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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Halloween 2008

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.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It's In The Mail!

Over the past few days I have been researching the other portions of my ballot so that I could properly vote for my congressman, local judges, and the various propositions in my home city of Detroit. Tonight I committed my choices to the ballot and dropped it in my local post box for its trip back to Michigan! I have been hearing from so many people here in Canada how much they wish they could vote in this election. Some because it is a historic opportunity to vote for the first black President, many others because of the ever present influence the US has on what happens in Canada. In any case my north of the boarder straw pole easy fit into my ultimate choice! YES I DID! because YES WE CAN!

Friday, October 24, 2008

50,000 Unique Visitors/ 104 Countries!

Some time around 4pm today I reached yet another record in the blogosphere with EpiphanyNoir! 50,000 unique visitors who contribute to an average of 3000 page hits per week/ over 150,000 hits per year! What still amazes me is the viral nature of the internet has increased my presence in the world by almost 24 countries to 104! My humble Thanks! to all of my readers! Please keep the word going out!
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.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Setting The Record Straight

I was not alone Sunday morning tuned into Meet the Press to See Gen. Colin Powell endorse Obama for President. Much has been said today about his reasons and motivations. Finally I shouted at the TV! Finally someone is saying what needed to be said. Many people have been living in fear since 9/11 and that is understandable. We were attacked in a most heinous way. But many more have been living in such fear that they have forgotten what it means to be an American. Forgotten that America was made up of individuals from other countries, many coming here to make a change, make their own country. Forgotten that as Americans we claimed to be on a higher moral footing in the world. Sunday Powell cleared two things up... Obama is not a Muslim and anyone who can't respect Muslims is not American because America was founded on a higher principle of freedom to be who you are regardless of your faith or beliefs.

The most moving part of the statement Colin Powell gave on Meet The Press endorsing Obama for president centered on the story of one grave in Arlington. It is the grave of Kareem Khan, a young man from New Jersey who was so moved by the tragedy and shock of Sept. 11, 2001, when he was just a boy, that he enlisted in the Army as soon as he could. Khan liked video games, the Dallas Cowboys and Starburst candies. He was also a Muslim.

Powell talked about the whispering campaign among some McCain supporters who say that Obama is Muslim. First, Powell said, it is not true. Obama is a Christian, and always has been. Second, Powell emphasized, what if he is Muslim? Isn't that the American way -- that a Muslim, or an Episopalian, or a Jew, or a Hindu or anyone else can grow up in this country with the same dream -- the dream that anything is possible, even the presidency.

So John I don't believe you personally endorse the fear mongering of the Republican party, but you do need to apologize for letting it go this far, for a complete lack of critical thinking and adding more to the already tarnished American reputation.

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. Image is by Platon and some text is from Forbes

Chicago International Film Festival/ Black Perspectives Tribute and Reception

Lasanji and her Fab-U-Lous Dress at the 44th annual Chicago International Film Festival Black Perspectives Tribute and Reception this past weekend where they honored Sidney Poitier.

Lasaunji and Jensen Atwood (Who was presenting an award Saturday night to Jennifer Hudson)

Lasaunji and Rockmond Dunbar (of Soul Food, Noah's Arc and Prison Break fame)

Lasaunji and Joe with Robin Robinson of Fox News Chicago

Again thanks to My EN Reporter in the field Lasaunji Colston for providing me with these great pics!

Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This post Photos by Lasaunji Colston.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Casting My Ballot

Ballot came in the mail end of last week and I have been debating on saying weather or not I voted and for whom. To me the choice came down to who was going to be different from the last 8 years, who saw things from a positive point of view... I remain curious about how it is all going to fall out over the next four years but I am feeling hopeful and that beets the alternative. I thought this campaign button really says allot of things about the past few weeks and how Obama takes a negative and uses it to his advantage...

Herschel Fall Shoot

If your interested in hiring Herschel for modeling check out his exclusive site

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, October 12, 2008

Blackcat Birthday Party - 2008

Last night was Blackcat's Birthday gig! An awesome new joint, lots of freinds and a great party... Here are just a few pics... If you had your pic taken please contact Cat as the pictures are his to pass on! Happy Birthday Cat!

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