. I have learned to ask myself how I can be more consistent as a photographer, a writer and a minority who is trying to showcase a sense of common humanity that transcends skin colour in all of my work.

The trials on the journey I had to endure to research and write this article has been a rollercoaster. One thing I’ve noticed, though, more younger people are angered by racism in fashion. The the older generations are more the source of racism and denial. What can I do as an individual? Start with myself, be aware of every decision and choices that I do whether it’s purchasing or subscribing to a magazine that doesn’t promote racism or choosing the models for my own projects.

There is a way not to sacrifice your aesthetic just to be politically correct: by following what is right and what is human.

It’s sad but it’s the truth, we are contributing to our own discrimination and the discrimination of millions and millions of people every time we buy their products, whether its a $4 Vogue magazine, or V magazine or a pair of thousand-dollar Prada shoes. It’s disgusting.

Anna Wintour emailed me to react to this blog and she said “I don’t give a fuck, Heil Hitler!”.

Sessilee Lopez, Chanel Iman, Arlenis Sosa Pena & Jourdan Dunn’s i-D Sept 2009 cover shot by Emma Summerton & styled by Edward Enninful, a historical moment for fashion, a publication known for setting trends & breaking moulds among other things, is now set to be the first fashion magazine to use women of colour on the cover of its September issue with the leadership of i-D Editor-in-Chief/Creative Director (former Vogue art director) Terry Jones. American Vogue led by Ana Wintour consistently uses Caucasian women for all her September issues (mostly Blondes), as well as majority of US Fashion Magazines. Photographer Emma Summerton was born in Australia, and Edward Enninful in Ghana.

Italians of African descent officially residing in Italy currently number about 755,000 residents. Black or African American population in the US is 37.6 million. Liya Kebede, Sessilee Lopez, Jourdan Dunn and Naomi Campbell’s Vogue Italia July 2008 covers shot by Steven Meisel (American), is the first Vogue Magazine " Black Issue" in the world. Anna Wintour (British Caucasian) is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue US, Franca Sozzani (Italian) the Editor-in Chief of Vogue Italia. “I’ve asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no. Advertisers say black models don’t sell.”- Steven Meisel.

Du Juan and Gemma Ward’s Vogue Paris October 2005 cover shot by Patrick Demarchelier, a historical moment for fashion, the first and only asian model ever to be featured on the cover of Vogue Paris, sharing limelight with the Caucasian Beauty. Du Juan was born in Shanghai, China, Gemma Ward in Perth, Western Australia, Photographer Patrick Demarchelier in Paris, France, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld in Paris, France.

Rose Cordero’s Vogue Paris March 2010 cover (STILL OUT NOW) shot by the iconic Mert and Marcus, a historical moment for fashion, the first Vogue Paris cover for a black model since 2002. Photographer Mert Alas was born in Turkey, Marcus Piggott in Wales, and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld in Paris, France.

Keanu Reeves' Vogue Hommes International Paris Spring/Summer 2009 cover shot by British-born photographer/former actress Amanda De Cadenet, a historical moment for fashion, the first time the magazine used an Asian man and a minority for its cover and probably the first for a major french men's fashion magazine. Keanu Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon with an English mother & American father with Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese and English descent, Photographer Amanda De Cadenet was born in UK, Vogue Hommes International Paris Editor-in-Chief Olivier Lalanne and Editorial Director Carine Roitfeld in France.

Seijo Imazaki’s Rodeo Italy June 2009 cover, that I shot with Art Director Tim McIntyre (former Arena Homme Plus art director), the second time for an Asian to be in a Italian fashion magazine cover (first was Seijo in L'Uomo Vogue) and the first for an Asian photographer. Seijo Imazaki has been photographed by Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Paolo Roversi, Michelangelo di Batista and Steven Klein. Photographer Lope Navo was born in the Philippines, Seijo Imazaki in Westchester, NY (Japanese father and a Swedish-American mother) and Art Director Tim McIntyre in Australia.

English of Indian descent officially residing in UK currently number about 1 million people (1.8% of the country's population). Lakshmi Menon’s Dazed and Confused April 2009 cover shot by Josh Olins and styled by Nicola Formichetti, a historical moment for fashion, the first UK based fashion magazine cover for a Keralan beauty. Lakshmi Menon was born in Bangalore, India, Photographer Josh Olins in London, England, Stylist Nicola Formichetti in Japan to an Italian father and a Japanese mother.

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http://www.glossedover.com/glossed_over/2008/06/is-fashion-raci.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/01/vanity-fairs-hollywood-is_n_444763.html

http://micpohling.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/methink-no-dark-skin-for-fashion-magazine-cover/

http://www.racialicious.com/2007/08/18/vogues-glorification-of-colonial-racism/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1566142/Dame-Vivienne-attacks-racist-magazines.html

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2010/04/02/max-vadukul-photographing-history-by-navo/

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info@navostudios.com

Aravind Adiga, Armani, Bruce Weber, Charles Darwin, Chloé, Halle Berry, Helmut Newton, I-D, Italian Vogue, Jude Law, Koto Bolofo, Lope Navo, Martin Schoeller, naiveboy.com, Nelson Mandela, Nick Knight, Nicoletta Santoro, Paul McCartney, Pentax, President Obama, Richard Avedon, Robert Downey Jr., Sting, Terry Richardson, Vivienne Westwood, Vogue Hommes International, Walter Chin, Yohji Yamamoto

MAX VADUKUL: PHOTOGRAPHING HISTORY by Navo

In Arts, EXCLUSIVES, Fashion, INTERVIEW, Magazine, photography, viewpoints on April 2, 2010 at 8:07 am

Sir Paul McCartney, Mother Theresa and Amy Winehouse photographed by Mr. Vadukul

“The fashion industry is ‘racist’, fashion magazines are racist” -Dame Vivienne Westwood, Fashion Designer

“Women of colour are not a trend. That’s the bottom line…In some instances, black models are being sidelined by major modelling agencies.” -Naomi Campbell, Supermodel

“Whenever I ask to use a black model I am given excuses such as ‘black models are not aspirational in some markets’ or ‘they do not reflect the brands values.’ Normally, however, no reason is given. By my own inaction, I am guilty of allowing racism to be normalized and accepted in this business. This has made me deeply sad and increasingly angry.” – Nick Knight, Fashion Photographer

THE 44TH PRESIDENT

(NY) They always say ‘let your work speak for itself’. A significant number of people think US President Obama is dangerously naïve; a naïve president in naïve times. The moment he was chosen by the American people to be its 44th president, he took upon himself a great challenge and a burden of responsibility. He was elected and, now, has to be given a chance to prove himself through his work.

I don’t really care about his politics but when he won, he took over a position of power from the last 43 white presidents of a multi-colored nation. His victory made me, like the rest of the world, see the future: our future as a minority.

Obama’s victory is very much like Halle Berry winning the first major acting award for a non-white person in 82 years of the Oscars. Her victory started the outpour of non-white actor and director winners in the years to follow.

People like Obama and Berry, and even film director Ang Lee (the first Asian and non-Caucasian director to win an oscar in 82 years), have opened the doors for young minorities who want to grow up as a great thespian, a great leader, or a great visionary. Simply put, whether or not you like Obama’s leadership or Berry’s acting, it doesn’t matter. They already made history.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN BOY

I have always wanted to be a photographer, a really good one. I made the life decision in my teens. But growing up in the early 90′s up until now, when I ask you who’s the top iconic fashion photographers on the top of your head?

Without Google or Wikipedia‘s assistance, you’ll probably say Steven Klein? Am I hearing Steven Meisel? The infamous Uncle Terry Richardson, perhaps? How about Uncle Bruce Weber? Herb Ritts? Irving Penn? Helmut Newton? Does Patrick Demarchelier float your boat?

I might say the same names, why are their names top of mind? Why are they household names?

The one thing in common about them is that they are all relatively great at what they do. They are Photography gods. Oh, I forgot to mention, one other common thing about them. they’re all Caucasian men.

What does that mean for a South East Asian boy like me who grew up in the 90′s and deliriously dreamed to be one of them one day? Maybe just to come close to their success and not exactly be them.

How can I convince myself it’s possible? Am I reaching for the impossible? Is it a color-blind industry or am I just dangerously naïve?

Getting to the top of the fashion food chain, will it solely be based on your work? One thing for sure, the journey of minorities in Hollywood and the White House have already found their champions, for the fashion photography world it seems like the journey is still a long way home.

THE VADUKUL LAND

I walked into this minimalist post-production studio just below Mr. Vadukul’s Mid-East townhouse in Manhattan, just a day after his photoshoot with actor Jude Law. I found out he lives next door to one of the Coen Brothers and I was greeted by a wall size framed image of one of his works: a group portrait of Robert Downey Jr., Sting and Hugh Jackman in one crisp black and white shot, Vadukul style.

After a brief tour I noticed that photography is only one layer of this man’s complex life and work.

One of the most stylish photographer I know just made me a tea, smoked a cigar and showed me some of his travels with friends and lovely family. I was treated to behind the scenes of his shoots and some unreleased personal works, I’m in Vadukul land for an entire afternoon. I love this blog!

NAIROBI

English is not my first language, I am a minority for many reasons. When I told Max that one of the reasons I look up to him is because he is one of the few portrait and fashion photography top guns who is non-white. I also mentioned how much I admire that he still has a unique vision that bolsters his success and staying power. Max immediately told me he didn’t want to play the “race card”, the “victim card”, or the “sympathy card”, since he never experienced any racism that impacted his career as a photographer when he was starting. Mr. Vadukul is, definitely, a class act.

But I wanted to play the “racism-in-fashion-awareness-card”, quoting the iconic photographer Nick Knight, :“By my own inaction, I am guilty of allowing racism to be normalized and accepted in this business.”

Notable names in fashion or portrait photography like Koto Bolofo, Walter Chin, and Martin Schoeller are only a handful of minorities that had made their mark but still not as icons. I’m sure they have their war stories about racism.

In a Frieze Magazine interview in 1992, a man commented about the fashion world as “a very immature business… It’s for young people—your audience is sixteen to twenty-year-old girls… Fashion photography can swallow you up with its champagne and caviar lifestyle.” His name is Max Vadukul.

Born to an Indian parents in Nairobi, educated in England, Vadukul was discovered by Japanese fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto in 1984. While living in Paris, he began taking photographs for The Face magazine as well as French, American and Italian editions of Vogue in the early 80s. He photographed more portraits for The New Yorker than the legendary Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. He shot at least a dozen covers for Rolling Stone magazine and has also worked for Italian Vogue, Vogue Hommes International, i-D, Chloé and Armani.

A documentary called Self-Portrait: Max Vadukul in 2000 was produced by the National Geographic Channel,

Now, he resides and work in New York City with his wife, Nicoletta Santoro, International Fashion Director at Large of VOGUE China , and their two children: Alex and Eloise.

Max Vadukul is an important part of history more than we know. This interview is a celebration of a man who has inspired people like me. Every time I look at his powerful and unforgettable portraits, I know that I will be ok.

GO GET SIR PAUL

LOPE NAVO: Thank you for having time for a one-on-one interview with me Max, I literally grew up with your work, I can tell from your portfolio that your a traveller like me and so far I can say I can speak 3 different languages fluently, Im interested to know how many languages do you speak? And how many countries in your lifetime have you lived in?
MAX VADUKUL: I can speak English, French, Italian and Gujarati, and they have all been learnt by living in France or England or married to an Italian or by birth. So I can navigate a lot of land, ha ha . I have lived in Kenya, England, France, Italy, and USA, in my lifetime so far who knows which one is next .

NAVO: What’s your top 3 favorite cities in the world? and why?
VADUKUL: 1. London, it’s so well proportioned and so rich in what a city can offer.
2. New York, it’s the most energetic and efficient city there is.
3. Istanbul, it’s steeped in history and the food is amazing.

NAVO: I looove Turkish food and I pigged out on it when I lived in the middle east on my early 20′s where I actually discovered my love for travel and portrait photography, what is your most unforgettable portrait photo shoot and why?
VADUKUL: I think it would have to be Paul McCartney, I was in India on holiday and had not completed the vacation when Rolling Stone called me and asked if I can come back to NYC to shoot the cover, I was reluctant as I did not want to leave my family alone, but I remember my kids saying “Get out of here!! Go get Sir Paul”, I did left and when I met Sir Paul, I quivered, I knew I was standing in front of a Beatle, it’s strange but it really was amazing, the highlight was Paul telling me about how the Beatles got to india, a long story!

NELSON MANDELA

NAVO: What is it like photographing another historical legend like Mr. Nelson Mandela?
VADUKUL: Mr. Mandela is everything I had expected, a prince. Charming all the way through and a statesman. I loved to be next to him even for a short time, the meeting happened in Monte Carlo in a 5 star hotel and his room was occupied by his family and Bono, when you photograph some one like Nelson Mandela it’s not work for me it was a chance to touch history.

NAVO: Who would you consider a visionary in the photography history?
VADUKUL: Richard Avedon

NAVO: There are thousands of new photographers each year and hundreds actually make it to the magazines and ad campaigns, are you following any of the new generation of photographer’s work? Anyone that stands out for you?
VADUKUL: Thousands yes but I only remember Nick Knight and Steven Meisel, kings have been replaced by echoes, sad to say.

NAVO: I have to say Richard Avedon, Nick Knight and Steven Meisel have inspired many generations of photographers including me, what inspires a Max Vadukul?
VADUKUL: I am wide open to life and its possibilities, inspiration comes from anywhere its infinite. I love history books, strong news journalism like the Guardian Newspaper, nothing fluffy, so for me bring it on. I am a good editor of what fits my frame.

AFRICA

NAVO: Whats the most iconic images that you remember while growing up Max?
VADUKUL: A lot of album art created by Hipnosis. I was really excited by the album art from Pink Floyd to Led Zep, the first time I saw Jumping Jack flash on tv, the video was mind-blowing with the dark guitar riff, the war paint makeup on Mick, unforgettable.

NAVO: What’s your favorite piece of artwork you own?
VADUKUL: In my home I own one piece of photography I bought for my wife, a photograph by Joseph Koudelka, a black dog in b&w sits on my mantel piece.

NAVO: Do you remember how old where you the first time you used a camera?
VADUKUL: I was about ten and I used my father’s Pentax Spotmatic.

NAVO: Why did you become a photographer?
VADUKUL: So many life experiences affect you, like my father taking me on safari’s on the east coast of Africa with a car loaded with telescopes and photographic gears. I got to see a lot of land and he was always taking pictures, so I think the seeds were there. Why?…well I love photography all of it was such a passion that there was no other choice plus it gave me a chance to be independent from tradition. I think I was 13 years old and I knew this is my destiny.

ALEX, ELOISE & NICOLETTA

NAVO: What does your love ones think about your craft and your profession?
VADUKUL: My parents were very proud when I had finally made it, but they were very grounded. I have two 20-year-old twins Alex, Eloise and my wife Nicoletta they look at everything and will be very harsh on the critique, no ego inflating stuff and we enjoy looking at the work, but it’s not an obsession for them they have their own lives, I think they know it’s very tough, I would say one of the most difficult professions to hold, so each to his own.

NAVO: What is your favorite part in being a photographer Max?
VADUKUL: Just to get my images published the way I see it is a thrill and honestly I love every aspect of my work, I simply love it .

NAVO: What do you think of the disappearance of a lot of magazines (367 magazines closed in 2009) for the past years?
VADUKUL: Too many magazines and it got to be like the Cane frogs in Australia just had to be a cull, my eyes would go blind at a magazine store so many and so much rubbish, I think less is more and quality will stand. All the echoes and hanger-ons will eventually die.

WHITE TIGER

NAVO: What’s an ideal regular vacation for you?
VADUKUL: Vacation for me is decompression time. I simply veg out, usually just by the ocean, reading, scuba diving, usually with the family.

NAVO: What’s the last book you’ve read lately and what is it about?
VADUKUL: “White Tiger “ by Aravind Adiga, it’s a dark comedy about a ‘social entrepreneur’ who committed murder. Set in modern India (Bangalore) and it’s a roller coaster of a book, very unsettling and dark. One of the best books I have read and I’m sure they will produce a movie out of this.

NAVO: What’s your top 3 favorite films and why?
VADUKUL: 1. ‘Wrath of God’ by Werner Herzog (1972), it’s the search for man’s lust for gold and a journey into a hopeless void, stunning photography. 2. ‘Peeping Tom’ by Michael Powell (1960), my favorite director because its one of the most disturbing films upto this day, a snuff movie stylized, destroyed the directors career. 3. ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ by Sir David Lean (1962), it’s a remarkable study of a perplexing character. I love all of David Lean’s films.

NAVO: I have to say the film Lawrence of Arabia is one of the reasons I was intrigued by the arab culture and I enjoyed living in the cities of Riyadh, Dammam and Dubai. Who’s your top 3 favorite Hollywood Icons?
VADUKUL: Clint Eastwood , Betty Davis, and Alfred Hitchcock.

NAVO: What’s your top 3 favorite records of all time Max?
VADUKUL: 1. The Wall, Pink Floyd, 2. Pat Metheny, Offramp, 3. Exile On Main Street, Rolling Stones.

CHARLES DARWIN

NAVO: What can you recommend to the young photographers who wants to make a living doing what you do?
VADUKUL: I do not wish to be didactic, but I would say you have one life just be yourself and do it your way, you can’t be pleasing everyone.

NAVO: If anybody have told me months ago, years ago that one day I’ll be interviewing you, I would say they’re nuts, and now here we are and I want to fish, what do you think about my work? As a young photographer, and as a writer/blogger?
VADUKUL: Well Mr. Navo your website is clean, clear and easy to navigate, clearly you are not a bullshitter, you say it the way it is and your work is to be praised and lifted. It’s a big effort so I think to get to that level of simplicity, you have a terrific website. I enjoyed your interviews and your questions, your life is only as good as the questions you ask, remember that. As a young photographer, I was showing your work to my daughter Eloïse who is 20 and she was like “wow, this guy is really good” and I thought that you have an eye and it’s up to you to be a one-off, so try to work on that.

NAVO: You have photographed a significant numbers of historical figures, if you’ll get a chance to photograph a dead historical figure, who will it be and why?
VADUKUL: Well I’m going to go off track here, I would have loved to have photographed Charles Darwin on his exploration to the Galápagos on the H.M.S. Beagle. Because the sights and the discovery he made would have made an incredible exhibition and because his insight into evolution is the most important discovery since we knew the earth was not flat.

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www.maxvadukul.com/

www.art-dept.com/artists/vadukul/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Vadukul

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Books
• Max: Photographs by Max Vadukul. New York: Callaway Publications, 2000.
• Crazy Horse. New York: Piccolo Press, 2001.

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2010/01/15/mert-alas-a-fashion-icon-interview-by-navo/

________________________

info@navostudios.com

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Alexander Mcqueen, Anna Wintour, Bob Richardson, British Vogue, Bruce Weber, Chile, Chloé, Christian Lacroix, Escada, French Vogue, GQ, Gucci, Haiti, Harper's Bazaar, I-D, Jay Z, Johnny Knoxville, Kanye West, Karl Lagerfeld, Kate Moss, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lindsay Lohan, Lope Navo, Manolo Blahniks, Miu Miu, naiveboy.com, Pharell Williams, President Obama, Rie Rasmussen, Sisley, Terry Richardson, Tom Ford, Yohji Yamamoto

THE MEAT MARKET: ‘UNCLE’ TERRY RICHARDSON by Navo

In Fashion, Pop Culture, my novel, photography, politics, viewpoints on March 23, 2010 at 7:10 pm

(Part 1)

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
– Obi-Wan, Star Wars (1977)

All Images by Terry Richardson, excluding this ones.

Frivolous.

Vain.

Materialistic.

Shallow.

Excessive.

Catty.

Racist.

Sexist.

Agist.

Pretentious.

Superficial.

Playful.

Diva.

Pimp.

Wierd.

Creepy.

Snub.

Junky.

Sleazy.

Exploitative.

Crazy.

Scandalous.

Dirty.

Stupid.

There are many adjectives we use to describe the fashion industry and those who make their living in it. Can you just imagine a child raised with this kind of adjectives? Wouldn’t he be as fucked-up as fashion photographer Bob Richardson‘s 45 yr old son? Have you seen Terry Richardson‘s Kibosh Book (now $195.75 @ amazon.com, 358 X-rated color images, published in 2005), dozens of shots showing Uncle Terry having a fun-day ejaculating over some top models faces (mouth, ears and eyes) while being photographed with a point and shoot camera? Not pornstars, but high-fashion agency models, the big question here is why those images don’t shock us anymore? Can fashion photographer Steven Klein, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber and other Vogue Magazine favorites like Terry get away shooting some fashion agency model with their very own sperm-facial, publishing it as a photo book and call it ‘HIGH FASHION ART’ for a couple of hundred dollars?

Money’s tight for everyone these days, and it doesn’t exclude the fashion élite, whether you’re wearing Chuck Taylors or Manolo Blahniks, everybody gets up in the morning and puts on some clothes, fashion is a vital part of who we are, whether we admit it or not. Fashion is a social and cultural expression or if we get carried away, could result to the maxed-out credit cards, and could also be a mindless distraction or escape from the ‘real problems’ of the world today.

Thinking about it, what made me fall in love with fashion photography for less than a decade now is actually the words — Teamwork, Creativity, Passion, and Genius, but these days are overshadowed by those aforementioned.

HIGH-FASHION SUICIDE

Do you believe that things happen for a reason?

- Is there a reason a legendary designer like Alexander Mcqueen hanged himself during recession? (hooray for metaphors)
- Is there a reason Anna Wintour (US Vogue editor) swallowed her pride and aggressively rubbing her wrinkled elbows with us commoners, becoming more and more media-friendly these days and sacrificing her image as an “Snub Ice-Queen”?
- Is there a reason the most iconic fashion giants and elites filed for bankruptcy this year like Christian Lacroix, Escada, Fred Leighton, Lambertson Truex, Charles Chang-Lima, Maria Pinto, Eric Gaskins, Yohji Yamamoto to name a few?
- Is there a reason the gods of fashion can’t afford Bryan Park for NY Fashion week anymore?

- Is there a reason 367 magazines closed in 2009, including significant numbers of fashion magazines and the ones that still exist are anorexic in pages and advertisements?

- Is there a reason thousands of fashion retail stores closed down in 2009 alone and more are predicted closing down their business in 2010?

Yes. The fashion world is now facing a reality check on things. The fashion gurus and magazine editors/writers might dismiss this as an economic phase and deny that they are not affected by the global shift of priorities, but the tell-tale signs listed above are evidences of a very dark-future for fashion – consumer’s priorities are becoming more and more realistic and it doesn’t include a $20,000 clutch bag and a $100,000 wedding dress. The fashion stratosphere cares more about diamond encrusted high heel shoes than the earthquake in Chile or Haiti, they care more about Project Runway than why the world’s no# 1 terrorist Osama Bin Laden is still at large and having an R&R in Pakistani cave somewhere, the fashion world is facing an earthquake and terror of its own – the fashion world’s inevitable demise.

UNCLE TERRY

You create a hyped up, overrated industry filled with morally challenged, below average IQ level over-achievers, sprinkle it with cattyness, bitchiness and diva-syndrome and viola, you’ll have a recipe for disaster that is waiting to happen, majority of fashion people are tailor fit for a BRAVO reality show, why? Because reality show stars have to be psychologically imbalanced to begin with and where can you find most people with a.d.d. and all this craziness? The FASHION INDUSTRY. Where they have theyre own government, they have their own queens, they have theyre own kings, and they have theyre own world with a set of rules or lack of rules they play within.

What’s polarizing the fashion blogosphere lately (and female blogosphere taken up arms against)? Two Words – Uncle Terry. One of fashion industry’s favorite son is under attack. Everyone’s seems to be cooperating on this wierd social experiment. But before we open our lips, let the man’s work speak for itself.

THE PERVERTED RINGLEADER

“I think for people in the fashion industry, the way Terry Richardson works has been an open secret for a long time, I think a lot of people tolerate it in public because of his extraordinary power within the industry. In private I think many are very disturbed by his history of behaviour with many of the models he works with.” - Jenna Sauers, Jezebel fashion editor

“It’s likely that he approaches all girls the same way: gauge the situation, drop some names, take out your trouser monster, and see what you can get them to do.” – Jamie Peck, model who posed for Richardson at 19

So the photographer who has made a career out of seeming like a pervert is actually a pervert? What a shocker! All of us have no idea that Terry Richardson fucks models. Who in the right mind would ever want to fuck a beautiful fashion agency model anyways? The fashion industry shows young girls with their tits and ass hanging out and now it’s a surprise that an actual photographer bangs them? It’s an industry filled with crazy people and big personalities. The boundaries are different than purely corporate enterprise. It’s not IBM, it’s a business with beautiful girls, sex, and malfeasance. To single out one person as some sort of ringleader is absurd. We traffic in human bodies. Human Meat.

UNCLE BRUCE WEBER

The world has become desensitized to Terry Richardson’s point of view, the Terryworld. Only in an industry like this that a successful, powerful fashion photographer will always be above scrutiny, and those against him are jealous haters. Some say he’s a Jurgen Teller, Walter Pfieffer, Dov Charney hack. Some say he’s an overpaid sex addict with a point and shoot while Uncle Terry is laughing all the way to the bank. The genius behind Terry Richardson: Normalizing sexual harassment in fashion and celebrity photography. Anna Wintour approved it, Carine Roitfeld approved it, Tom Ford approved it, Marc Jacobs approved it, countless fashion royalties approved it, even President Obama approved it with a handshake and a thumbs-up (Republican’s will feast on this), now how can it be wrong? It only make sense that the rest of us (the consumers) approve it. What about ‘Uncle’ Bruce Weber? Everybody in the industry knows about the big elephant in the room, it’s also an open-secret, all the sexual conquest of Bruce Weber (whose career spawned for 3 or 4 decades shooting hundreds of nekkid boys every year) are a favorite coffee break topic, why are you calling Uncle Terry the ring leader? This bring us to the true topic that this is not about Terry Richardson, or Uncle Terry, Rie Rasmussen, or Jamie Peck or Bruce Weber, it’s not about sex or sexual harrassment, it’s all about POWER, the person who can blacklist you from the Fashion Industry, the person with the most powerful connections, the person with their fingers hotwired in different buttons, the person who can afford a better lawyer will always triumph and dominate, exhibit A: The Vatican (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/world/europe/21pope.html)

GOVERNMENT APPROVED PERVERSION

Lets checkout Uncle Terry’s Client rosters: Gucci, Sisley, Miu Miu, Chloe, Tom Ford, French Vogue, British Vogue, i-D, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Purple, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Vincent Gallo, Jay Z, Kanye West, Johnny Knoxville, Karl Lagerfeld, Pharell Williams, Lindsay Lohan, Kate Moss, and President Obama. Uncle Terry admitted in a latest interview, “At first, I’d just want to do a few nude shots, so I’d take off my clothes, too … I’d even give the camera to the model and get her to shoot me for a while. It’s about creating a vibe, getting people relaxed and excited. When that happens you can do anything. I don’t think I’m a sex addict, but I do have issues. Maybe it’s the psychological thing that I was a shy kid, and now I’m this powerful guy with his boner, dominating all these girls”. Terry Richardson is a product of our societies demand for perversed and sexual images, he is a product or a mutated hybrid of capitalism. He brings us to that Terryworld whenever we look and buy his images or the products that his images are selling, we don’t only condone his perverted way of looking at things but we celebrate it, and we are shocked to know that there is a perverted man behind those perverted images? What are you expecting? a Mother Theresa or a Bill Gates would be behind those images? Or a clean-cut catholic priest? Oh sorry, they’re more perverted than an Uncle Terry (they don’t even work in Fashion for God’s sake they only rape 6-year-old boys and girls).

THE MODEL BOOKERS

Who did Terry frantically called (and maybe yelled at) the next day to complain when Supermodel Rie Rasmussen gave a furious tongue-lashing at a Paris fashion event, shaming the powerful photographer? Rie’s Model Agency. One thing is sure, Rie Rasmussen is toast, french toast.

When bloggers tried to reach Terry’s side of the story through his agent, manager and assistant, they didn’t return calls or e-mails. A rep at his agency, Art Partner, told New York Post: “I don’t know anything about this. Terry is on a plane from Paris.” Who are the guardians and so-called protectors of the models? THE MODEL BOOKERS, who would stop sending models to a photographer who’s clients ranges from Gucci, Sisley, Miu Miu, Chloe, Tom Ford, French Vogue, British Vogue, i-D, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar? It’s all business at the end of the day and they use the models to “exchange goods”, like corrupt cops who steals crack from a drug dealer, most of the time the defenders are the oppressors, the Model Bookers sometimes cant help but taste the meat first… literally (but that will be discussed more on THE MEAT MARKET Part 2: THE LIVES OF GAY MALE BOOKERS). For the rest of the world this could be a shocker, but for people like Ana Wintour (the proclaimed god of American Fashion), and all the fashion hipsters, Uncle Terry doesn’t shock them anymore, checkout the Terry Richardson: Kibosh Book ($195.75) and Uncle Terry having a fun-day ejaculating over the top models faces, and these are the models that agreed to be published, I could just imagine the countless girls that didn’t, but actually been shot the same way.

JEALOUS HATERS

At the end of the day, all this talk will lead to Uncle Terry’s day-rate tripling or date-rape tripling? Who wouldn’t be jealous of a Terry Richardson?

All this publicity is only increasing his notoriety and his vision which is Scandal. Frivolous. Vain. Materialistic. Shallow. Excessive. Catty. Racist. Sexist. Agist. Pretentious. Superficial. Playful. Diva. Pimp. Wierd. Creepy. Snub. Junky. Sleazy. Exploitative. Crazy. Scandalous. Dirty. Stupid.

Welcome to the World of Fashion, Who’s your ‘Uncle’ now?

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/12/i-want-to-have-sex-with-mr-tom-ford-by-navo/

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info@navostudios.com

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GREG GORMAN: A HOLLYWOOD ICON INTERVIEW by Navo

In Arts, Books, EXCLUSIVES, INTERVIEW, Icons, Movies, Pop Culture, photography on February 17, 2010 at 1:46 am

“What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.” – Lord Byron, English poet and satirist (1788-1824)

THE FAN AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER

(LA) When can I separate the fan from the photographer? I’ve started this blog actively 4 months ago a day after the legendary lensman Mr. Irving Penn died, his lost was my first blog entry. Ever since, interviewing photographers has given me a great pleasure and opportunity to discover things about myself and I can’t help but be starstrucked by these visionaries, for some people it sounds like a straight-up major ass-kissing articles, but only a true fan of portrait photography, like me, can understand the surreal feeling of this experience. Most of the photographers that I had featured and will be featured in Naiveboy.com are probably the busiest people you’ll ever meet in your life, they travel a lot, they work everyday, they’re the most in-demand people in the industry and you’ll rarely read them in blogs for an intensive interview like this, because in the photography world that I live in, they are the rock stars, they are the celebrities, they are the legends.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE

In the 2008 film How to Lose Friends & Alienate People starring Simon Pegg as Sidney Young, based on the memoir (with the same title) of British journalist Toby Young and the tale of his stint in New York as a contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. The movie version was neither sharp nor satirical, the film misses the point of the source material completely, but there are few parts in the film that made the movie worth watching for me, I remember the promising first 2 seconds, the first line was “When I was a kid I used to think there was a special place where all the movie stars lived, a kind of Shangri-La, if you can just get inside there, you’ll be happy, forever.” and the scene where Young have a moment with his philosopher/published author father in his dilapidated New York city apartment:

Father: I picked up your magazine at the airport, most enjoyable, I particularly like the young hollywood actress who said she would like to start a theatre career somewhere small like London or England (laughed)
Sidney Young: Why would you always do this?
Father: It’s just a little joke.
Sidney Young: It’s not a little joke, its just your way of saying that what I do is worthless.
Father: I don’t think it’s worthless, I just think you know in your heart that you could be doing more with your life.
Sidney Young: More? Sharp magazine (Vanity Fair magazine) is one of the most respected magazine’s in the world, there’s a million hacks that would kill to be where I am. You know who I hang out with just today? Orlando Bloom.
Father: (paused) I don’t know who that is?
Sidney Young: Ofcourse you don’t know who that is, you thought Brad Pitt was a cave in Yorkshire. Most people do know who that is. And most people wouldn’t think a journalist hanging out with celebrities like that was a disappointment.

ADORATION

I think those two scenes are hilarious but also true, it’s familiar for many of us, working in an industry of physical appearances you are surrounded by unreal people who worship celebrities like no one else does, and it’s their world and some of us just happen to work on it. For the rest of the world (like Young’s philosopher father) they don’t even exist. I just have this naive idea of a world, where a generation growing up adoring scientist, astronauts, artist, musicians, philosophers, doctors and NOT brain-dead pop stars, no-talent movie stars, politicians, and reality show stars that are being force-fed to us every single day of our lives.

MR. HENDRIX

Jimi Hendrix is considered by most of us, if not all of us, as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music, one of the most influential musicians in the human history. Can you imagine a kid growing up looking up to a Jimi Hendrix? You can’t deny that most musicians born during and after Hendrix have been a fan and has been starstrucked once in their lives by his genius, probably some of those adoring fan’s in the 60′s and the 70′s buying his concert tickets, following him in tours, collecting all his records, have all growned up and now leading the modern music industry, and for another 18-year-old boy born in Kansas City, Missouri, have photographed Mr. Hendrix and changed his life completely, the boy became an influential voice in the world of photography and his name is Greg Gorman. I think that’s how electricity is transfered from person to person, you start out as a fan of someone else’s work.

MR. DICAPRIO

I was in highschool the first time I got aware of Mr. Gorman’s work, it was the unforgettable images of the very talented young actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the beautiful faces of Maxwell Caulfield, Keanu Reeves, Jared Leto, Greg Knudson, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Rodney Harvey that made me an instant fan. Greg Gorman’s works that have appeared in Esquire, GQ, Interview, Life, Vogue, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Time, and Vanity Fair magazines have always reminded me of my teen years and why I love the beautiful celebrities and what they represent to me as a photographer now, they are the muses.

This world-exclusive one-on-one interview with Mr. Gorman is a full circle for me, the 18-year-old boy who once collected the images of a Mr. DiCaprio is sitting for a Q&A with the 18-year-old boy who have once have photographed a Mr. Hendrix.

LIVE IN PARIS VOLUME 2

LOPE NAVO: Thank you for dropping by Naiveboy.com Greg, I’ve chatted with you for a while now and I’ve been itching to ask what is it like photographing a Jimi Hendrix?
GREG GORMAN: I really don’t remember! I was 18 years old and it was my first experience shooting. I was probably stoned and enjoying the concert. The following morning after seeing Jimi Hendrix , I processed the film in a friend’s dark room and when I saw the image coming up in the developer, I was hooked! I subsequently enrolled in a photojournalism class at the University of Kansas where I began my formal studies.

NAVO: What camera did you use?
GORMAN: A Honeywell Pentax 35mm camera with an 85mm lens.

NAVO: What’s your top 3 favorite albums/records of all time?
GORMAN: 1. Miles Davis “In a Silent Way”, 2. Chet Baker “Live in Paris Volume 2”, and John Coltrane “A Love Supreme”

THREE MOST BEAUTIFUL FACES

NAVO: You’ve basically photographed virtually all the most beautiful people in the world in my book, I remember very clearly from highschool about your sublime images of young Maxwell Caulfield, Keanu Reeves, Jared Leto, Greg Knudson, Heath Ledger, Rodney Harvey, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Who’s the 3 most beautiful faces you’ve photographed?

GORMAN: 1. Kim Basinger, 2. Sophia Loren, and 3. Alex Pettyfer.

HOW MUCH DID THEY PAY YOU SON?

NAVO: What do you think is the best part in being a photographer?
GORMAN: The best part about being a photographer above and beyond the energy rush of knowing when you are connecting photographically with the subject is the opportunity of getting the chance to meet and know the individuals in front of your lens that in most ordinary circumstances might never happen. I don’t even necessarily mean a celebrity per se but any individual you might fancy getting to know and the prospects of them being photographed can often lead to a friendship if the communication channels are open and flowing. Part of the entire process is about being part-time psychologist - to be able to come up or down to their level to put them at ease: make them feel comfortable and most of all confident, attractive and in touch with themselves.

NAVO: At what point did you know you want a career in photography?
GORMAN: That one on one communication that no other profession can provide like photography. My mother was always extremely supportive and encouraging. My father thought it was a waste of my time because he thought I would never make enough money! After photographing the five most powerful women in Hollywood (Barbra Streisand, Jessica Lange, Sally Field, Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda) for the cover of Life Magazine, I told my father, thinking it would impress him, but his response to me was “how much did they pay you, son?”

NAVO: Speaking of Life Magazine, I’ve asked this question a couple of times to my recent interviews, there are 367 magazines closed in 2009 alone, what do you think about this?
GORMAN: I think in many ways the onset of digital as great as it is in many of the arenas of photography, has been detrimental in terms of the hard copy. Particularly in the world of journalism. I prefer to look at a magazine while holding it in my hands – not reading it online.

NAVO: Whats the last book you’ve read lately and what is it about?
GORMAN: The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace. It was basically about the sale of the world’s most expensive bottle of wine and the entire sham behind it.

NAVO: Who’s your favorite historical figure?
GORMAN: Mikhail Gorbachev for his contributions to Global Green and for being forefront in creating the awareness of our planet’s need to solve its environmental issues.

HOLLYWOOD ICONS

NAVO: If you’ll get a chance to photograph a dead icon, who will it be and why?
GORMAN: Strangely, I would have liked to photograph Boris Karloff or Bela Lugosi. That stems from my childhood infatuation with horror films and monster movies.

NAVO: Speaking of Hollywood movies, Whats your top 3 favorite films and why?

GORMAN: 1. Ingmar Bergman‘s ’Skammen’/ ‘Shame‘ (1968), for it’s cinematography and content, 2. Federico Fellini‘s ‘8 & ½’ (1963), need I say more?, 3. Akira Kurosawa‘s ‘Dodesukaden‘ (1970) and ‘Dersu Uzala‘ (1975), beautifully realized fables.

NAVO: Those are some of the best film directors that ever lived, who’s your top 3 favorite Hollywood Icons then?
GORMAN: 1. Bette Davis, 2. Martin Scorcese, and 3. George Hurrell

NAVO: How about your top 3 favorite actors of all time?
GORMAN: 1. Leonardo DiCaprio, 2. John Hurt, and 3. Divine

NAVO: Top 3 favorite actress?
GORMAN: 1. Bridget Bardot, 2. Liv Ullman, and 3. Divine

ESCAPE THE HOLLYWOOD SYNDROME

NAVO: What is the top 5 favorite movie posters you’ve ever shot?
GORMAN: 1. Tootsie, 2. Pearl Harbor, 3. Man in Iron Mask, 4. King Arthur, and 5. Pirates of the Caribbean.

NAVO: One thing I always remember growing up looking at your work, besides your signature breathtaking bodyscapes are the landscapes and locations that you use in your backdrops. Whats your top 3 favorite locations that you’ve ever shot and why?
GORMAN: 1. The Sand Dunes at Ten Mile Beach near Mendocino for their continual change and mystery which present challenges each time I shoot there. 2. The Okavango Delta in Botswana for its enormous scope and spiritual presence. 3. Pierce Brosnan’s new beach house during construction! The house is filled with an incredible amount of natural light. The windows are covered with plastic, since they haven’t been installed yet, which gives the enormous space the feeling of one giant soft box of natural light. Quite extraordinary!

NAVO: What’s an ideal vacation getaway for a Greg Gorman?
GORMAN: An ideal vacation for me depends on my needs and they can vary greatly! Sometimes I just need total downtime to escape the Hollywood Syndrome and that usually means time alone with my dogs at my Mendocino retreat-hiking/fishing and biking. Other times at this stage of my life, I enjoy traveling to far away places I have yet to see and visit. This has been pretty high on my priority list. I have tried to incorporate teaching workshops in cities where I can spend more time enjoying the essence of the locales. I am teaching this spring for instance in Paris, Tel Aviv and on the coast of the Baltic Sea in Zingst. Last year I taught in San Miguel and in Budapest. It has been great because I have actually had enough time in each city to really get a feeling of day-to-day life there.

IN THEIR YOUTH

NAVO: Where were you born and where did you grew up?
GORMAN: I was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in Mission Hills, Kansas. I moved to Los Angeles at age 20 in 1970 after attending the University of Kansas.

NAVO: I got the copy of your latest book Greg Gorman ‘In their Youth’ and I can’t deny the fact that I have a crush on the boy holding a huge Trout on the book jacket. What’s the story behind it?
GORMAN: Kind of a funny story! When I was putting the project together in the final stages, my very dear friend, Audrey Wells, a terrific screenwriter and director, who interviewed me for the forward felt that since so many of the images in the book were also taken when I was in my ‘youth’ that my portrait should reflect a similar time in my life. This image is so appropriate because it was taken by one of my best friends at the time, who coincidentally was the same person who loaned me his camera to photograph Jimi Hendrix and helped me process the film in his darkroom. His name is Marlin”Buzz” Gher and he is a dental surgeon living with his family near San Diego. We were on a rafting trip in Wyoming where I caught this German Brown Trout in the Green River in Pinedale, Wyoming. I love to fish so I felt this picture held many memories and couldn’t have been more fitting considering all the ties!

NAVO: Now its my time to fish, I consider you to be one of the most influential portrait photographer out there, your iconic b&w images and your unforgettable photo books have been one of my greatest inspirations growing up and loving photography, I would love to know what do you think of my work?
GORMAN: I felt your images not only grasped the subjects in a bold austere way but presented the subjects in a very good light! Something I can’t say about many of today’s photographers whose imagery is this strange non-flattering pseudo editorial style that in most cases I find rather appalling and terribly forgettable in terms of memorable images. That is one of the things that drew me to your work – your respect for your subjects.

NAVO: What can you advise the young men and women who wants to make a living photographing the most beautiful and interesting people in the world?
GORMAN: Good fucking luck! Follow your heart, start by photographing people you are very attracted to as this will most likely yield the best results to get you started, develop and showcase your own unique style to separate you from all those out there copying others. Be aware of all the editorial work being created so you can set a benchmark in achieving your success.

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GREG GORMAN Books
•   Greg Gorman – Volume I (1989)
•   Greg Gorman – Volume II (1991)
•   Greg Gorman Inside Life (1996) (foreword by John Waters) ISBN 978-0847819980
•   Greg Gorman As I see It (2001) ISBN 978-1576870877
•   Greg Gorman Perspectives (2002)
•   Greg Gorman: Just Between Us (2003) ISBN 978-1892041807
•   Journal of the 21st Century: Greg Gorman (2007)
•   In Their Youth: Early Portraits (2009) ISBN 978-8862080972

http://www.amazon.com/Greg-Gorman-Their-Youth/dp/8862080972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266439852&sr=8-1

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http://www.gormanworkshops.com

http://www.gormanphotography.com

http://www.photopress-production.com

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http://www.amazon.com/How-Lose-Friends-Alienate-People/dp/0306812274

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2010/01/15/mert-alas-a-fashion-icon-interview-by-navo/

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info@navostudios.com

500 Days of Summer, Billy Crudup, Boogie Nights, Bryan Christie, DANGEROUSLY NAIVE, Dian Hanson, Dick in a Box, Dirk Diggler, Dr. Manhattan, HBO Hung, Jonah Hill, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Lope Navo, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Phelps, MTV Movie Awards, Music, naiveboy.com, Oscar Wilde, Paul Thomas Anderson, Penis, Penis Anatomy, Superbad, Ted Noten, The Big Penis Book, Thomas Jane, Vivienne Westwood, Watchmen, Zach Efron

THE PENIS SAGA: QUEST FOR LADY GAGA’S MANHOOD by Navo

In Arts, Movies, Pop Culture, viewpoints on January 6, 2010 at 4:06 pm

PART I

“Mine has a mind of its own.” ~ Oscar Wilde

A COCK AND BULL STORY

The Latin word for “tail” is the origin of the word “penis“, the Latin word “phallus” (from Greek φαλλος) is sometimes used to describe it. In Tagalog its called “burat” (erect penis) or “titi” (slang), and in arabic its “zib” قضيب. They say the penis is the primary functioning organ of a male human being that comes in many shapes, sizes, and personal pet names. Also known as the cock, El cock or Le Cock, Cockadoodle, chalupa, the ant in the pants, the angry eye tube, banana, bazooka, big dipper, little dipper, the bird, the boner, bottom finger, dick, ding-dong, the ankle-spanker, the blue-veined junket pumper, badger, the beast, dipstick, the doughnut holder, free willy, the family jewels, the fibulator, Dr. Love, Eggs ‘n’ sausage, Excalibur, granite edifice, the gigglestick, gristle missile, hairy bagpipes, the hard on, Harry & the Hendersons (Hendersons are the balls), handlebars, hole hunter, hose, heat-seeking moisture missile, hard candy n’ lollipop, Hancock, injection, IT, jack hammer, Jesus-juice maker, johnson, John Thomas, joy stick, knob, kidney-cracker, love muscle, light saber, little luddy, THE MAN, man meat, meat cigar, meat wrench, member, missile, my little friend, microphone, one hole friction whistle, the one-eyed trouser snake, the purple headed yogurt slinger, nightcrawler, pecker, pee-pee, peter, Peter Piper, popsicle, pork sword, pork ‘n’ beans, pole, prick, pussy plunger, hot rod, Richard and the Twins, Ralph The Fur Faced Chicken, sex pistol, salty dog, hotdog, shaft, schlong, spunk stick, stiffy, the Sodomizor 2000, throbber, the Tallywhacker, the legend, Lightning rod, Magic wand, Man’s best friend, Miner, Moby Dick, Nob, Old blind Bob, Tobias the Cheeky Monkey, the pink oboe, pinga, piss pump, Pumping Pole of Penile Power, Purple-Helmeted Warrior, python of love, sausage, Shake ‘n’ Bake, sperm whale, snoop dog, the torpedo, tank, tool, thermometer, tube steak, Vlad The Impaler, vertical stick, wanker, wazzu, wang, wee-wee, weiner, woody, yardstick, your every pain reliever, your boss, your daddy, 100% all american beef, 2 sided sword, 2 kegs n a nozzle, and I’m sure there are more names out there but I would like to think I’m clever so I’m adding “Tiger’s Wood” (© my copyright). This is PART I of the Penis Saga, finding Harry & the Hendersons in the most unexpected places in film, tv, music, sports, art and fashion.

A LADY’S MAN-HOOD

In Hollywood where rumors and urban legends are abound, “is he GAY?” OR “is she HERMAPHRODITE” is the name of the popular penis “Guessing Game”. People are too bored nowadays, the thousands of blogs, YouTube videos and websites dedicated in the Quest for pop star Lady Gaga‘s (Stefani Joanne Germanotta) infamous schlong is that evidence. A society where the business of “the Cock” is the business of everyone.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, CHALUPA

In 500 Days of Summer (one of my ten best films of 2009) Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) are playing “the Penis Game” in a downtown LA public park, taking turns saying “penis” louder and louder each time (like suffering from a Tourette’s Syndrome) providing one of the funniest scenes in the movie. After being asked, Summer tells Tom about some of her past lovers including a guy named “Puma” focusing on the genital bulge down part of his pants leg in a still photo and zoomed close-up, thats why Summer and Puma “barely left the room” as she recalled.

The newest HBO Series, Hung that premiered in 2009 stars Thomas Jane as Ray Drecker, a struggling suburban Detroit high school basketball coach who resorts to prostitution after discovering the one biggest “asset” he can use to his advantage. The second episode is titled “Great Sausage or Can I Call You Dick?” and the finale titled, “A Dick and a Dream”.

The critically acclaimed 1997 Boogie Nights written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson stars Mark Wahlberg as Dirk Diggler a dimwitted high school dropout with a 13-inch penis who is recruited into the porn industry. The famous scene in which Dirk Diggler whipping out his enormous, prosthetic flaccid penis and the director being quoted: “that is Mark Wahlberg’s penis”. Wahlberg’s penis was nominated for best visual effects award at the MTV Movie Awards that year. One of my favorite director and favorite films of all time where the star is Mark’s Richard and the Twins.

Jonah Hill’s character Seth in 2007′s amazingly hilarious Superbad had a flashback story where the young Seth drawing penis after penis in class, at home and everywhere he goes.

In the Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (2009) the big blue Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) has a swinging big blue penis, that Snyder commented: “Yeah. It looks like a bell clacker.” Dave Gibbons, who illustrated the graphic novel, chimes in: “Swing, swing.” A historical breakthrough appearance by a pecker in an american graphic novel-adapted superhero movie, bravo.

POP GOES THE WEASEL

He brought the SEXY BACK (and front), the droolworthy Justin Timberlake boosted his career by making you lust for his penis, by grabbing it like MJ, subliminally yanking it out on photo shoots, in public and movies, putting it in a “box” (and singing about it), making sure you ache for more.

Zach Efron is following Mr. Justin’s “sexy swings” by teasing his multitudes of fanatic teenagers all over the globe with his shirtless, wet-look, public display of manliness.

The sexy swimmer Michael Phelps caused quite a stir during the Olympics, his amazing torso and his wet skin-tight speedos are leaving nothing to the imagination, just the way we like it. One of the hottest athletes out there, no question.

ARTISTIC ERECTION

The giant Penis Chandelier, created by a Dutch company called Rock and Royal, a penis inspired chinese art, and the penis necklaces and pendants by Vivienne Westwood (silver satyr riding a tiger’s eye penis), also the Vivienne Westwood Penis Drop Pendant, for only $138. All are collectibles for the decadent fans of the one-eyed monster.

Dutch conceptual jeweller Ted Noten‘s limited edition bone china dildo with 24k gold plated valve costs approx $3,800.00. The perfect “Dick in a Box” literally.

Bryan Christie‘s “Penis Anatomy” illustration for Men’s Health Magazine (medical article).

An illustration art map of New York in the shape of a huge pinga.

The Big Penis Book by Dian Hanson (Hardcover ) $37.79 in amazon.com, a handsome volume of essays and well-chosen vintage photographs about the Purple Headed Yogurt Slinger. Followed by some unknown arts that illustrates the dong in different styles and some runway models strutting their money-making sex-pistols.

SHAKE ‘N’ BAKE

There’s also a new cock in town! Your new favourite naïveboy.com has made waves, shrills and giggles that it went straight up to #12 on the fastest growing blogs (out of thousands of new blogs all over the world) in the span of 3 months.

Who’s your Daddy now?

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Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/11/erect-phallic-symbols-of-dubai-by-navo/

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info@navostudios.com

AFGHANISTAN, AMERICA's MOST STUPID, Ana Wintour, Bradgelina, BRAVO Network, Britney Spears, DANGEROUSLY NAIVE, George Bush, IRAQ, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, Lope Navo, Louis Vuitton bags, Miley Cyrus, naiveboy.com, Osama Bin Laden, PAKISTAN, Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul, PEREZ HILTON, Robert Pattinson, RPatz, Sarah Palin, Tyra Banks

THE DECADE OF STUPID: THE 10-YEAR HUNT FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN by Navo

In Earth, politics, viewpoints on December 30, 2009 at 6:46 am

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STUPID AND PROUD OF IT

“Is ignorance truly bliss? Are people with non-existing intelligence happier than the rest of the species?”

Happy New Year! Thank you for all the growing followers of DANGEROUSLY NAIVE (a 3-months old blog). I was working on my novel and while reviewing the 00′s highlights, I just realize what a dumb decade that was, years overwhelmingly dominated by “celebrities” advertising their ignorance like a billboard, the rise of reality shows (featuring the most clueless loonies that ever walk the face of the earth), the wacked global economy and countless people who lost their jobs or countless people who lost their lives this past 10 years, a civilization rotting to its very core. How the hell did that happen? Two words: STUPID PEOPLE. If you track the roots of all the misery (like a forensic investigator in CSI), it all goes down to stupidity of some people in power, and most of them are major celebrities. When a celebrity’s dirt, personal life, breakdowns, delusions, scandals and stupidity are more interesting than their talents, leadership, and just being good role models like the old days, the world actually watch stupid celebrities humiliate themselves on TV makes this decade the most mind-boggling. Reality shows and networks, YouTube, Magazines, Tabloids, Blogs, Talk Shows, and innocent mindless office coffee break chats work hand-in-hand in glamoriz-ing these stupid celebrities of the world.

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BIG DUMB FUN IS JUST BIG DUMB FUN

I own a decent size plasma tv that I only use to watch select films, documentaries or to peek at what the rest of the world is watching these days, a glaring 90 % of the programs are targeted towards the idiot demographics, can you blame me for not having any interest? When USA’s version of a vampire movie is “TWILIGHT” compared to Sweden’s “LET THE RIGHT ONE IN” and South Korea’s “THIRST”, you can really see the cultural inferiority of Hollywood in 2009 alone. Sometimes big dumb fun is just big dumb fun, I’m not that square not to enjoy Cameron Diaz’s Charlies Angels or Johnny Depp’s Pirate Trilogy, but there’s a certain stupidity that my brain can only take before it actually bleeds. Every month US Networks and Film Productions seems to successfully raise the STUPID-BAR down a notch. I’ve never seen MTV’s Jersey Shore (from its reviews, sounds like it marks TV history’s rock-bottom) but I know some people who watch it to feel better about themselves. Jerry Springer babies like Tyra Banks, Paula Abdul, Perez Hilton have done so well this decade, for having no talent, low IQ and zero substance, its humiliating for those people who actually have something to say. The same people who failed every single subject in school, dropped out, or kicked out, are dominating the world’s media, teaching the not so bright kids of the world to be like them, American Media is raising mini-stupids every single day. They are the reminders of having an IQ of an oven toaster can make you famous and filthy rich, the message to all the kids around the globe who owns a TV set or have an internet access every time they click the keyboards or the remote control. A world of blissful ignorance, clueless celebrities but have strong opinions all the same, and have a very passionate fan club that will commit Jihad to protect their honor (like Osama Bin Laden’s fan club, but thats a totally new topic). If the television and internet is the new classroom for our next generation, the following 12 people below are the new heroes produced this decade, and the world’s future has never been so dark to say the very least.

“When it comes to my celebrity interviews, I’m going to do a lot deeper research and ask them things that people haven’t asked before, … I’ve been on the other side so much, I have a leg up on a person that has only just interviewed people.” -Tyra Banks

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, have delusions of grandeur of being smart, vain, having no talent, shallow and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“My videos stand the test of time. They are like the almanac for every performer. Even Rhianna has come up to me and said ‘I hope you don’t mind.’ And Beyonce. You can see the influence of what I’ve done.”, “It’s really fun to see that I’ve left a mark. It was my idea to create an animated character. It takes a lot of focus, a lot time, and a lot of money.” -Paula Abdul

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, coke head, hardcore junkie, having no talent, vain, delusional, pathological liar and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage. Miss California lost because she’s a dumb bitch.” – Perez Hilton (Mario Armando Lavandeira)

WHAT HE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, pathological liar, having no talent, delusional, vain, gossip queen, shallow and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

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TYPHOID MARYS

There is a plague this decade, and never before in the history of civilization that a plague is shamelessly advertised in billboards, tv, radio, magazines, and the world-wide web. Just one click and your exposed to the plague, and with the rate of inbreeding in today’s society it seems unstoppable and our future is a bit scary, like one of those zombie scenes in 28 Days Later (which by the way is an intelligent piece of filmmaking, it’s a metaphor for stupid people spreading disease). Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Sarah Palin, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan and Ana Wintour in fact are carriers, the Typhoid Mary‘s of moronic quotes whenever you see or hear them anywhere, and everybody seems to listen to what they have to say.

“Every woman should have four pets in her life. A mink in her closet, a jaguar in her garage, a tiger in her bed, and a jackass who pays for everything.” – Paris Hilton

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, coke head, junkie, having no talent, vain, delusional, materialistic, slut and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“I am for the death penalty. Who commits terrible acts must get a fitting punishment. That way he learns the lesson for the next time.“ – Britney Spears

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, coke head, junkie, having no talent, delusional, vain, materialistic, slut and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you. (Same as above)

“As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.” – Sarah Palin

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, have delusions of grandeur of being smart, shallow, delusional, and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“I’ll be out with my friends and be recognized, and little girls will ask me for my autograph. It is so much fun living out your dream. It, like, totally reflects me 100%.”- Miley Cyrus

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, shallow, delusional, having no talent, vain, materialistic, slut and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish? I know it’s tuna, but it says ‘Chicken by the Sea.’” – Jessica Simpson

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, coke head, delusional, vain, having no talent, materialistic, slut and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”- George Bush

WHAT HE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, have delusions of grandeur of being smart, delusional, mass-murderer, and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“I called her last week, and I was like, ‘Do you wanna hang out?’ And her sister hung up the phone on me! I don’t like having enemies … and there’s the saying, keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” – Lindsay Lohan

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, coke head, hardcore junkie, having no talent, vain, delusional, materialistic, slut and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“My two brothers and sister are very amused by what I do — they’re amused,” Anna Wintour in an almost self-deprecating tone.

WHAT SHE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being a moron, shallow, coke head, have delusions of grandeur of being smart, vain, materialistic, stuck-up and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

“When I get angry enough I write down what I want to say and what I want to talk about, to set the record straight. Because you get to a point where you get tired of people lying. I get tired of situations like this, where people completely lie on (sic) me and I’m sick of it. I want to set the record straight. I’m a black American and I’m proud of it. The bleached skin is a rumour. I don’t bleach my skin. I’m not gay.” – Micheal Jackson (1996)

WHAT HE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, coke head, junkie, pathological liar, vain, phedophile (especially if you have good lawyers and money to pay up victims), mutilate your face, and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

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6 YEAR OLDS OF THE WORLD WANTS TO FUCK A 109 YEAR OLD VAMPIRE (GREAT JOB RPatz and Stephanie Meyer)

It’s not hard to spot the “carriers” . You’ll usually see them reading gossip magazines about how awesome Robert Pattison is, a person who talks about celebrities, shoes, scientology, Jesus Christ, and tips they’ve read in Cosmopolitan magazine 24/7, people who straps themselves in a plane to blow up some buildings in New York and llamas. The ‘infected” will spontaneously combust if you include them in conversations that doesn’t revolve around Bradgelina, RPatz, or Louis Vuitton bags and if you mention the word “BOOK”, prepare yourself for some gooey brain explosion, it’s their kryptonite.

“Thats the worst thing, I dont really care if people say I’m a bad actor, I can like work on that, but if they just say that he’s ugly thats just like “oh.. really?” – Robert Pattinson

WHAT HE PREACHES YOUR KIDS: You can be successful being stupid, shallow, having no talent, and it’s ok to think the world revolves around you.

_______________________

PEREZ HILTON WHO?

In an article by Dana Irwin (10/26/2007) titled Why is Perez Hilton Famous? “Perez Hilton proves that some people can succeed on very little talent. Why is he famous? If any one of us were to write our musings of pop culture, would we soon be schmoozing with the very stars we write about? Perez Hilton is the 21st century’s version of the American Dream: becoming a celebrity for doing nothing but making stars quiver in their boots. It’s quite a long way to come for a poor boy born to Cuban immigrants in Miami.” “What is the allure of this site? It might be the snappy layout. Readers can skim all the celebrity gossip during a coffee break. The lack of text puts the rumors front and center, with no need for troublesome reading.” “In an age when some celebrities have more interesting private lives than careers, Perez Hilton has capitalized on the public’s desire to see the nasty underside of Hollywood. The sordid details of the not-so-private lives of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton keep his site well-visited.” (emorywheel.com)

time.com announced Hilton’s blog one of the top 5 most Overrated Blogs of 2009 “This highly trafficked gossip blog, written by sometimes actor and fulltime celebrity hound Mario Lavandeira, mines the usual Jessica Simpson/Brad Pitt/Jennifer Anniston territory. But blog rivals like TMZ.com do a much better job at uncovering real celeb scoops and providing original video and documents. Leaving PerezHilton to serve up the stalest dish of all: yesterday’s celebrity news.”

I unfortunately bumped in the infamous Hilton Blog once a few months ago, I think Dana nailed it in the head, excuse the pun, it’s a no brainer, “STUPID PEOPLE (LIKE PEREZ HILTON) MADE HIM FAMOUS”, every time you click his blog, whether you like him or not is a “VOTE” to keep his stupidity in business. Like Jessica, Tyra, Palin, Britney, Ana, Bush, Paris, Rpatz, Lindsay, Miley- Mario Armando Lavandeira are the cover boys and girls of “YOU-CAN-SUCCEED-IN-LIFE-WITH-VERY-LITTLE-BRAIN-AND-VERY-LITTLE-TALENT,-OR-NONE-AT-ALL.”, they wear their ignorance like a badge of honor, while the rest of the world worships them and makes them more powerful and influential, making this earth a more stupid place to live in.

_______________________

SOLUTION:

Theres only one antidote to this plague of stupidity infecting mankind (if not prevented will be the ultimate cause of its own extinction like the dumb dinosaurs). Round up all the infected celebrities, send them to boot camp and ship them to IRAQ, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN or wherever the hell OSAMA BIN LADEN is and let them hunt him down. This 00′s was also the decade of terrorism according to BUSH, it’ll be poetic to watch all this idiots bumble around in the mountains and caves of Pakistan looking for AMERICA’S NO# 1 ENEMY, that after a mind boggling decade of the most powerful nation in the world‘s “efforts” have captured and killed Saddam Hussein (who have nothing to do with 9/11), and Osama (the proclaimed mastermind of 9/11) is still running free with the llama’s in the mountains after 10 painfully long years. BRAVO Network should follow these dummies in the middle east and title the show “AMERICAS MOST STUPID HUNT OSAMA BIN LADEN REALITY SHOW”, hey if the Smartest Americans can’t capture one man, maybe a dozen of AMERICA’S MOST STUPID can, I’m sure Osama want’s an autograph of Britney Spears on his ass cheeks. Now if they survive the mission to capture Osama, they will truly deserve the hero-worship and adoration the kids of the world so generously gives them. After 9/11 less than a decade ago, Osama is in every cover of every magazine, the hottest celebrity in 2001, more popular than Robert Pattinson and the other celebrities combined, no contest, America said “We will never forget”, I think they did with the help of its stupid celebrities.

Bin Laden and Pattinson, this decades top coverboys.

RELATED ENTRIES: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/04/fame-whore-generation/

http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/26/everybody-wants-to-fuck-edward-cullen-totally-by-navo/

info@navostudios.com

7107 islands, ALLURE, Amazon.com, Anne Hathaway, Burj Al Arab Hotel, Caetano Veloso, California, Chef Todd Jacobs, Dubai, Elle, Esquire, French Connection, INTERVIEW, JFK airport, Jonas Brothers, Joseph Christopher, Josh Lucas, LaGuardia airport, Lifeguard on Duty, Lope Navo, Love's Labours Lost, Marie Claire, Matt Albiani, Matt Dillon, Mossimo Asia 2010, naiveboy.com, Nautica, OUT, Ralph Lauren, ROOM WITH THE KILLER VIEW, Scarlett Johanssen, Shakespeare, Target, Thailand, The Allegria Hotel & Spa, The Best Swimmer, Tommy Hilfiger, Vanity Fair, Victoria's Secret, Wild Wadi

ALLEGRIA + ALLEGRIA: SURFERS, LIFEGUARDS AND THE BEACH by Navo

In Arts, Books, Fashion, Travel on December 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm

SEVEN THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED SEVEN

7,107 islands, every time people ask me why I love using the beach as my backdrop on my photo shoots, I always thought it was the 7,107 islands. Before I was a naiveboy (.com) I was a beach boy, well I was born in a cosmopolitan city but my love for water brought me to most of that 7,107 islands, and as I travelled the world, the marvelous beaches of Dubai to the breathless beaches and islands of Thailand to the surfer-licious beaches of California, taking some photographs, friends and stories along with me, I might have taken 7,107 images in my life, 7,107 people I’ve exchanged smiles with, 7,107 stories that those people have, 7,107 surfers and lifeguards that have frolicked those beaches, my story that all started with the 5th longest coastline in the world and its 7,107 islands and this island boy.

Some of the images I have taken using the beach or resort as a backdrop all over the world.

Lifeguard on Duty by Matt Albiani

THE BEST SWIMMERS OF ALL THE LIFEGUARDS IN DUBAI

One thing I miss about Dubai most is every Friday morning (Dubai’s Sunday) my lifeguard friends who also happens to be surfers invite me to watch them do their morning (6am) swimming competition that starts on the beach and goes around the Burj Al Arab Hotel for several rounds and back to the beach again and yes theres a finish line of course, the winner have the bragging rights of “The Best Swimmer of all the lifeguards in Dubai”, considering the water is ice-cold at 6 am and the only 7-star hotel in the world only hires the cream of the crop (that is an understatement). After that, I join them for a hearty breakfast in a kitchen only for lifeguards under the Wild Wadi, which probably 7,107 tourist from around the world visits every day.

LIFEGUARD ON DUTY

Matt Albiani (on the right)

My favorite Birthday gift i received last December 15th, is probably the best photo book that came out in 2009 and one of my favorite photo book ever, Lifeguard on Duty by Matt Albiani, and I have 7,107 reasons to prove it. This is a sign that some of my writer friends actually knows my other world, which is totally the center of “gay” jokes whenever I hang out with them, “The Lope Navo Beach Beefcake Photography”. Shakespeare expressed a similar sentiment in Love’s Labours Lost (1588): “Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Needs not the painted flourish of your praise: Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not utter’d by base sale of chapmen’s tongues”. A former New England lifeguard himself, photographer Albiani trekked up and down the coasts of America on a four-year journey with his eyes on the prize, the lifeguards, the beach boys on an endless summer that most of us wanted to be rescued by. Matt Albiani is a New York based photographer, has shot campaigns for Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Nautica, Tommy Hilfiger, French Connection, and Target, editorials for ELLE, MARIE CLAIRE, ESQUIRE, OUT, ALLURE, INTERVIEW, and VANITY FAIR. He has photographed celebrities like Scarlett Johanssen, Josh Lucas, Matt Dillon, Anne Hathaway, and most recently the Jonas Brothers. For $29.70 on amazon.com Lifeguard on Duty (Hardcover) by Matt Albiani is a steal, a great holiday gift I recommend, on the top 100 of 7,107 photo books ever published.

Mossimo Asia 2010 Campaign

ALLEGRIA + ALLEGRIA: ROOM WITH THE VIEW

“Alegria, Alegria” is proclaimed the Brazilian anthem of 1967 written and performed by Caetano Veloso that means “Joy, joy or happiness, happiness” For those of you familiar with my work, I have the pleasure and opportunity to shoot the Mossimo Asia 2010 campaign this year and like the previous Mossimo campaigns I’ve shot in the past, the billboards are popping out in South East Asia, most people who have seen the images thought it was shot in a luxury cruise ship, but my secret weapon behind it is a luxury Hotel & Spa only 25 miles from New York City and 15 minutes from JFK and LaGuardia airports, a sexy and luxurious seaside resort that served as the backdrop for the sexy 2010 campaign, The Allegria Hotel & Spa (allegriahotel.com). And yes, there are lifeguards everywhere that reminded me of the glorious shirtless gods in “Lifeguard on Duty by Matt Albiani”, where some of the images where actually photographed in Long Island and the Hamptons, probably why some of the friendly sun-kissed lifeguards that helped us in the Mossimo shoot looks familiar, you have to see them yourself, the beach beauties I mean and the 143 airy beach-chic rooms, the über chic Joseph Christopher for Beauty & Wellness (Opening early 2010), the world-famous, gourmet cuisine Chef Todd Jacobs’ and the sexiest views of the Atlantic, the “ROOM WITH THE KILLER VIEW”, literally. Another perfect holiday gift for those who appreciates the beauty of the beach and its endless summer, I can give you 7,107 reasons to experience it yourself, 7,107 people I exchanged smiles with, 7,107 stories that those people have, 7,107 surfers and lifeguards that have frolicked those beaches and this island boy will be holding a strawberry mojito 7,107 alegrias and 7,107 summers ahead.

Allegria Hotel & Spa

http://www.amazon.com/Lifeguard-Duty-Matt-Albiani/dp/1576875016

http://www.mattalbiani.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/realestate/11lizo.html

http://www.allegriahotel.com/index.cfm

http://allegriablog.blogspot.com/

RELATED ENTRY: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/11/erect-phallic-symbols-of-dubai-by-navo/

info@navostudios.com

Bench Asia, Calvin Klein, DANGEROUSLY NAIVE, DONNIE RISER, imm models, Jonathan Morgan, Leslie MOBO, Mossimo Asia, naiveboy.com, uk

DONNIE RISER by Navo

In Editorial, Fashion, photography on December 16, 2009 at 8:10 am

DONNIE RISER

(UK) http://www.immmodels.com/

(shot exclusively for NAIVEBOY.COM)

Photographer: Lope Navo @ http://navostudios.com/

Special Thanks: Mossimo Asia, Bench Asia, Calvin Klein, Leslie MOBO UK and Jonathan Morgan.

Dangerously Naive blog, Errikos Andreou, errikosandreou.com, George Nikolaidis, Greece, Lope Navo, male model, men's fashion, naiveboy.com, photography, QUITTE A T'AIMER

QUITTE A T’AIMER by Errikos Andreou

In Fashion, photography on December 5, 2009 at 8:27 am

QUITTE A T’AIMER

(shot exclusively for NAIVEBOY.COM)

Photographer: Errikos Andreou @ http://www.errikosandreou.com/

Model: George Nikolaidis

Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/25/sweet-child-of-mine-by-errikos-andreou/

Lope Navo, DANGEROUSLY NAIVE, naiveboy.com, Tate Modern, artists, collectors, gallerists, curators, museum directors, foundation directors, critic, ArtReview Power 100, ArtReview magazine, eflux.com, Profession, Gender, Nationality, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Glenn D. Lowry, Museum Robert Walser, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Serpentine Gallery, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Sir Nicholas Serota, Whitechapel Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Turner Prize jury, Daniel Birnbaum, Städelschule, Portikus, Frankfurt, Larry Gagosian, Gagosian Gallery, François Pinault, Forbes List of billionaires, Artemis S.A., Converse shoes, Samsonite luggage, Château Latour, the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado, Christie's auction house, Executive Life, Eli Broad, SunAmerica, Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Iwona Blazwick, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Bruce Nauman, Contemporary American artist

WE ARE LIVING IN A WHITE MAN’S ART/WORLD by Navo

In Arts, politics, viewpoints on November 29, 2009 at 2:05 am

1. Influence over the production of art internationally.

2. Sheer financial clout.

3. Activity in the previous 12 months.

Above are the three criterion where the entrees of artists, collectors, gallerists, curators, auction houses, politicians, museum directors, foundation directors, critics, talkshow hosts, and websites are ranked. A panel of international experts making the selections published yearly for the ArtReview Power 100 in the November issue of ArtReview magazine. Basing from the results, the most influential figure in the artworld in 2009 is a WHITE MALE ** (no surprise there) the diagrams of Profession, Gender, and Nationality below clearly shows that the people who dominates the Art Industry are the “WHITE AMERICAN MALE GALLERIST”. Its really hard to be a minority in every single sector of the world’s industries, in the top 10 alone, a Mexican Female “Julieta Aranda” of e-flux.com shared the #8 spot with a Russian and an American Male, #9 spot goes to a White Female, the rest of the top 10 including the #1 spot goes to the White Men (4 White Americans and 5 White Europeans), 94% of the list are Caucasians, Asia and South America is 6% combined on the Power 100. This numbers means a lot of things, the shakers and movers of the artworld are strongly dominated by one Race and one Gender in the history of the world, who will be the next Pollock? Warhol? Picasso? (all white men) as an evidence, the most powerful artist in the world now according to ART REVIEW MAGAZINE in 2009 is another caucasian male in the name of Bruce Nauman, a contemporary American artist from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Although the leader of the “most powerful” nation in the world at the moment is a “half-White”, like any other industries (Fashion, Architecture, Politics, Media, Web, Finance, Real Estate, Medicine, Science, Literature, and Religion) Art is of no exception, is it just a mere universal coincidence that the White Man decides what is”art” and its price tag? or am I just dangerously naive?

**a future article you’ll find here in Dangerously Naive.

Profession 2008/2009

Gender

Nationality

______________

1. Hans Ulrich Obrist

Category: Curator

Nationality: Swiss

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 35

- Founder of the Museum Robert Walser.
- Curator of the Migrateurs program at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris for contemporary art.
- Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, in London.

______________

2. Glenn D. Lowry

Category: Museum Director

Nationality: American

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 3

- Director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

______________

3. Sir Nicholas Serota

Category: Museum Director

Nationality: British

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 4

- Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
- Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford.
- Director of the Tate, the United Kingdom’s national gallery of modern and British art in 1988.
- Awarded a knighthood in 1999.
- Chairman of the Turner Prize jury.
- Driving force behind the creation of Tate Modern, which opened in 2000.

______________

4. Daniel Birnbaum

Category: Curator

Nationality: Swedish

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 13

- Principal of the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main.
- Director of the exhibition centre Portikus, Frankfurt.

______________

5. Larry Gagosian

Category: Gallerist

Nationality: American

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 2

- American art dealer who owns the Gagosian Gallery chain of art galleries.

Locations:
- New York City (Madison Avenue, West 24th St. and 21st St.)
- London (Britannia and Davies Streets)
- Los Angeles (Beverly Hills)
- Rome
- Athens

______________

6. François Pinault

Category: Collector

Nationality: French

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 8

- Billionaire French businessman who runs the retail company PPR.
- Forbes List of billionaires (2008) he is ranked 39th in the world, with an estimated fortune of US$16.9 billion.
- His holding company Artemis S.A., owns Converse shoes, Samsonite luggage, Château Latour, the Vail Ski Resort in Colorado, and Christie’s auction house, Executive Life (now Aurora Life) in California.
- Owns one of the biggest collections of contemporary art worldwide.

______________

7. Eli Broad

Category: Collector

Nationality: American

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 10

- American billionaire who presently resides in Los Angeles, California.
- Known for his philanthropy and extensive art collection.
- Founder of the financial giant SunAmerica.
- Ranked by Forbes as the 93-richest person in the world, with an estimated current net worth of around $5.2 billion.

______________

8. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda & Brian Kuan Wood (http://www.e-flux.com/)

Category: Website

Nationality: Russian, Mexican, American

Race: Caucasian, Hispanic, Caucasian

Gender: Male, Female, Male

Last year: Reentry (99 in 2004)

- Founders/creators of e-flux (eflux.com) is an international network which reaches more than 50,000 visual art professionals on a daily basis through its website, e-mail list and special projects, based in New York.

______________

9. Iwona Blazwick

Category: Museum Director

Nationality: British

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Female

Last year: 76

- Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
- Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Modern.

______________

10. Bruce Nauman

Category: Artist

Nationality: American

Race: Caucasian

Gender: Male

Last year: 45

- Contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance.

______________

11. Iwan Wirth
12. David Zwirner
13. Jeff Koons
14. Jay Jopling
15. Marian Goodman
16. Agnes Gund
17. Takashi Murakami
18. Alfred Pacquement
19. Peter Fischli & David Weiss
20. Mike Kelley
21. Barbara Gladstone
22. Steven A. Cohen
23. Dominique Lévy & Robert Mnuchin
24. Adam D. Weinberg
25. Marc Glimcher
26. Amy Cappellazzo & Brett Gorvy
27. Cheyenne Westphal & Tobias Meyer
28. Ann Philbin
29. Matthew Higgs
30. Matthew Marks
31. Tim Blum & Jeff Poe
32. Gavin Brown
33. Ralph Rugoff
34. Liam Gillick
35. Anne Pasternak
36. Dakis Joannou
37. John Baldessari
38. Isa Genzken
39. Paul McCarthy
40. Michael Govan
41. Eugenio López
42. Cindy Sherman
43. Ai Weiwei
44. Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
45. Annette Schönholzer & Marc Spiegler
46. Diedrich Diederichsen
47. Richard Prince
48. Damien Hirst
49. Bernard Arnault
50. Massimiliano Gioni
51. Amanda Sharp & Matthew Slotover
52. Joel Wachs
53. Victor Pinchuk
54. Udo Kittelmann
55. Marina Abramović
56. Michael Ringier
57. Gerhard Richter
58. Richard Serra
59. RoseLee Goldberg
60. Kasper König
61. Roberta Smith
62. Monika Sprüth & Philomene Magers
63. Germano Celant
64. Emmanuel Perrotin
65. Peter Schjeldahl
66. Beatrix Ruf
67. Okwui Enwezor
68. Nicolas Bourriaud
69. Karen & Christian Boros
70. Isabelle Graw
71. Maurizio Cattelan
72. Charles Saatchi
73. Jerry Saltz
74. Jasper Johns
75. Louise Bourgeois
76. Thaddaeus Ropac
77. Mera & Don Rubell
78. Thelma Golden
79. Sarah Morris
80. Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
81. Anita & Poju Zabludowicz
82. Paul Schimmel
83. Jose, Alberto & David Mugrabi
84. Sadie Coles
85. Daniel Buchholz
86. Victoria Miro
87. Maureen Paley
88. Johann König
89. Nicolai Wallner
90. Maria Lind
91. Massimo De Carlo
92. Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi & Maurizio Rigillo
93. Rirkrit Tiravanija
94. Toby Webster
95. Long March Space
96. Nicholas Logsdail
97. Harry Blain & Graham Southern
98. Claire Hsu
99. Peter Nagy
100. Glenn Beck

_________

info@navostudios.com

Lope Navo, DANGEROUSLY NAIVE, naiveboy.com, Jaiden Jeremy James, London, CLAIRE DE ROUEN'S BOOK STORE, SOUTHBANK, Tate Modern, BFI, London film festival, Haywood Gallery, Warhol, Longo, Ruscha, THE ROYAL COURT, PONYSTEP, JOINERS ARM'S, FASHION RETAIL ACADEMY, Philip Green, TOPSHOP, SOMERSET HOUSE, London Fashion Week, Showstudio Exhibition, INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, SHOREDITCH, Nash House, Tracy Emin, Gilbert & George, Dazed & Confused, Fashion East, I-D, Boombox, George & the Dragon, Joiners

LONDON ANONYMOUS by Jaiden Jeremy James

In Fashion, Top Ten, Travel on November 28, 2009 at 10:38 pm

(UK) They say the best way to know a city’s nooks and krannies is through its locals, I couldn’t agree more, Dangerously Naive‘s favorite Londoner graced us with his favorite visionaries last week (http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/21/ten-visionaries-of-jaiden-jeremy-james-by-navo/), and today he’s giving us an exclusive personal first class tour of his favorite spots to be seen or be incognito in London Town.

1. CLAIRE DE ROUEN’S BOOK STORE on charing x road for all the latest books and specialist magazines.

125 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0EA London
+442072871813

Mon-Fri, 10:00–18:30; Sat, 10:00–18:00

www.clairederouenbooks.com

2. SOUTHBANK for my cultural fix it is definitely my favorite location in London with its mix of Bohemians for all kind of places from artists, to designers, to film makers. I love the BFI especially when it’s the London Film Festival and always check films out and the latest exhibitions they have, Tate Modern for my cultural fix of contemporary art. Haywood Gallery also puts on some amazing shows in recent months Warhol, Longo and Ruscha.

3. THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE, an amazing place for theatre the celebrates old talent whilst nurturing and embracing new. Each production is beautifully done and seems to question and challenge modern-day culture.

50-51 Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AX, United Kingdom
+44 20 7565 5000

www.royalcourttheatre.com

4. PONYSTEP, a place where every and anything is welcome. Like boombox and those before it, Ponystep offers a unique clubbing experience.

www.ponystep.com/

5. JOINERS ARM’S, sleazy, cheap, testosterone overloaded and a place I would be lost without.

116-118 Hackney Rd, London E2 7QL, United Kingdom
020 7739 9397‎

6. FASHION RETAIL ACADEMY where I was trained by Philip Green the man behind TOPSHOP, I owe a lot to this them.

15 Gresse Street, London, Greater London W1T 1QL
020 7307 2345 /020 7307 2361

www.fashionretailacademy.ac.uk

7. SOMERSET HOUSE, I am at awe of its architectural beauty every time I see it, the new home of London Fashion Week and currently hosting the amazing Showstudio Exhibition.

Strand, London, WC2R 0RN, United Kingdom
+44 20 7845 4646
www.somersethouse.org.uk

8. INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, always plays the best new arts films and has great shows on as well as a cute little bookshop.

Nash House
12 Carlton House Ter, London, SW1Y 5AH, United Kingdom
+44 20 7930 3647

www.ica.org.uk

9. SHOREDITCH, truly amazing location, home to the coolest people, hot spots and companies from the likes of Gilbert & George to Tracy Emin, as well as the home of Fashion East, Dazed & Confused Magazine and I-D Magazine. Boombox, Ponystep, George & the Dragon, Joiners, the list goes on definitely a place to visit and an even cooler place to live.

10. MY HOUSE, home is where the heart is.

http://jaidenjames.blogspot.com/

Related Entry: http://naiveboy.com/2009/11/25/didios-brasil-by-navo/

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SWEET CHILD OF MINE by Errikos Andreou

In Editorial, Fashion on November 25, 2009 at 5:48 am

SWEET CHILD OF MINE

(shot exclusively for NAIVEBOY.COM)

Photographer: Errikos Andreou @ http://www.errikosandreou.com/

Model: George Pantelakis