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Books: Lesbian Photography
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Photographers:
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 Natacha
Merritt Digital Diaries by Natacha Merritt
(Photographer)
Anyone who has seen her Digital Diaries has
intimate knowledge of Natacha Merritt. And of her friends, male
and female, and her acquaintances as well. But Merritt's favourite
motif is herself: she poses almost every minute of the day for her
cam-era, taking photographs of herself in bed, in the shower,
having sex with her friend, masturbating with and without
accessories, from every imaginable angle and with the camera
usually at arm's length. Merritt, born 1977, works with a digital
camera, the Polaroid of the 90s, breaking down the most intimate
details into universally accessible bits of information. Eric
Kroll came across Natacha Merritt by chance in the internet, where
she had put several of her photographs. This was something that
left the tradition of classical pin-up and fetish photography, in
which Kroll himself works, far behind it. Face to face with
Merritt's photographs one can reflect on intimacy and publicity in
the digital age, on narcissism even, or on radical
self-exploration with the help of the camera. But this all sounds
better as Natacha Merritt herself once put it: in her view, she
has found a new mode of masturbating her way into the next
millennium.
About the Author
The Photographer, Natacha Merritt, grew up in San Francisco. She
went to Paris to study law but after three months abandoned her
studies for a much more exciting part-time job: taking digital
photographs of models with her Casio, at a time when digital
cameras were rare and expensive in Europe. Merritt quickly
discovered the advantages of this technologe. On her return to San
Francisco she showed her works on the Internet. In March 1999 she
received a call from Eric Kroll, and shortly afterwards met up
with Benedikt Taschen in L.A. - the start of "Digital
Diaries". She is currently working on her own website
"My work always goes to bed with me."
-- Natacha Merritt
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Ms. Martin's photography has been published in
numerous periodicals such as The Great Speckled Bird,
Frontiers, Heresies, Southern Exposure, Woman of Power, Sage
Woman, The Advocate, On Our Backs, Motive Magazine, Calyx and
such books as: Southern Ethic, Women See Woman, Our Right To
Love, Womanspirit: A Guide to Women's Wisdom, Women &
Aging, Elsa: I Come With My Songs, Blue Calendar, The Womanspirit
Sourcebook, The Once and Future Goddess, The Heart of the Goddess,
Dear Sappho: Legacy of Lesbian Love Letters, Rebels,
Rubyfruit and Rhinestones, The Box: Remembering the Gift and Women
Artists of the American West.
Her prints have been exhibited in Australia,
Germany, Denmark, and throughout the United States. Ms. Martin's
work is also included in the Women's History Archives Collection
at Harvard University and Brown University
Ms Martin has provided a vehicle through
her "photomythology" useful to transforming the
internalized hatred that develops from being a woman or gay man or
lesbian in this culture. Her mission to create photographs
of positive sexual imagery for lesbian love. That many women
were searching for ways to heal their sexuality and that lesbians
wanted to see lesbian-affirming images compelled her to make a
book devoted to the beauty and sacredness of love between women.
In 1995, her book Lesbian
Sacred Sexuality was published by Wingbow Publishing. This
book features 45 duotones of lesbian couples, interviews with
these couples, erotic poetry, and commentaries and meditations by
Diane Mariechild. The book combined Ms Martin’s art, spiritual
practice and experiences of love.
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Wild Hearts Ranch is continuing the
legacy of Elsa Gidlow's Druid Heights Artists Retreat. This
property is located three miles outside of Taos, New Mexico
on the Rio de Pueblo. The Rio de Pueblo is a small river full of
trout and runs from the Sacred Blue Lake of the Taos Indians thru
the Taos Pueblo and continues until it joins the Rio Grande about
six miles from the Wild Hearts Ranch. In 1993, Marcelina Martin
and Oralani Fuller bought a hundred year old farm that two
sisters, Lizzie and Jennie Anderson, had run at the turn of the
century as a mill and egg ranch. Marcelina's dream had been to
create a retreat to continue where Druid Heights Artists Retreat
had ended. Wild Hearts is the flowering of that seed. Oralani is
now hosting retreats for women artists and their muses.
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This is a site dedicated to exhibiting women
artists. Welcome to a journey into the art and spirituality of the
Sacred Feminine through music, poetry, photography, and
prose. Here you will find photographer and webmistress Marcelina
Martin, her new online photography class: Developing A Personal
Style; the women's artists retreat in Taos,New Mexico, Wild Hearts
Ranch; Buddhist commentaries from "Open Mind" by author
of "Mother Wit", Diane Mariechild; Sexing the
Millennium review of "Lesbian Sacred Sexuality"; the
zany antics of the outrageous Ms Manners of the sapphic
persuasion, author of Lesbian Love Advisor and Polyfidelity,
Celeste West; musician Jennifer Berezan with her new CD recorded
in the Hypogeum in Malta; an introduction to the brilliant
performance artist, Canyon Sam; art, myths, and meditations from
"Heart of the Goddess" by Hallie Iglehart Austen; and
finally a tribute to the incomparable Elsa Gidlow through her
prose and poetry! A spring bird has arrived! Susun Weed herbalist,
teacher, Green Witch and Wise Woman has come to Wild Hearts.
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