nixsight

(It is worth noting that some of the links in this post may not be safe for work) 

On a similar note to my last post about The Dears: Ever since first seeing their flickr photostream I don’t know when, I’ve had tetheredto, aka Rose & Olive in my contacts list, but I didn’t really work out why.
Their photos had a certain rough charm, their models were sometimes attractive, but to be honest, something about their stuff irritated me… it felt quite mannered, and that worst crime of all crimes to a pompous reconstructed (anti)intellectual like myself, the titles of their images took the form of short poetic prose, and I took it to be pretentious, pseudo art student nonsense. Over intellectualised eroticism.

But then, because of their tribute to ze Frank and his show, I ended up watching a couple of their YouTube videos, specifically this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlzsjtAA0qo. And I finally got it. They aren’t over-intellectualising erotica… everything they do is enthused with sexuality, and they happen to be pretty smart. Their imagery isn’t rough and ready because they’ve worked on getting it to look that way, it looks that way because they are doing it on the fly, taking an ongoing record of the fun they have, the people that they meet, and loving it all the while.

They aren’t trying to make their lives look like art. They’re recording everything, for the fun of it, and it’s looking like art because good art is sensuous and evocative and easy to empathise with, and where they hide very little of themselves from the camera, and each of them has such an intimate and loving eye, their work ends up fitting that criteria. Most of all, watching their films showed me what hadn’t been readily apparent from the photos… that at the core, they don’t take themselves that seriously; there is fun and excitement at the core of what they do, and now when I look at their photos, I find them fun and exciting. Rose, in particular, becomes beautiful the more familiar you become with her sweet and open persona.

I recommend looking at some of their stuff… it isn’t going to be to everyone’s tastes, but it’s so naturalistic and honest, I’d feel like a cad if I didn’t share it.