.: November 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Almighty Ball II - 2010!

Its real simple folks, If you missed the ball Saturday night you missed an event! Theres allot of effort that goes into making these things happen and this lived up to the hype! it was a night to remember. For me this night can best be summed up in a word, FUN! It was so good to see everyone come together and just have some competitive fun.. The beats , the drinks, the battles... it was an Almighty night!

Special shout out to my Ball Photographic Wing Man.. err Guirl! Lasaunji who came out to help me cover the event from multiple angles... This is a mere pittance of images from the evening and if you want more please let Charmed (Blackcat) Monroe know....

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman and Lasaunji Colston. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Cavalcade Of Lights - 2010

Ok not going to lie... it was far to cold to go out Saturday night before the ball to see the fireworks up close... so I put the video camera out on the balcony and let it rip... And we watched it on the local TV channel in the warmth of the apartment! Kinda nice to see the skyline light up!

Ive tried to condense it down so take a few min and watch the whole thing:-)
Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Thanksgiving Week -2010

2010 has been a very good year for me and I have felt blessed through out the year both personally, professionally and creatively and it seemed more important to me this year to go back to Michigan an be with my family for the holiday. It was a good trip and I enjoyed seeing my family and especially all of my nieces and nephews. Watching the Macy's Parade and the Lions yet again loosing on Thanksgiving day... It was all that.

On the way back through Detroit I stopped for a few hours so I could go out and see the new memorial for my friend Montrice with a few of the folks that ponied up to make it happen... It was a memorable afternoon (Cold as hell!) but still a great day! The new headstone was beautiful and said all the right words for our friend...

OK who comes to Canada in the winter with out a hat? In short we made a mad dash to ROOTS at the Eaton Centre to pic up some new caps!

Sunday was spent with a good meal at Milestones at Dundas Square with good friends and great conversation....

Its not hard for me to be thankful this year with so many blessings made available to me.

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Almighty Ball - Saturday November 27th

Less than one week to go, my third and final trailer for the Almighty Ball II! Be there!

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Shamar Over Toronto

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Christmas Candy!

Some early Christmas Candy was passed out last night at Polly's jam "Candy Cane" and it tasted good!;-) Hosted by New York's TV & Media personalities Mr. BECK JONES & CARMA DEE from Carmadee.com and DJ'd by several top notch masters of the beat this was the event to kick off the holiday season. If ya didn't go , ya missed out big! If you did go and you had you picture taken please contact polly for a copy! Enjoy!

The Dance Through Life Project

Photograph project dedicated to capture the Art of Dance within the parameters of everyday life. The project hopes to capture the innate relationships between dance and everyday life. Images of dance performed in non-traditional locales hopefully demystifying dance as being inaccessible and drawing the obvious metaphor that while all can not express life with such movement and physicality, we all love with our own signature grace. Therefore we all dance.

Order your copy today by clicking on the books above!

Through New Eyes: The Photography of Christopher Cushman by Rinaldo Walcott

The Black male body remains an enigma despite its over representation in the public sphere. The dominance of hip hop culture globally, driven in part, but not exclusively by the innovative sounds of rap music have made Black men a standard by which Black men and other men judge themselves in contemporary culture. However, there is a paradox, because despite the prevalence of hip-hop’s popular global impact, Black men are also still some of the most despised men in Western culture. Stereotypes of criminality, disease and danger still abound and organize Black men’s lives, even within hip hop culture. Thus representations of Black men tend to be much more restricted, than open-ended. The struggle to bring Black men into complex open-ended representations has been an on-going historical struggle. One of the most potent forms of representation in the last one hundred and fifty years has been the photograph. Photography has offered the promise to represent the real in a manner that has both seduce its viewers and baffled them with its artifice. Black male photographic representations in the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first have promised to rescue Black men from the confines of mis-representation and stereotype. One of the most difficult and complicated circumstances of Black male representations has been in the realm of representing their sexuality. Black men’s sexuality is still over-burdened by a perceived threat and danger, especially now in the hyped-up era of the downlow. Then along comes Cushman. I first hear of Christopher Cushman’s photography from my boyfriend. He told me of a guy who was taking photographs of black nudes based upon how they wanted themselves to be seen, not how he posed them as his models. When I met Cushman he confirmed that he did indeed work from the models’ suggested posed and not impose his own. The idea is a great one because it allows the models agency in choosing what they believe to be an adequate representation of who they are. While it is now true that in contemporary culture subjects have learned to play for the camera, offering us artifice on command, this artifice can be understood as exposing inner senses of self and being. Cushman’s photography captures and reveals those inner desires. Look at me, many of the models seems to say. But look at me anew, is also what they seem to project and insist on. Cushman’s eye lavishes these Black male bodies with glimmers of light revealing their nuance personalities. While most of the men are naked their individuality comes clearly through. And yet, their eyes too reveal that they belong to a community, a family and possess desires, fantasies and needs. In these photographs, as viewers we are given new eyes to see beyond our inner voyeur. Cushman channels, Robert Mapplethorpe, Rotimi Fani-Kayode and many other artists, commercial and amateur photographers who seek to rescue the Black male body from the disastrous depths of mis-representation, and who almost always fall short. The conversations that his models create between his work and others whether unconscious or not reveal the profound influence of the image in our time. However, in Cushman’s eyes the Black male body is not being rescued, instead it stands on a self-made pedestal, not arrogantly announcing its existence but coolly (its signature) singing its own praisesong as swathes of light and behind the camera love washes over it. In each moment a small but significant revelation is made. Each revelation offers us the opportunity of an Epiphany – to think a thought about a Black man that we have not thought before. Professor Rinaldo Walcott is a cultural critic and Canada Research Chair of Social Justice and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto. He lives and writes in Toronto.

FIERCE! Being Black, Being Gay in America

"What Chris has done with this important collection of images, Fierce: Being Black, Being Gay in America, A Photographic Essay, is to seek, lift, and affirm the identity and visibility of men-who love-men and express it in many ways. His photographs display Midwest American men from the outlandish and flamboyant, to the subdued and subtle. You’d think these were “ladies who lunch;” muscular men dressed for the “Park” in lace, and floppy hats to give effect for all to see. Brothers connecting in places we know are safe, such as our nightclubs, the discos, and special events targeting our interests.

The importance of Fierce is paramount: all men are created equal, and share a space on earth. These portraits of men have to be recognized as God’s beauty and not His damnation. Time will thank those who were strong and dared enough to express themselves for all to see and appreciate in a manner that’s loving and creative. Time will also thank us for not living in a paranoid state of mind, and afraid of our own shadows. Remember, this cluster of work isn’t Robert Mappelthope’s approach to black imagery, but the approach of documenting men as they wanted to be seen: with and without sexual stimulation, for shock value."

Curtis A. Lipscomb
Executive Director Kick – The Agency for L-G-B-T African-Americans
Detroit Michigan / 2005
www.e-kick.com