Contact Sheet is an irregular column of selected photographs and portraits from Residents of Second Life. Images used in this article are used under permission of the owners via their participation in the Creative Commons license; otherwise, all rights are reserved. Click on the links as necessary to go to the required blog, Flickr or Snapzilla page. Please go to these artists’ pages in any case to leave comments, (as well as comments here), if you have an account on the appropriate service.
Suggestions are appreciated; please send descriptions and links to me by in-world IM, notecard, E-mail to harper.ganesvoort@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.
=====
There must be something to the number 13 being unlucky, because it’s been since September since I added a new column. I was doing this monthly on the average. Well, let’s see if we can make up for the three-month delay with some quality photographs for your consideration:
=====
For once, I leave the easy confines of Flickr, and cross into the unfamiliar world of Koinup. It’s worth the exploration time, though.
Carlotta Ceawlin is an avatar with both a wonderfully wild sense of style at times (witness this, this and this), and an eye for landscape composition; her PhotoShopped pictures of places such as The Minoan Empire and Gion have got me noting down the SLurls to check them out. (Take a look at this story slideshow set in Emvee Cuba.) Her use of the editor enhances the work in a way that sets the mood, which is always what you’re looking for when you break out one of those programs.
There’s far more in her portfolio, including works of pure art such as Excalibur, so stop by and give it a good examination.
=====
If nothing else, Nessy Shepherd’s The Moon catches your attention with its bold insertion of the portrait over the orb of the full moon. Could that be Artemis, gazing down upon the land which she holds power over in the night?
A nice in a similar vein is Snowqueen; but I have to wonder how those tigers tie in…unless they’re actually snow leopards?
=====
Eshi Otawara seens to be the designer of the moment; I’ve found many pictures of her latest sensational gowns. You’ll remember that Eshi’s famous “fishhook” dress was auctioned off earlier this year for L$460,000 to benefit Relay for Life — $1,700 in hard Newnited States dollars. There’s a lot of admiration for Eshi’s work — and her fight to stay in the United States — and so it’s not surprising to see these gowns get the attention they deserve.
- Ka Rasmuson
- Cajsa Lilliehook (blog article, Flickr)
=====
Thinking of Cajsa, she’s been doing closet challenges lately with her friends, and Gidge Uriza sent her a suggestion far removed from the normally sophisticated Ms. Lilliehook’s style: “OK then, Now I want to see you do ultramodern. Sleek, metallic….not inhuman…….SUPERHUMAN……” Go once again to Cajsa’s blog and Flickr stream for the results…which will, to quote from the Spinners, “blow your mind so high it won’t come down.”
=====
Portraits are, of course, a big business in Second Life; if for no other reason than to put a picture in your Profile. Any road, good portraits are something I’ve admired, and Harry Huffman’s shot of Didih Merlin is good indeed. I have no idea what that little coin she’s holding is all about, but there it is….
=====
Lano Ling came across an old snap in his files, and published it here. I don’t know whether he had worked on it before, or massaged it with an editor after he turned it back up, but the results are impressive.
=====
I don’t see how the title of Emi Bade’s picture, May This Be Your Last Sorrow 1, relates to the photograph myself. Emi didn’t put any explanation here in particular, just a quick rundown of what she was wearing. However, this is just one of a set of three, and the setting of the region she was in gives more context to the portrait.
To me, out of context of the set, this one photo strikes me more as one of those shots of the Woman of Mystery, whose face the hero only sees a portion or a glimpse of before she disappears around a corner or in a crowd. (Think of the woman known only as “The Face” in the old Mike Hammer television series with Stacy Keach from the Eighties.) Here, the wrap of the collar across Emi’s nose and mouth, combined with the standard Second Life detachment of the eyes, gives her that wonderful air of, “You may not know who I am…unless you pursue me. Do you dare?”
=====
That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll get back to the monthly frequency of this, so wish me luck! It’s for you as well, sharing good to phenomenal art that deserves the exposure to a wider audience.
Around the Grid 