STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Stations of the Cross (or Way of the Cross; in Latin, Via Crucis; also called the Via Dolorosa or Way of Sorrows, or simply, The Way) refers to the depiction of the final hours (or Passion) of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion. The tradition as chapel devotion began with St. Francis of Assisi and extended throughout the Roman Catholic Church in the medieval period. It is commonly observed in Lutheran churches[1][2], but it is less often observed in the Anglican churches. It may be done at any time, but is most commonly done during the Season of Lent, especially on Good Friday and on Friday evenings during Lent.

The Stations themselves are usually a series of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:

Jesus is condemned to death

Jesus is given his cross

Jesus falls the first time

Jesus meets His Mother

Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Jesus falls the second time

Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem

Jesus falls the third time

Jesus is stripped of His garments

Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

Jesus dies on the cross

Jesus' body is removed from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)

Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense.

Although not traditionally part of the Stations, the Resurrection of Jesus is sometimes included as a fifteenth station.

I will not attempt to cover all of this, I shall pick and choose as I see fit.

Inspiration: BETTINA RHEIMS

Bettina Rheims (born December 18, 1952, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris) is a French artist and photographer. She is the daughter of Maurice Rheims, of the French Academy. Her sister Nathalie is an actress, writer and film producer. Her son Virgile Bramly is an actor.

In 1995, she took the official portrait photograph of Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic.

In 1998, she published, with Serge Bramly, I.N.R.I., retracing the life of Jesus in contemporary settings. Controversial in Christian circles, the book was published simultaneously in several countries (France, Germany, USA and Japan), evoking a scandal in France in particular. The exhibition is still touring in different museums in Europe.

In 2000, she published X’Mas, a series of photographs of young girls discovering their femininity.

In 2003 her book Shanghai, realized together with Serge Bramly, after a 6 month stay in the city, was published by Robert Laffont. The book portrayed the city through the images of women of different backgrounds.

In 2004 her book More Trouble, retraced ten years of her photography, mostly of famous women. At the same time her work was shown in a major retrospective, the first venues for which were Helsinki, Oslo, Vienna, Düsseldorf and Brussels.

In 2007, book "Heroines. Bettina Rheims' 2005 photo series of 50 women sporting the newest Parisian haute couture creations provides answers that range from perplexing to provocative.

Her last publication The Book Of Olga, realized in 2008 on behalf of the Russian millionaire Sergey Rodionov, was her first remittance work which portrayed his wife Olga Rodionova

Inspiration: HERB RITTS

Herbert "Herb" Ritts (August 13, 1952 – December 26, 2002) was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Consequently some of his more famous pieces are of male and female nudes in what can be called glamour photography.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Ritts photographed notables such as, Christopher Reeve, Michael Jordan, Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Francesco Clemente, George Clooney, Cher, Mel Gibson, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt, Ronald Reagan, Julia Roberts, Steven Hawking, Nicole Kidman, Edward Norton, Tom Cruise, Madonna, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dizzy Gillespie, Elton John, Annette Benning, Antonio Banderas, Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Cindy Crawford, and many others.

He took many fashion and nude photos of supermodel Cindy Crawford and eventually set her up with his good friend, actor Richard Gere, at a BBQ held at his mother Shirley's house. The couple married four years later in 1991, but divorced in 1995.

Inspiration: TOMAS FALMER

Tomas Falmer is a Swedish fashion photographer whose work is something I really admire. I first became aware of him in gay magazine Attitude where his beautiful fashion editorials were being featured. I held on mentally to one of the images he created, two young men with bouquets of flowers, and managed to track down the name of the photographer several months later.

I really like the way he photographs men together, there is a sort of masculine hetero/homo balance that you don't quite understand. I see these images and assume the models are hetero, yet the delicacy in which they are shown and styled is something else entirely. I adore him.

Information on him is hard to come by, so here is his biography from lundlund.com

Toma’s love of imagery started while he was taking an art foundation course in Stockholm , something which led him on to a B.A in photography. He then worked as an assistant for several years before moving to London to pursue a career as a photographer.

Tomas loves working on location and prefers to work with natural light where possible. This feature when combined with the graphic elements of his images gives an effortless and poetic feel to his photographs.

Toma’s editorial clients include GQ, Exit, Surface Magazine, Bon, Vogue Russia, L’uomo Vogue, Café, Plaza and Glamour. Commercially, Tomas has worked with H&M, Umbro by Kim Jones, Office, Pudel and Vision Express amongst others.

PILATE

Nazi Pilate. You washed your hands of us. Your cloying scent of lavender is choking me, choking him. You speak dispassionate words to us, no eye contact. Fascist brute. Stamp on my chest with your jackboots. Cut off my fingers.

They’ll grow back like a starfish. I am more than you.

Revisited: HITLER IN MY HEART

MAY 2010

Every queen, every woman wants

the big brutish fascist's boot in her face.

'As I search for a piece of kindness,
And I find Hitler in my heart.
And he is whispering
"As sure as love will spring
From the Well of Blood in Vain, oh Jew!"
And I fell into a deeper precipice
With mouths of rapists,
Jaws dropped down.
Don't punish me
For wanting your love inside of me.
And I find Hitler in my heart
From the corpses flowers grow on.'

Control me, persecute me, make an example of me. Destroy me.
Love is war. You have my heart and mind in your clutches. You have your vice like talons clamped around my skull. Your iron talons. Your eagle's iron talons.
Your heart beats a swastika against my chest.

Hitler no longer has power.

Holocaust humour is becoming more commonplace.
We aren't shocked anymore. Hitler has been reduced to a comedy costume. A melodramatic moustache and a hat. It's now just an empty image, an irrelevant truth. I myself donned the Hitler mask to attend a Halloween party, and was greeted only by laughs or indifference.
There is no period of history quite as distant as the recent past.

Hitler is part of us all now.
All he did was expose the villainy in all our own lives. We all have unreasonable hatred. We all have prejudices. We all think everyone else would benefit from our ideals. We are all monsters, and we are all heroes.
Gender is no barrier. We are all as cruel as women. Women are as aggressive as men.

ICONOCLASM.
We hark back to the days of Punk, where we took the image of Hitler and used it to shock. Now we make fun of the emptiness. We hold up two fingers to the disapprovers. We dress as Hitler, and we don't care. It's just a hat and a bit of paint.

We shall all destroy each other, and then there will be no world left to grieve.

The aesthetic of this shoot has evolved considerably since it's first conception. The original plan was to have a buff topless boy as Hitler with a skinny indie Eva Braun draped over him with a white background. But due to my own experimentation and the lack of willing to comply from some parties I have come up with this, and I could not be more pleased.

One of the models I used was my best friend of three years, Joseph. I adore him, and I love this shot in particular of him. To most, he's this witty, intelligent, charming, attractive man, but to me he's always funny, extreme and unafraid of appearing grotesque. I LOVE this picture, and has replaced my previous favourite.

He took me to LaRoux, I took him to Phillip Glass,

we went to McDonalds both time. We work.

JUDAS

Judas, the Villain. Judas the Betrayer. Judas the Satanic. Once again, the wolf rears its ugly head. But you, you are far more dangerous than Lucifer, who sits silently batting at us, or Mary Magdalene who lies licking her wounds. You outdid them all. You slaughtered this lamb.