Here is Prinzzess Sahara, open and tremulous.
We shot this down in steamy green Florida.
Life is good, no?
Love,
Joshua Darling
We shot this in her beautiful garden.
You want in there, right?
I know. Me too.
Love,
Darling
These photos mean alot to me.
It’s hard to describe the unique phenomenon to both be both an insider and outsider to this country at the same time. Growing up an “international” (Brit Dad, Filipino/Chinese/Russian mother) on a sailboat sailing to over 60 countries taught me to blend in real quick, especially if it meant I could be around pretty lasses on stable shore. I did visit the States in small pockets of time, a year here and there and did some schooling here too once.
I took my 5th grade for one year in the US. In Florida. I befriended my best mate, Kent, because I was head over heels in love with his sister Heather a couple years older than me. The three of us would carouse in the pool, play Star Wars (I was always jockeying to be Han to her Lea) as well as romping through the steamy Flordian woods. She was dark haired and ivory skinned and would call me to join her up in a tree to eat an icicle or gentle pet each others forearms for no other reason than it felt good. They don’t have this in Bay of Biscaye, just waves and death.
Heather however was blossoming quick, being a couple years older and caught the attention of a blonde blue eyed apple pie strapping boy. They were soon going “steady” and I was crushed. No one knew of course and it would only a given that I Was asked to guard the house while they kissed on the roof. We’re all friends right?
I played my one and only game of baseball that summer (still don’t get it). One of the kids accidentally batted a ball through someone’s window and, without warning, the irate owner bolted out and immediately spanked the boy over his knee and left without warning. The whole incident happened so fast everyone was dumbfounded. I took the lead in righteous indignation, seeing an opportunity to posture:
Me: “If that was me, I’d take this bat and BASH him!!! (referring to the spank giving adult). “Like this!!”
And without thinking, I swiftly and deftly demonstrated by swinging down the baseball bat smack down onto my beloved Heather’s head.
I didn’t mean to do that…
All I remember is screams, blood and then a posse of 6 boys pummeling the life out of me. Then blackout.
When I woke I was along on a bloody, empty baseball field Heather nursing me to.
She knew I hadn’t meant to hurt her and lifted me to my knees. Turns out I was more hurt than she. We hobbled home to her house where she lied and told her father she fell off her bike. She promised she’d never tell and I promised I’d never play baseball again. And I haven’t.
I sailed away for good at the end of summer but the flavors of sunny summer, free spirited youths and American innocence have always romanced me. I’ve come back as an adult to capture American Beauty. Pure and erotic both, as they live together.
Sovereign is a mercurial actress, easily morphing from the vampy vixen you all know her to be, but just as well into the most precious, open hearted, vulnerable beauty I’ve ever met. It’s that Sovereign that -I- get to have, mornings in bed chirping happily away and planning more American adventures.
Here she is in that vein that I adore so much.
Enjoy.
Click on the pictures to enlarge, they’re enjoyed better that way.
Happy Fourth of July, friends.
Sylph-like model Manchester and I spent an very impromptu afternoon on the roof of my old Brooklyn Studio this past (cold) winter. I’ve enjoyed takes on her by my friends and colleagues Dave Dawson and George Pitts.
Here are some of mine.
Love,
Joshua Darling
Friends, I’m overdue for a treat to myself. I’ve long wanted to tattoo and Edwardian or Victorian scene of nymphs or mermaids and possibly sailors largely tattooed on my shoulder/arm. I have other works by Shakespeare and Da Vinci on me as well.
As some of you know I grew up on sailboats and weathered many storms both literal and figuratively. In those years, and now as a photographer of women in Eros, it was their guiding light and beguiling beauty that has kept me afloat and passionately dreaming.
Which ones of these do you like? Can you recommend others?
Love,
J
Like many of our friends yesterday, June 24, 2011 was not just an historic day for NY for for Civil Rights in America. I’m proud to live in this city today.
Upon hearing the news I took a stroll and enjoyed the revellers dancing in the streets: singing, dancing, kissing and rejoicing. It was on this same block I saw crowds collect after the news of Bin Laden’s death where I witnessed football stadium mob mentality show glimpses of it’s ugly face but last night, the joy was purer and more unbridled. There was no shame in this night.
I get teased sometimes from my dearest friends, (gays and queers) for having had something of a reputation as a very much hetero lover of and seducer of women but the fact is I’m never more at home or happy than with the gay men and women who in large part raised me. I’ve been told some of my luck with women is in part due to not being overly concerned with being too manly. Come on, we’ve all dabbled in a little nailpolish, right?
My mother’s brother was dear to me. A beautiful Eurasian NY based soul–a filmaker and humanitarian who worked for Amnesty International was the one who cast me in my first films as a boy and later encouraged me to become a theater maker (at odds with my families norm of politician or agriculturalist). After my parents divorce when I was about 17 I was taken under the wing of the Philippines most respected stage director for about 5 years. This person the “Might Mite” was a famously brash dyke and a blazingly intelligent and compassionate human being. In addition to teaching me directing and acting, she was infact like a second parent to me. Her and the entire troupe were, like theater companies all over the world, a very big happy gay family. I’ll never forget being asked what her legacy was to me and inadvertently blurted out: “She was like a Father to me” to laughter. But it was true. The good Father I had wanted.
My mother’s brother was victim to the NY Aids crisis and passed in 95, having lived with the disease 15 years, quite long for that time. I was his caretaker in his last few month’s by his bed –my fondest memories are having chats about art, life, family and compassion in those months.
I felt the spirit of these, my dead gay relatives and mentors, breeze by me last night. I felt inspired to put on the showpaint and show my own inner embrace of both the sexes the live within each of us. Plus it’s fun to get silly and frankly, yes, sexy.
Here is an outtake, I’ll post more soon.
Congratulations NY and Happy Gay Pride.
Fuck Yeah, Happy and Queer~
This is one of our friends, Cat, I shot this down in Florida. I like it.
Here is beautiful Sylvia. She came over to my space in Brooklyn before I moved to the city and we spent the afternoon getting to know each other and snapping a few photos. She’s a really popular East Coast model who has been photographed by some wonderful photographer friends of mine so I was thrilled she hung out with me. I have a few other sets of her I’ll be posting soon.
Love,
Joshua
Complicated and Delicious Love Lives
Bottom line, there’s a lot of love to go around. And alot of condoms.
These photos are of Sovereign and Rosebud having sex and I was lucky enough to snap a few shots. They’re magical and I totally support their relationship.
It’s a good life.
JMD
Sovereign is out in LA making her foray into Lesbian Adult Films with auteur (and sex bomb) Nica Noelle. We’re psyched for this development and I fully support it. The truth is though, we don’t do apart well. I get cranky to say the least. We’ll be together soon but in thinking of her I found one of my favourite moments of Sov lounging on my floor.
See you soon, baby.
Love,
Darling
