We've Moved!

Don't worry, the site's not closing, just moving! I'm more excited about this site than ever. I've moved to a fresh and clean new site! I'm really excited about the new design, check it out at neonmamacita.com. You might have noticed some fishy business in the past couple of days, but we are officially up and running. We are still working on moving all archived posts to the new site, so you might notice a couple more snafus. Not to worry, all the old links will still work, and Neon Mamacita is looking better than ever.

One important note: if you're following me through an RSS feed, please update your subscription to the new RSS feed.

Looking forward to seeing you at the new site. Enjoy!

Sleep to Dream

On days like today, when the Euro is on the brink of collapse, employment in the U.S. looks bleak, and it feels like we are on the tipping point of a global financial meltdown, I have a certain amount of Rip Van Winkle envy. I know my mama said that there would be days like these, but can't I just go to sleep and wake up in 100 years, perfectly preserved with the world returned to order.

Sleeping is such a wonderful feeling it's a wonder that we are ever awake. Our bodies fall into such a state of blissful unconsciousness that is unparalleled in its enjoyment. Sometimes, when the worries and requirements of the woken world creep in, I suddenly wake with a start wondering 'where did I leave my keys?'.  Only after my fingers have grasped them am I able to slip back into my dream state.

So I have some empathy for the subject of this photoshoot; a girl who distances herself from the boring rituals of modern life with a suspension of consciousness. The costuming is so extreme and surreal that it places the viewer within the subconcious of the girl, we see her slumber and we see her dream.

Sudden Sleep

Armin Morbach for Tush Magazine

via FGR

Dark and Stormy

Perhaps it was all the blustery walks on the Oregon coast growing up, because I love my beaches dark and stormy. Sunbathing is too static for me, I feel like a roasting chicken rotating on a spit. Sure I love reading US Magazine while simultaneously drinking a Diet Coke and eating Cape Cod potato chips (epic combination), but the damn sand gets everywhere.

So I opt for the Veni, Vidi, Vici approach, I come, I surf, I conquer. That was how it went on Friday at my new favorite place in New York City, Far Rockaway. And thanks to my friend Billie and a truly excellent boardwalk, my feelings about stormy beaches have remained unchanged.

----------------More Rockaway after The Jump-------------

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The Secret Life of the American Teenager

No one subscribes to the mantra "Sex sells" quite like Abercrombie & Fitch. Only in America would you have an American pastoral design aesthetic marketed with pornography. But is it really porn? 

Yes it is selling sex, but the ultimate products are clothing not orgasms. And there is some redeeming artistic and production value, check out the Game of Throne guys lined up in the desert. Maybe a bad example. Okay okay I went too far, a bow over a dick does not fine art make. But the question remains, what are we looking at?

All photos A&F quarterly via Vfiles

--------------More booties, bows, and blondes after The Jump-----------

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Who wore it better?

You buy a dress, it looks great, you wear it to a party. But wait, another bitch is wearing the same mo-tha- fuck-ing thing. That ain't right. But apparently, it happens to boys too. Hence the nearly coordinated arrival of Nick and Dave in the same spectacular J Crew shirt. Obvs, these guys got style.

But who wore it better? I guess Dave wins purely because he had the cutest little puppy in tow. But Nick's Met's hat put up a good fight.

Friday Night Lights

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. In between a new job, finals, and a photoshoot I had no time to function. But next week holds lots of riches so keep an eye out. In the meantime, enjoy my Friday Night Lights.



Last night, I had one of those amazing New York nights that turned into one of those amazing New York days. I had planned on going home and study but instead found myself on a rooftop in the shadow of the Empire State building dancing to techno music. My solo walk home turned out to be a blast when I spent a joyous half hour playing with bubbles provided by a union square busker. And the reggae singer covering Ace of Base's 'I saw the sign' on the L train platform pretty much just topped it off.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Are Shelby Lee Adams images fine art or are they another example of white trash photography? 

Adams' photographs of Appalachia are simultaneously reminiscent of the WPA photographers and Diane Arbus. He studies a place were extreme poverty is rampant and strangeness is endemic. While all the photographs were taken between 1989 and 2008, there is the feeling that the depression never left this place and neither did the people. 

Adams devoted an entire book to the Napier family, residents of Beehive, Kentucky. The family live at the end of a holler, the local name for an Appalachian valley, giving rise to strong family ties and an even stronger Kentucky accent. So when the mama of the house talks about splitting firewood in the winter with bare feet, you know that she isn't lying or exaggerating. And best of all, I don't think the family could come up with a full set of teeth between them

But while the family is real, the photographs are debatable. They are not candid, but are in fact, staged productions. The extent of the production is really at heart of the question. That pig on a stick in the picture below, was bought by Adams but prepared by the Napiers. Did he coax them into performing or was he simply helping the documentary process along?

 

For a much better analysis on this question, check out the documentary on his work, The True Meaning of Pictures 

All photographys by Shelby Lee Adams
Thanks to LPV Magazine for some inspiration

----------------- More Appalachia after The Jump-------------

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Toddlers and Tiaras

This spread caused quite a stir when it was published in January of 2011. For a country still haunted by photographs of Jon Benet Ramsey, these images created a knee jerk reaction of revulsion. But this editorial has a self awareness not seen in Toddlers and Tiaras. It exaggerates what is already present in media and advertising to the point where one has to confront it head on. Its publication began a national conversation on age, beauty, and sex that more subversive advertising failed to ignite.

Cadeaux by Sharif Hamza for Vogue Paris