Julia Richards ...................................... North American Hairstylist Association Competition

I have been working with Julia Richards, who was a student at Marvel College and is now at Aveda, who has been putting together her entry for the 19th Student competition of the North American Hairstylists Association

Julia decided on a concept of "The Dead Queens" -- she did all the styling, cuts and colors, a makeup artist did their faces, and I then photographed the three models at my studio. The final stage was a graphic artist did retouching and effects on the images with photoshop for an end result that you see here. I absolutely love the final product and think Julia has a good chance of making it as a finalist, if not the winner, of this year's competition. She's a very talented stylist and I'm hopeful we will work on more projects together in the future.

Marie Antoinette Cleopatra
Elizabeth I

David Camisa

I was happy to help out my friend and former Starbucks co-worker, David Camisa this afternoon. I did copy shots of several pieces of his artwork so that he can explore doing some limited edition prints. David is a naturally talented visual artist who is trying to find a way of making his passion for painting his way of making a living. I remember going through the same process with my photography; wondering how I could take my hobby and develop it into a career. I wish David every success and truly hopes he is as blessed as I have been. To that end, check out David's webpage at www.davidcamisa.com

In addition to doing work with David, I also had the distinct pleasure of hanging out and going for brunch with him and his sweet boyfriend, Christopher. They are so much fun and an absolute delight to be around -- it's a guarantee with David and Chris there will be laughter.

Photo Shoot with Val Brandt

I had the lovely undertaking of photographing my old pal, writer Val Brandt (formerly Val Jenkins) for her to use in the upcoming programme for an opera that she wrote the libretto for. Val joked that she was also going to use some of the shots on Lavalife -- needless to say Val looked damn good, judge for yourself. For a person who said she would rather have a root canal than do a photo shoot, I actually think I won Val over today despite a mix up with the makeup artist which meant Val had to do some extra driving to visit Mac cosmetics.

Here was Val's reply several days later:

Well, I finally settled on one of the 'from above' shots that I told you to stop taking! You were right, you ol' professional you! It's a little more dramatic than the others -- I think it looks like it belongs in an opera program.

THANKS FOR MAKIN' ME LOOK GOOD POOPSIE!

Looks like 2008 is starting off to be a good year ...

So I signed on to the Erotic Signature last night to see when artists who had submitted work would be notified. When I opened the page, the headline read that the winners had been announced. I was hugely disappointed because I didn't receive an email that I had be selected. So I starting scrolling through the list of artists that had been chosen and to my surprise I was listed there and one of my photos -- Tango d'Angelo, NYC 2003 -- will be published in the second volume of "The World's Greatest Erotic Art". I am ecstatic, and also very encouraged because the competition was international and only 200 images were selected from all the entries. I hope this heralds a really successful year for me professionally.

And a few days later the following arrived in my inbox:

CONGRATULATIONS!
2008 ES Art Competition Winner

Dear Artist,

EROTIC SIGNATURE is proud to announce that you have been selected as a winner of "The World's Greatest Erotic Art of Today" 2007-08 Competition. Your winning artwork has guaranteed you a place in the Erotic Signature book titled “The World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today, Volume 2”, which is expected to be released on May 3rd, 2008 during the 'ARTundressed' Erotic Art Festival Weekend in Miami, Florida, USA. All of the winners have been posted on the Erotic Signature website. We will include all of the winning artist's websites adjacent to their names in the next couple of days.

Thank you very much for your participation and support of the 2007-08 ES Art Competition, and we wish you and your talents much success in the future.

Best Wishes,
The Erotic Signature Staff.