Saturday, July 25, 2015

Exhibitionists: Lil Lowey and Drakaina Lamia @ Katmee's

After the successful display in May of two names amongst the most prominent in our community and beyond, Graham and Domino's,  Katmee opened the doors of her gallery to two really interesting artists.
Their names? Lil Lowey (lilplaything) and Drakaina Lamia (lamia69).

Katmee

Very different in their artistic views and lifestyle, I had the pleasure to meet them both in the past and feature some of their work on the blog. And now, seeing their photography in the beautiful setting provided by Katmee's gallery really made me wish to chat with them a bit more and ask them about this experience. Enjoy.

- Have you had already in the past your work on display in-world in art galleries and such? What are your feelings about it, and when you take photos and put them on flickr, did you ever think "This will be on display someplace" ?

Lil: - I had a gallery at Artists4SL for awhile, but that's not quite the same as being *invited* to display my photos somewhere. I've also had a small gallery on my own sim, 'though I've been planning to take that down for awhile, just for lack of use/visitors (I want the prim space back). I'm mostly satisfied with just having a Flickr page, really, 'though I've always shown off the rare pic that I'm really happy with, inworld. :-)

EoT bike ride

Lamia: - No, actually that is my first in-world exhibit. I am still rather new to the second life, and while I am a professional real world photographer with some exhibit and publication experience, there it is landscape - here, obviously, not. And thing like in-world galleries and exhibits, are things some never discover while I was lucky enough to meet people who showed me the other side of Second Life. I just miss that some of these places disappear and am heart broken to see them gone, not available...

RestingOnHay

- Was it hard to select the pics to put in the gallery, and which is (or are) the photo(s) you thought about first once you were asked and you were SURE had to be there? There must be at least one pic that is 'your favourite', for artistic or for personal reasons. :-)

Lil: - There was a small amount of difficulty with that, but mostly in meeting the number of pics that Katmee had requested. I had to dig back a bit further in my collection than I normally would have.

The only other concern I had in choosing was that I wanted to include one picture I'd taken with my long-time SL daughter who'd recently departed SL for reasons unknown, which still breaks my heart. And since so many people equate nudity with sex, nude children (even virtual ones) are automatically "child porn" in their heads. The photo I sent along was completely innocent, tasteful and perfectly legal (even if it had been of a real child), but I was a little concerned Kat would have declined to display it. But it went up without comment or expressed concern. :-)

I actually overlooked/forgot one of my more popular photos, and didn't realize it until Katmee why I hadn't included it. Everything was on the wall by then, though, so we were committed to what we had. :-)

Jules paparazzi'd at Black Basalt

Lamia:  - It's always process of selection. On average trip in real life I shoot in a range of 10 000 pictures a week, unless it's not the first time I visit the place, then it might be a 2 000... In Second Life I shoot less, but it is still couple thousand images a month - especially that I rarely set them up. And I don't ever want to spoil the fun screaming "hold that pose! I need to change the windlight settings"... so first i had about 500 images to choose from... then 200... it is always a pain to throw away some of them.

Pino-6-8

- Do you consider your work 'erotic' in nature, and how do you react to the thought that many people consider your photos exciting? And what do YOU consider arousing in a photo, if you don't mind sharing?

Lil: - I won't say I've never done any erotic photos, but they're very few and far between. I am a healthy, sexual being like anyone else, after all.

But no, for the most part, I don't consider my photos erotic in the least, and I'm often bemused that people will lump simple nudes similar to my own in with erotic and porn groups. Simple nudity is not erotic at all to me.

FS Go test - diner

My nudes tend to be scenes you might see every day in RL, only without clothing. More comical than erotic. I dream of a world where we'd be free (and safe) to be nude whenever/where ever we wish, and as a result have a healthier opinion about our bodies. I can, for obvious reasons, get away with being nude in a lot more places/settings in SL than RL.

(Just to be clear, I have nothing against "porn", per se. It just doesn't interest me. And there's a few SL photographers who take some incredible erotic photos that I do enjoy.)

Lamia: - Of course I do, and not in quotes... it is meant to be Erotic - even capitalized. It's meant to arouse, excite but also have those feelings embedded in it. And exciting is when it makes your mind purr and whimper.

Lilly10

- Tell us a bit more of what you like to do in SL besides taking photos...or perhaps while taking photos !

Lil: - I'm a pretty boring old lady in SL, these days. I discovered Second Life family life a couple years back, and since then I spend most of my time cuddling one child or another and often several at a time. Since I've never had children in RL, this is as close as I'll ever get, but I'm okay with that. ♥

Bathing the horse 3

Lamia: - Building, exploring, making movies (yes... those tooo) and searching for amazing places. But most of all meeting other beautiful souls (and hopefully seducing them - after all thats what drakainas and Lamias are famed for). And no, i'm not telling what I do while taking photos just imagine how tough it is to do That, laughs, and still take pictures or film movies

Selfie3

- Do you hang your own pictures on the wall at home? Do you have someone else's too? And even if you don't have one (picture on the wall.....or home....) name me your favourite SL photo, or artist, the first who comes to mind. 

Lamia: - I have a home in Second Life - I told you I do love to build, and almost since landing in Second Life had had luck to run into amazing people, and one of those is Janjo Fellini, for whom I have been designing and building at Reloaded Rock Club. And while I don't have any SL photographers images hanging there but there are a lot that I admire for quality and ingenuity. But of you ask for one name it would be Skip Staheli.

Lil: - I not only have my pictures on the walls in my SL home, I've had a couple printed to poster size and hanging in my RL home. lol

Thank you very much for answering :-)

And thank you everyone for reading ! Do come to Katmee's gallery and watch the exhibition, as it deserves your attention. And the sim it is on, is simply wonderful and as photo-friendly as it gets - joining the group is free and gives you rezzing rights. You can see beautiful examples of the wonderful sim on Katmee's flickr, website, Domino Dupre's work - Katmee is also a photographer for her blog Erotica Unbound - and also of course on Lamia's. Whom  I thank also for the 'location' shoots in the gallery, from her own website. Enjoy!

Katmee

And remember to point to my attention in-world exhibitions featuring your work or the involving also Sexiest Pornstars members!

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