awhile ago i was introduced to two men writing a play for the nevada shakespeare company here in reno. their topic just so happened to tie in directly to my master's thesis project. interestingly enough...that topic is prostitution. after numerous discussions, i was given the opportunity to photograph for the play. i am so very excited about this project and i just couldn't wait to share it with everyone.
the play features a variety of vignettes written by a number of writers highlighting stories of former and current prostitutes, a police officer, a prostitution lobbyist, brothel owner and others. i've read several of them and they are quite interesting. for many years, i have been curious as to why people do the things they do. this play certainly tackles that question within this particular industry.
i would like to emphasize that the play, and my thesis, will not have imagery that may be deemed vulgar. the goal is to share the facts and statistics of both illegal and legal prostitution, share personal stories from the individuals within the industry and my thesis will also direct attention to the flow of money within the industry. these projects are meant to be conversation starters not opinion pieces. with that said, i wanted to share some of the imagery we've been working on for the marketing aspect of the show.
if you ever wondered about the glamorous life of a model...here ya go. ;) oh...and by the way, this was outside and it must have been about 50*. my lady was quite a trooper.
if you are interested in learning more about the play "voices in the life" you can follow them on their facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/VoicesInTheLife
i'll be posting images from my thesis work as it comes up. thank you so much for visiting. more to come!!
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skye's mom contacted me to do his senior pictures and after a reschedule due to snow, we were finally able to get together. ah...the challenges of being a natural light photographer working around weather. ;)
we met downtown reno and initially i wanted to photograph around the semi-pro baseball stadium but the light was horrific!! So...we managed to find a few super cool places to photograph instead.
meet skye...high school senior, musician and athlete.
thanks skye. it was great meeting you and your family!
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while we wait for more military spouse posts, i thought i would introduce you to one of my other projects.
in addition to working on my military spouses project, i started a series called "8". it's a series of images and handwritten text featuring approximately 20 individuals. each individual was asked to reflect on what they wanted to be when they were 8 years old and how that compares to what they are currently doing or did before retirement. it's been great discussing goals and listening to people reminisce about their childhood hopes and dreams. the thought process behind this project was to explore the correlation between childhood dreams and adult reality, if in fact there is one. all of the images and text will be displayed in a book format. i am hand making 5 of the books and they will be done by may. hopefully they will be on display somewhere. :) also, i plan to share my childhood dreams with you in a future post but hopefully this gives you a moment to think about what you wanted to do as a child and compare it to the life you have now.
first up, karen. karen has her own business in nevada, Too Cute Totes, and she's been working hard getting her business where it is. not only is she extremely knowledgeable about her industry, she is also a very resourceful business woman. [she is my go to gal when i have a business dilemma!] when i asked her to look back to her childhood and remember what she wanted to be when she became an adult, she explained that she always wanted to be a business woman. well...it looks as if it's worked out for her. :)
it would be great if you'd take a moment and share what you wanted to be when you were a child and how it compares to what you are doing today. feel free to post on the blog or my facebook page. i look forward to hearing from everyone!!!
thanks for checking in.
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this project is moving along wonderfully and i am so excited. i couldn't be more proud to be a military spouse grouped together with all these amazing men and women. we are an incredible bunch of diverse people.
please don't forget to email or send me a family pic so you can be included in my spouse sculpture. it's going to be pretty cool!
our spouse of the week is...kristen! kristen has been a navy spouse for 8 years. she is an anomaly of sorts in the military community with "only two moves (so far), one deployment, and one never-ending tour in Fallon, NV (six years and counting). kristen is a technical writer for a defense contractor. She also owns and operates two small businesses – a technical writing consulting firm and a property management company. kristen is also a self-proclaimed hobby farmer. crippling boredom stemming from the isolation of rural northern NV has allowed Kristen to cultivate a bountiful 1250 sqft garden and to explore the adventures of animal husbandry. cats, dogs, chickens, and any stray that comes on her property are part of her brood. Kristen also loves to explore ghost towns and the wide open desert that is NV." (kristen is a great writer, so i borrowed the mini bio she sent me.) here's an image from her collection...
thanks for stopping by....more to come. :)) p.
meet christine, our uber hilarious navy wife of the week. christine has been a navy wife for 10 years and has endured an 8 month deployment with 2 beautiful munchkins under the age of 3. christine is a deep down texas girl who, as i have become aware, does NOT enjoy cold weather and has recently embarked on a new career path as a real estate appraiser. ends up, christine and i were neighbors in nevada before we moved overseas. i am soooo soooo sad we didn't hang out when we lived near each other but maybe that was a good thing, i'm not sure we ever would have gotten anything done! we would have been too busy tasting wine and telling inappropriate jokes. the great thing i love about christine is....her infectious laugh which is why I love this pic.
christine's collection of images will include several laughing images (much like the one below) as well as a few images with some very tasty liquid grapes. :) thanks christine for your time and for being such a truly wonderful person to be around.
i will be photographing two more spouses tomorrow. :)) check back next week when i introduce you to another fabulous spouse.
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and here it is folks. after months of shooting, re-shooting and researching, i've finally settled on a look for the project. yippee!!!!! the final product will be fantastic. each person will have a small collection of images, between 9 and 15 for each person, arranged in a square. i hope this allows the viewer to see different sides of each person. i think it's going to be very clean and very beautiful. :)
I am constantly looking for additional participants and I NEED A MAN SPOUSE!!! I keep telling everyone that the male spouse is like my unicorn. i just can't seem to find one!! let alone one that is willing to participate. PLEASE HELP! if you know of a willing male military spouse, please send me their info so i can contact them. i am trying to make this a diverse collection of army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, men, women and enlisted and officer. in addition, i'm still looking for family photos, new or old, for my sculpture. if you only have images on your computer, please email me the image and i'll print it. my email address is: priscilla@priscillabvarner.com.
introducing the first military spouse in my collection, Jill:
jill was a great sport helping me drag my background through her house and putting her beautiful daughter to work. :) Jill's been a navy spouse for 22 years which included 9 moves, 6 deployments in addition to her travels as a military child. she has two beautiful children, is a massage therapist and....a competitive amateur adult figure skater. her collection of images will include a couple of portraits of her in her skates as well. :)) i had a great time getting to know you jill and thank you so much for supporting me in my endevours as well the support you've given numerous families through your volunteer work with the navy relief society.
next military spouse...christine. :) stay tuned!!!
p.side note: please be respectful and do not "borrow" my images. all images are copyrighted. if you require an image, please email me and i will be more than happy to work with you. thank you so very much!!!
i was fortunate enough to be asked to photograph another set of senior pics...and my client this time was a dude! I'm not sure why, but i don't receive many requests to photograph male seniors. so when i was asked, i jumped at the opportunity because i had an idea i was dying to try.
meet the young mr. b. he was quite a sport with my shenanigans. :) can you spot my new tool?
so let me know what you think. trying something new is terrifying but also so much fun. let me know if you like the new look. :)
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to round out the crazy last couple of weeks, i have a beautiful senior, miss m. i photographed m.'s sister's senior session about 4 years ago. it's hard to believe it's been that long ago! m. has grown up to be a smart and absolutely beautiful young woman. i can only hope that my girls are as clear headed as she. i think my favorite part about photographing m. was her natural beauty. simply stunning. we basically hung out for a couple hours and managed to shoot a few images too. ;)
introducing...miss m.
thanks so much for hanging out with me. i hope you had as much fun as I did!!
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ahhh...and so we reach the last of the virginia sessions. the grand finale goes to my long lost sister, b and her hubby...and their dog/child...penny. b and i have been friends for about 5 years now but we feel as if we've been seperated at birth. (well...that's how i feel at least. ha ha ha) it was great when we lived down the street from one another...now we've had to stuff tons of lost time into the short 3-4 day visits we've had. she's a true friend...even going so far as to rescue us from the airport after our 24 hour trip home from bahrain...when we arrived at 5am! now that's a friend! ha ha ha.
this session is just a small token of my apprectiation of our friendship....enjoy. :)
thank you my friend!! big hugs to you, your man and penny. :))
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wow...the t.s. they've been with me from the very beginning. :) i've followed them from cali...to northern va and down the va. beach. they just can't shake me!!! ha ha ha. i've always enjoyed hanging out with them, walking through the brush or running the streets. they are great fun!
please take a moment to check out the t.s.....they probably have the winner for the funniest group photo from this trip. love it!!!
thank you t.s....i hope you had as much fun as I did!
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halfway through my last day in virginia, i landed at the m's house. i always love spending time with them and watching their kids. they are so very sweet to one another and they just have this wonderful care-free sense of life. they are great people and have really great kids. :))
so...here are some pics of the fam while we wandered around the yard chatting....
thanks m.s!!! it was a real treat to catch up with you guys. i'll see you again this summer!!!
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so here we have the b. family. the b.'s were gracious enough to loan out their "not farm" farm for several of my sessions. it had great woods, a great tree house and cool metal and wood barns. what more could i want?? the b.'s are great fun and so generous. thank you for letting me tromp all over the place taking pictures. :)
here are the b.'s...
thanks again! i hope you had a blast and i'll go ahead and email you my farm-use reservation for next years pictures. ha ha ha...
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howdy folks. as you can tell...i've been a busy chica. :) next up to bat is the n. family. i've known the n. family for awhile now. they are so much fun! i've been photographing the n.'s for quite some time now and i love every minute of it!
meet the n.'s...
i'm trying some new things with some of my families. let me know what you think! :)
next up...the b. family....
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it is now time to welcome the m. family. i've been photographing the m. family for quite awhile now...even before the littlest m. came along. it's wonderful to see how much the kids have grown! little m. has the most amazing eyes!!! and the littlest m. is so stinking cute with that blond hair! and mrs. m., if i could look as put together as you do...even for just one day...i would feel great. ha ha ha.
enough of my gushing...here are the m.'s...
it was great see y'all and i can wait to catch up some more....
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seriously??!! can i buy an "s" or a "b"??? ha ha ha. this is the r. family...are not related to the last two r families. the first time i photographed this family, we were in bahrain and they were getting ready to have a baby!!!! now they have two. :) it was wonderful meeting the newest addition to the family and great to see big brother growing so big!
check them out...
the r's are off to yet another new adventure. best wishes and we'll see you soon!! :) P.
once again, it was great catching up with everyone. apparently, your last name has to start with an "R" for me to photograph you. sorry to all you folks whose last names don't start with "R"!!! ha ha ha...
so...again, the kids have changed so much...especially the littlest one. he was very much in the belly the last time i saw this family!!! it was great to meet him finally. :) mom, you looked great! we gave the kids a little reprieve at the end so I could do some alone images of mom. she was lookin hot and these fab photos will show ya how awesome she is.
check them out...
thanks so much mrs. r!!! can't wait to see again this summer!
so so so excited to see the r's! i haven't seen mrs. r. for...ah hem... a "couple" of years. ;) it was great to see her and her munchkins. she hadn't changed a bit! she just added a couple of kids. (cute ones too!!)
so after our session, we promised to get together soon. she may regret that decision after our first visit. ha ha ha. i will not let another "couple" years go by before we see each other. that's a promise...or a threat. ;)
here's her fab family...
thanks mrs. r!!!!!!! big hugs and i hope you enjoyed your photos. :)
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