The other day during this photo shoot, someone told me that not everyone can look at themselves in the mirror naked. Now, please, know that I am not talking about porno, or anything sexual; I am speaking on appreciating the skin that you are in. NO, you may not look like what you see on the cover of the magazines. SHOOT, I DON’T EITHER!!! I see now that we have began to hide our TRUE selves with our clothes and allowing the clothes to speak for us instead of what we truly are! We have become scared of what we are, and allow our clothes to say it, creating a state of not knowing who we are,...

Smiling, impulsive and full of vision. These thoughts were the impressions I remember from the leisurely stroll I shared with MoEss (short for MoreEssence.) On this pleasantly, overcast day, MoEss was inquisitive and open and loquacious. And as we meandered around a lake to reach the cover of one its gazebos, I couldn’t help but be impressed by this woman. She talked about all of the potentially exciting things we were going to do in the Garden and some of the fantastic ideas she had about future photoshoots and Pangea gear. Her enthusiasm inspired me! MoEss was funny and revealing, sassy...

So I am wrapping up this shoot with MoEss (the earthSista formerly know as MoreEssence) and Chadoe. We had just completed a beautiful nature shoot with the fashion designer HarvestGirl (damn, I just realized I have shown those to you yet and they were BEAUTIFUL. I’m gonna have to fix that!) Anyway, I got a call from the artist John Glover asking me if I intend to attend his party three days later on the rooftop of his factory loft apartment in Atlanta. I said yes and he reminded me that I was supposed to ask around for sistas who might want to be bodypainted for the event. I asked MoEss and...

Bathed dramatically with warm yellows and cool blues, COCOliscious rises. Beautiful, happy and full of sensual ‘tude, she grabs the chain and she poses, plays and laughs… She teases the camera with her poses while colorful hues of light dance across her beautiful dark form. COCOliscious revels in being sensual & real & proud AND comfortable in her own skin. She makes it known that sharing her beauty with the Garden is a gift that she bestows, graciously. COCOliscious is a that diva with ego and attitude yet no drama. She is an adventurous earthSista who loves a good party. COCOliscioius...

The following is a story I was fortunate to read by Surya Devi Shofar on blog The Sex-Sensual Griot. As I read it, I was intrigued and thought that I should do a write up of my own but the more I read, the more I realized that Surya’s story says it all. So here it is. Naked Expressions of Leading Black Women! The naked unveiling of her body in her video, “Window Seat”, was Erica’s way of showing the world that she has climbed higher dimensions of her spiritual journey while making a fierce political statement that inter weaved the past and brought us a flash into the...

Emerald trinkets gracefully draped Violet’s shoulders, ears and wrist while Nobella added the final touches of the earthSista’s adornment; bright white dashes above her eyes. These captures were part of a series of images Nobella and I had been working on. We’ve been creating pictures of her jewelry and paintings for Nobella’s shows and website. And on the day of this shoot, when we had a couple of jewelry sets to capture, Violet was our muse. Violet is inspiration, pure and simple. Open, creative and sensible, the young, natural beauty is full of energy, vigor and optimism....

Radically energetic and focused. Colorful and (despite herself) obscenely cool. RenegadeBarbie displayed all of those aspects to her character during our shoot together. In one of the converted factory loft communities in the Atlanta area, a couple of friends of mine opened up their home, allowing us to create this raw and edgy set of captures. The sun peered through windows and blinds and we reflected it back on the Renegade…Barbie because she was The Star. She danced with the shadows and playfully teased the camera. The radical diva displayed her patented in-your-face attitude that has...

Intimate moments, alone, captured while the faint taste of incense lingers in the air. Warm soft light is ubiquitous. Long locs fall across bare shoulders while bejeweled hands dab into shay buttah so that they can spread it over the brown skin that drinks it in. Blaq Buttaphly and I were in the cool basement loft. And while we laughed and talked we created these captures that were, for me, one of the root inspirations of Pangea’s Garden. Minutes, that happen, privately, so often that their rare beauty is, easily lost in the repetition. Every now and then, I like to take a moment to capture...

Mid-afternoon seemed the perfect time for  a good book. This was Kirei Na’s thought when she received a very interesting instant message on my laptop. It was haunting, provocative with a touch of humor. It was an intimate tease sent over miles wire and broadcast airwaves and it captured her imagination. Feeling a little naughty herself, this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a little passionate self-expression, as well as a chance to please the mysterious someone she cared for. So, with a moment of gleeful thought, Kirei went into action. Bathed in sunlight, diffused by the wispy sheer...

Hershey stood next to the windowed door so that I could watch how the light fell on her when she got a phone call. And then she got a text. Followed by a phone call another text and so on. They were all with the same person and this continued for a while. I wasn’t really listening but from the expressions on her face there was some obvious drama going on. Curious about how the emotion in these captures would look like, I continued shooting. Hershey, aware and curious herself, consciously positioned herself provocatively. Unabashedly, she continued her talk, never afraid to show her true feelings,...