For this project, I had to brush up on my Bible general knowledge and started rereading certain passages and books in order to gain a greater understanding of the work I was trying to access. I went to a religious school as a child and had a fairly sound knowledge of the Bible and it's structure, but I did enjoy reading it again.
In some ways, I was able to draw a lot of parallels between it and some of the erotic fiction I read. Both are slightly uncomfortable and both focus on strange details. Characters are underdeveloped and dialogue is unbelievable. Both has a purpose the reader knows before embarking on the journey, and both come to some foul climax, and both slip in the afterglow. The Bible is Spiritual Pornography.
I found a large number of references to feet, which I found interesting. Of course there is the famous scene where Mary Magdalene washes Jesus feet with her own hair, masochistic humiliation new testament style. Jesus walks on water with naked feet is written in almost uncomfortable detail. But then there are the implications that the feet are as sacred as genitals.
Seraphim, the highest order of angels in heaven have four pairs of wings. One to fly with, one to hide their face, one to shield their genitals and one to cover their feet. Feet are so intimate it's strange. I took part in a photoshoot recently where a girl was photographing my naked feet, and she very apologetically asked me if she was allowed to touch them when positioning them. I of course agreed, but mused on the fact that she felt she had to ask before doing it. I suppose in some ways I see my models not as people, but as subjects, so I think less about their feelings. Actually, after writing that, I realise that's a lie. I never apologise when I ask them to do something in the studio because that implies hesitancy, or self doubt. If I make a simple request, delivered matter of factly with no hesitation, it gets done straight away. My models do the things they do because they trust me to know exactly what I'm doing and will do anything to get it.
Whilst musing about all this feet, I took some pictures of them, in the hopes of exploring something in their aesthetics that I hadn't noticed before. I chose to use Joe, because he has interesting tattoos on his ankles, which give more depth to the pictures I feel. These are completely unedited, I just wanted to view the shapes and lines that can be created by using the feet. I found it quite interesting.
A haiku about feet:
Flesh beds on dead legs
Carrying me to ruin.
Don't walk through fire.
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