Repunzel, let down thy hair!

Nov. 17, 2010   Leave a Comment  

Ok, not quite. But for those who’ve known me and my work for a while- I have had pixie hairs forever.
When I shot Tipper Gore I had cutehairs.

Don’t get me wrong- I loooove my short hair. Well, at least I did. As with anything in this life, its novelty wore off. I found that I only had short hair because I was lazy. So October of 2009 I went REALLY short- I was tired of maintaining my short hair. Can you believe that?
Super Pixie Hairs

(Damn, that’s a sharp haircut! I do kinda miss the short hair… LOL I’m nostalgic- leave me alone!)

So, why would I grow out my hairs when I’m one of 20% of the population who can ‘get away’ with short hair (I love that- Get Away with it, as though it’s 1920…)? I wanted to look like a girl, a woman, and not a boy.

Look- I get it. I’m tall, skinny, and have small boobs. Short hair is an automatic lesbian statement in today’s society (and the ladies LOVE me!), and while it’s fun to pretend, it strips away a bit of your sense of femininity… which is precisely what I was going for post-breakup-2005.

But now? Now I want to be curvy, sassy, girly and look like a good-for-nothin’-woman. I’ve gained weight and muscle back to my ‘dancer’ weight of 1997, which is 25 pounds over ‘model weight’ believe it or not… (let’s discuss that later), have a few more curves and hair I can not only play with, but gets stuck in my mouth, under the straps of my bags, my eyeballs, etc.
Kevin Foong, photographer, 45 stories up mid-town.
PhotoBooth Fun at Fotoweek DC2010

So, It’s growing. And let me say- It’s 1998 everytime I look in the mirror. What a trip! LOL It really does feel like forever since I had long hair, it’s always somewhat fluctuated… it’s amazing the transformative properties and possibilities we have as humans… I suppose this is the higher meaning, the moral of this story. Just call me Aesop.

Let’s take a fun trip down memory lane!

The OG hair: This is taken circa 2000. I was a wee lassy.
Nineteen-year-old model-Carly Hippie Hair

I love bangs. Almost all my hairstyles have had them. I like hiding behind my hair. It’s true. This was pre-uber-short-chop. I had tricked myself into believing I was going to grow it out again, but for some reason didn’t like it… so off with her head, essentially.
I <3 Bangs

Who can forget the “who hair” phase… which progressed into the David Bowie phase (as were most of my “shit I need a haircut” days…)
Who Hair (4 a.m. wake-ups suck)

David Bowie Hair (If I had a dollar everytime...)

Dear SiVad, you were loved and are missed. RIP 2010. I wore this hairstyle to Soup or Salad (my peoples in the south can I get a heyyyyyyyyy). . . and elicited a LOT of response…
R.I.P.-photographer Sivad, God's messenger and creator of FishHair.

well. that was fun, but now I’m bored. I’m off kids. Stay Tuned.
CeO
(and always remember: I’m a Magical Unicorn. It’s true.)
I'm a Magical Unicorn. Last of my kind.

Midwest Melodrama

April 30, 2010   Leave a Comment  

On Easter I ate ribs.
(are ya followin’ me here?)
Weekdays rocked out the coneys, and spent a dinner at Manson’s fave hangout. Charles, not Marilyn.
(“And Bob Huggins!”)
Saw a black guy that spilled cool like Run DMC, named Zoran, rock out the drums to the typical midwestern-bar-cover-band-soundtrack.
Wound up a mountain and tore down a molehill.
Birthdays in an old-folks home.
Rotated twenty stories up reading stories from the hills.
Bickered, begged, belittled and belied.
Demanded coiffure on a sportscaster and received my wish.
Auntie Ferrari and her husband Fausto are just lookin’ for a coupla nice kids to live in their attic, any takers?

Digital Photographer Magazine #22- Images with Words

April 14, 2010   Leave a Comment  

I am published often, thanks to the adoration of a wonderful editor- Jorge Pinto Guedes, in Digital Photographer Magazine in Europe.

These tearsheets are from #22: Images with Words. It’s such a treat to see my poetry translated into Portuguese, which is a beautiful language. Portugal, and my friends and colleagues in Lisbon, hold a very special place in my heart.

These images and words, for me, are bittersweet. I suppose all good things must come to an end… I’m grateful to be able to weave these seemingly fleeting moments into my art, and add a positive-permanence to any of the people, places and things that inspire me as an artist.

Here is the poem in English:

Our space our town

tinkering with twilight
to tell ourselves
it’s not too late.
One more song,
one more story.
(Don’t let this
slip out from underneath me.)
Please let this melody linger
like a seed on the breeze.

Boardwalk sun-signs blend moment
into muscle memory; sensory
overload
slices seductively flooding
sensile fingertips translating
tales and fortunes.
Relish in restraint, relinquishing
into the bath
an inch
at a time feeling the
warmth rise and send spirit skyward to
chase the tales of dragons.

2 of 3
sighing outside of decency-
Dilute the delusions with
hot breaths and baited words.
Sliding against the wall unable to
escape sighs and lullabys.
Slipping into soft sighs,
thighs and nimble touch.
Pulse-point-perfect-pressure
pricking and poised for charm school.
Stretch out, slink sideways,
slip inside of the improvidence,
seeing only today.

(click on thumbnails to see slideshow)

Coccoon

March 3, 2010   Leave a Comment  

This week NYC, next week? It seems that as soon as you have life figured out to some degree, she calls and reminds you that you’ve dialed the wrong number. Perhaps you’re only one digit or two off, but the puzzle keeps evolving. This indecision (as rumored as a woman’s right,)  is a good thing. It allows room for dreams to grow, for flexibility and for afternoon picnics.

A really difficult thing to manage as a freelancer, is time.  Time at home, time online, time as a model, time behind the lens…I have so much to juggle, and for the moment it’s all staying airborne. I’m working on itemizing my workflow, which I know is the sexiest thing to come out of a nude model’s mouth, but as photographer is entirely necessary.

I’ve also been throwing around the commencement of a few large projects– not to complicate my life, but to find focus, workflow and forward movement.  Bits and pieces get lost in the daily shuffle unless they’re part of a collective.

One of my on-going series is the self-portraiture. I’ll get into why I shoot SPs sometime I’m sure, maybe not here, but on my Story Behind the Photo blog. Here’s some new ones I shot over this past weekend somewhere in the middle of booking model work in Texas, Ohio, Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania and NYC.

(and that’s just this month.)

Self-Portrait

(c) CarlyErin O'Neil

Self-Portrait

(c) CarlyErin O'Neil

Self-Portrait

(c) CarlyErin O'Neil