Gladiatrix 17 Photograph

__________________________BIOGRAPHY: I was born and raised in the Philippines (except for a two year sojourn as a child in the American South) - that tropical archipelago in the South China Sea . . . a land of monsoon rains, filled with friendly people (mostly Catholicized by Spanish conquistadors) for whom hospitality is almost a religion. I currently live in Los Angeles, California - that movie star-filled City of the Angels with the Mediterranean clime of seemingly eternal sunshine, automobile traffic and heavenly bodies on the Pacific Coast of America. ________________________INSPIRATIONS: Self-admitted beauty addict who draws his "fix" from many many points on the compass . . . Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . . . Avedon . . . Fayum portraits . . . irises, lilies, roses . . . Praxiteles . . . deserts, oceans, fire . . . Modigliani . . . "Ekkehardt & Uta" . . . Helmut Newton . . . a lover of sensuousness & sexuality drawn to the ancient erotica of Classical Greece & Rome . . . the explicit statuary of certain Hindu temples and spanning the ages all the way to the fleshly delights found in moving pictures (both feature and not-so-feature) and the advertising of Madison Avenue(s) . . . yet deeply inspired by the Zen of ikebana and Japanese gardens . . . the lush and the spare battle within me . . . perhaps as a consequence of my Catholic upbringing in a sensual tropic land? ____________________________TRAINING: Since 1997 I have been creating my body of work in photography. It is a journey that I am enjoying as much as I am anticipating the destination. In spite of the seeming inexorable trend towards digital, I continue to shoot on film. Most of my work is created on chrome / transparency (slide film) - I find the colors and fine grain exceedingly beautiful and that it happily scans in very very well (giving me the best of both the analog and digital worlds). A small percentage of my work is shot on black & white negative film which I send out to a special lab to be processed into black & white transparencies. I am also in love with the spontaneity and unpredictability of instant film. Aside from taking a few photography courses post junior college, I am also self-taught.