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I
need to bring things up to date in view of a few recent developments. The problem is that
there are some people who really have a distorted view of goddessheart and what this art
is all about, and about me, the creator of this art. So, first off, here are a few things
about me. I feel I need to tell you because people assume a lot and they are often wrong.
Since I do nude photography they draw many lousy conclusions. I have always been a
struggling artist living on the fringe barely getting by financially. So, unfortunately my
wife and I live in a low-income part of the world quite surrounded by dissolute people,
alcoholics and drug addicts for the most part. Not the nicest circumstances. Perhaps you
live in such a world yourself. But we are actually quite different from most of the people
around us. My wife and I rarely if ever drink alcohol. And we do not smoke pot. And we
have never been involved with drugs like speed or heroine. And frankly, we do not allow
such people into our lives, other than on the extreme outer edge where we meet them as
considerately as possible but keep our boundaries. This has always been so for us. The
other day I stood in a market behind a very impoverished man who handed the cashier three
$20 bills for two cartons of cigarettes. The poor man. Paying such a price to die of
cancer long before his time. That is one more
problem I don’t have. That $60 in my life goes to constructive things. Week after
week, month after month. I buy art supplies and create paintings, or photographs, or wood
sculpture. I buy old bicycles and restore them and give them away to needy people. I find
old computers and fix them up and give them away to low income families. You won’t
ever see me handing three twenties to a cashier for 2 cartons of cigarettes. Or $200 to a
drug dealer for a bag of pot. Every penny that comes my way goes to healthy places.
Healthy ways of the heart. For most of our lives we have been vegetarians, though not
entirely. We eat no red meat or pork, but sometimes fish or chicken. We will probably be
total vegetarians again someday.
Another
misunderstanding people have is that somehow I make lots of money with goddessheart.
It’s because I am able to do so much with so little. I did most of my photoshoots
with a camera that I paid $2 for in a yard sale: a Vivitar 220 SLR. But the quality of my
photography speaks for itself. It is a common misconception for people to believe if they
see excellent photographs they are looking at the work of a camera that cost a thousand
dollars or more. Most of my film was developed at $5 per roll. But it was a company that
did quality work cheap. It is all I could afford. Even at that there were many months when
my wife and myself ate very simply for an entire month just so I could pay the $80 it took
to develop 16 rolls of film. It was worth it. Art is worth it.
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So
– there I am with all those rolls of film – all those beautiful nudes… What
do I do with them? Well, from the start I always hoped to create a book that I could sell.
I thought I would eventually be known as a fine art photographer and maybe even make a
good living selling art prints. Recently there have been a few people who have let on like
I never explained my intentions to them before our photoshoots. Sadly, either their
memories are fading with the years or they are simply not telling the truth. Each person I
photographed signed a model’s release. Here is how my model’s release reads:
****************************************************
My
intentions with my photography are as follows:
1. To
show some of my best photographs in galleries and coffee houses where they may be
appreciated. I may allow a select few copies to be purchased by discriminating
individuals. (Note: 95% of the people who buy my nudes are women.)
2. To
someday create and publish a book of my best photographs.
3. To
use some photographs as a basis for oil paintings, water colors and sculpture.
I
believe it is in the best interest of the model to be aware of my intentions when they
give their signature of approval to my projects.
Thomas Holme
“RomTom”
I
__________________________________ do hereby give permission to Thomas Holme to use any
photographs, drawings, paintings or sculpted likenesses of me in his exhibitions and
published works.
Name_____________________________________
Address___________________________________
Age_____________
Date_______________
*********************************************************
I
began painting nudes in oils 40 years ago just after high school… I used to pour over
Michaelangelo’s paintings in the library and wished I could paint nudes like that. I
got my first good camera in 1969. Many of the young women I photographed in the early
years have gray hair and are grandmothers now. Most are still my friends, I hope. But
recently there have been a couple of people who have said they never gave their permission
for me to use any of their photographs in my published work, or to sell any prints. But I
still have their model’s releaseses. They have asked me to remove their photographs
from goddessheart. This I have done. Not because I am under any legal obligation to do
that. I do have their model’s releases. But because they were my friends once and
believed in my art. If they have decided they are no longer my friends I would just as
soon not have them in goddessheart anyway. So I have removed their photographs. I wish
though that they would not say to people that they never gave me permission in the
beginning. That is unkind and untrue.
I
would now like to speak about negatives. First off, I have to explain something. I have
occasionally photographed some of the strippers who dance nude in clubs. They are a
finicky lot and quite unlike the earth sisters I normally photograph. And yet they usually
spring from the same element and have much in common too. Well, among the strippers there
is a great demand for really good portfolio pictures. Each one of them wishes they had
truly excellent photographs of their own, so they might market themselves and their photos
in their own ways and make a lot of money. To do this they need the negatives too. If
their husband or boyfriend is a professional photographer with sufficient skills that is
all they need. Otherwise they have to go to someone. The thing is that any really good
photographer never parts with his negatives. He does the photoshoot. They pay him. They
buy any prints or 8x10s from him. That is the way it works. This is not satisfactory to
most strippers, because they want it all for free and they want the negatives too. But no
professional photographer is going to part with his negatives. And I don't either. And
they know that because I make sure they know that. But one thing I do that they like, is I
give everyone I photograph a complete set of all the best photos from the shoot in a small
album, for free. If they want any enlargements they have to buy them from me, but at a
very nominal price, basically just enough to cover my expenses. Most other professional
photographers do not give the model any free photos. But from me they get a whole
beautiful album. When they saw my artwork and heard they would get a free album of all the
best photographs many women wanted me to photograph them right away. But before I would do
any shoot I always went to great lengths to explain to them what I was all about. Then
they would always sign a release form. But then, after the photoshoot, when I gave them
their album of pictures, to my consternation they would sometimes ask me when they would
get their negatives? It put me through quite a strain sometimes to explain to them again
that the negatives belong to the photographer forever. They could sometimes be quite
indignant. Release or no release. They were used to getting their way, especially with
men. After the 2nd or 3rd time this happened I realized this was a
strategy they used over and over so they could hopefully get excellent photographs and
browbeat the photographer into giving them the negatives too. It didn't matter that I
expressly took pains to explain it all beforehand. They were that determined. They
didn’t care anything about goddessheart. It was only their careers that concerned
them. More and more I realized that photographing strippers would always be problematical
like this. I really only wanted to photograph people who truly believed in goddessheart,
and in me.
But
it wasn't only the strippers who would try to manipulate me; even among the counterculture
people this same strategy sometimes came up. I had to always be aware that it could pop
up. The problem is that women have the advantage. They are so able to convince people that
the photographer has misled them and used them. Not a very “goddessy” way to
be… Not very kind… I wasn’t about to give my negatives to them. But if
there was no other way I would sometimes simply destroy the negatives. When this happened
it was like burning books to me. It was a disaster. It was my art. It meant so much to me.
It was something that pained me deeply to do. Still, it was amazing to me that some of
them could not realize what the negatives mean to a photographer.
Goddessheart
has enabled me to meet two world class photographers, both of whom have asked that I do
not mention them by name. These are men who are internationally known, who sell their nude
photography in the finest art galleries in the world, for prices in excess of one thousand
dollars per print. They both think very much of my goddessheart photographs. And they
understand that I am not a commercial success like they are, and maybe never will be. But
one of them explicitly explained to me what the value of a single negative was to him. He
said that if a developing lab destroyed or lost a single one of his negatives that
photolab was liable to pay him what it might have rendered to him in a lifetime of sales
of signed limited edition prints. Meaning approximately $75,000 per negative. And this was
corroborated by the National Photographer’s Association. One single negative =
$75,000.
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Now,
I am not a “successful” photographer and I do not have the means to do limited
editions of any of my photographs. However, some of my photographs are of high enough
quality that they are still in this category. I have often calculated that I am usually
able to create at least one photograph out of each photoshoot that is potentially in this
category. If you have visited goddessheart.com you have seen a great many of them. So, if
a woman “tells” me to give her all “her” negatives she is telling me
to give her not only my life’s work, not only my art, but also property that is
potentially worth upwards at least of $75,000, i.e. that one negative which may be of that
excellent quality and value. And some shoots have as many as ten of these. If they had the
ability and desire to market them better than myself they would stand a chance of making a
bundle if I complied and gave them the negatives.
So
some may look at me and ask “So it is all about money is it?” Now I am going to
tell you a couple of personal things that maybe I shouldn’t. It is about our
finances. My wife and I are among the poorest
of the poor. We don’t even have money to fix our teeth at a dentist. And all our
upper teeth have rotted away. It is a very sad situation. Very painful sometimes too. But
such is life. Yet it all has to do with choices. You see, goddessheart.com COULD HAVE done
like so many other websites and charged for membership. Check out
http://www.hippiegoddess.com/ for example. They are a beautiful website, quite similar in
many ways to my own goddessheart.com. The difference is they charge for membership. I, in
the old hippy tradition, make my website free for everyone who wants to see it. I do have
the model’s releases to enable me to do it the money-making way if I wanted to. Maybe
I could fix our teeth and fix the leak in our roof then. But I don’t. It’s just
how I am. Still I am accused of being in it for the money, which is really quite unreasonable.
Now
if I could publish a goddessheart book someday that would be different. But that will
probably never happen. Because if I did there would surely be someone coming out and
saying they had not ever given me permission to use their images in a book. I would have
their model’s release. But still, to many who were close to them, I would be the big
bad guy who took advantage of them.
So
it comes down to this. I am honored that it was given to me to create this art. I believe
this art will exist in centuries to come and be better appreciated then than it is now. My
apologies to anyone who still thinks I am a devious or dishonest person. I disagree and I
have written this as best as I am able to better make you understand.
All the best,
RomTom
