Re: Judy Seigel Ruined My Day!/King of Hunks

Hi Judy,

I received my copy of PF #9 and was expecting my day to be ruined, but then
the day isn't over yet.

Before anyone wonders why the Chicago area should be so slow in receiving
Judy's Baby, Judy also mailed me a couple other issues I had wanted, along with a
corned beef sandwich from the Carnegie Deli.

But seriously, Judy, congratulations to you for all your work in putting
together Love Potion #9. I must echo those who have already expressed their
encouragement to shoot for PF #10.

I did want to mention that I showed the POP image of Sandy King (by Lou
Spitalnick) to a lady friend and she too expressed, as did you, that she thought he
look like quite a hunk for a professor of languages. She was, however,
disappointed that you did not include the lower half of the image so that she
might get a better sense of his "hunkness". She was all set to try out your
English to Metric conversion charts. I told her that as editor, you were
exercising the Pictorialist technique of "suppressing excess detail." Perhaps
others might consider it minutiae.

Speaking of Mortensen, I also want to thank you for the fine William
Mortensen dissertation on the characterisation of the female breast. I had never
before run across this discussion in any photographic boobography. It gives a
whole new meaning to the term "tweaking the curve" in mammography. One has to
wonder a bit about how he conducted his research in the "binding practices"
of women's boarding schools.

I would have to say that I do agree with a few of Mortensen's comments
regarding the insistence of some that every print contain the darkest of darks and
paper white—especially the paper white issue. I find it rare that I make a
print that includes paper white, except perhaps on the borders and backside.

OK, now that you've received all these accolades, get to work on #10. I'll
be glad to submit an article on depilatory practices in contemporary figure
photography. I am sure interest in such an article would wax greater with
nairy a hair-raising debate among the list members. ;)

Mark Nelson
www.precisiondigitalnegatives.com
Received on Mon May 17 21:19:26 2004