Photographic Interpretations

October 30, 2017 Bringing the Studio to the Client In 2009, photographic artist Michael Barone made the decision to close his brick and mortar photography studio in Perkasie PA to devout more time on his art. In that time he has been in many exhibitions including The Gallery of Fine Photography in Frenchtown, NJ, Side Tracks Gallery in New Hope, PA two solo exhibitions at the ArtHouse Lounge in Harrisburg, PA and also being shown at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem PA, the Baum School in Allentown, PA and a gallery in Miami FL. Barone's latest fine art image will be part of an upcoming InVision Festival exhibition at the Banana Factory in Bethlehem, Pa which opens November 3. His is still committed to offering fine art commissioned portraits. To this end his new focus is to bring the fine art photography portraits sessions to his clients.  The hope is that this new focus will allow Barone to grow his reputation in the arts community without sacrificing the integrity of his

I was born in the early 60s. A pre-teen during the Vietnam Conflict and really didn't understand or remember exactly what was going on. I do remember a denim jacket I had with a bunch of patches. One patch in particular along side my Apollo 11 mission  patch was a patch that said, "Make Love Not War". And even at the ripe age of 7, this made sense to me. Then, in high school, I think it was 1979 there was a KKK rally right in front of the school, in New Jersey! Now our high school was an inner city, mixed race school but the KKK, in NJ?? This really blew me away, that in 1979 people were still so backwards and not tolerant of others. Almost 20 years went by and in 1997, I lived in Greensburg, PA, a quiet eastern suburb of Pittsburgh. One day I was walking by the County Capital building and again I was shocked to see another KKK rally. (Some of the photos I took that day are included in this post.) It was almost the millennium, and these hate mongers wher

I have been photographing beautiful women and men for over thirty years. It's always been a really wonderful collaboration of talent, energy and ideas. Most of my models have been professionals, others amateurs who just enjoy being in front of a camera and working on creating artistic images. In either case, professional or amateur, no money ever changed hands. I am a professional, they are professionals but we both traded resources to create something that we are both proud of. I would, from time to time, help my models with money for gas and tolls and other expenses. Provide lunch and refreshments and of course finished images in the way of digital media or if they wanted, an signed print. But now it seems this new crop of millennial models thing they are worth so much more than the quality they put out. If I am shooting a fashion shoot and there is a lot of makeup, hair and outfits involved then yes, sure there should be financial compensation. There is a lot of ti

Last week the Trump administration rolled out their proposed fiscal budget for 2018. This budget showed massive increases to our defense and Homeland Security at the cost of many programs that enrich our lives. In 2016 the federal budget was $3.899 Trillion with only .02% of it going to the National Endowment for the Arts , the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  This percentage  may seem negligible  but f ederal dollars are used to leverage state, local and private funding that supports a network of arts organizations, educational entities, museums, libraries and public broadcasting affiliates.  Say goodbye to Bert and Ernie, art therapy for our veterans returning from war and even your local NPR radio station. Patricia Aufderheide, founder of the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University says,  “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting money is actually crucial to ke

We all know that the media has an issue with nudity of TV. You can show all the violence you want, dramatic, bloody, intense, but show one buttock and the children might be scared for life. So with the new administration this is actually going to get worse. I came across an old Huffington Report from 2015 where Bloomberg News blurred a Modigliani painting that sold for a record $170 million.  And from that Stephen Colbert did a 6 minute segment on his show. Check it hour HERE

Having studied art history and being very interested in Italian art, one piece that always caught my attention is the Pietà by Michelangelo. This sculpture was created in 1498 to 1499 and  depicts the body of  Jesus  on the lap of his mother  Mary  after the  Crucifixion .  Not being a religious person this sculpture means something different to me then to a devote Catholic. In Michelangelo's depiction I see intense loss, sorry and opportunity terminated. So when I started combining my political views with my art, this beautiful work of art came to mind and I created "La Pietà,  Revisited  This images was created a few years ago but I feel it is more relevant now than ever. As always any comments are always welcome.  

From time to time on my blog I will put up photographs I have done that may have been in an exhibition or new work waiting for a gallery. I am going to start with a photo I did a few years back that has always struck me every time I view it. It's a simple bodyscape but the look on my models face really sells the shot. For whatever reason this has never been in a gallery exhibition and for the time being, only resides here. Enjoy. "Peaceful"