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Archives from 2011-2025

Tag: photoshoot

  • Ellery Twining- Dusty Springfield’s Record Collection (Official Music Video)

    Video at Mistuxet TV

    On RESULTS, Ellery Twining follows up his critically acclaimed solo debut REVENGE with an exploration into the soundscapes of Post Pop.

    The third track on RESULTS is Dusty Springfield’s Record Collection.  Twining says, “Working at the  Mystic Disc record store since 1995 has brought many memorable moments of musical importance. When the store bought Dusty Springfield’s record collection, it was an indelible moment.”

    The music video for Dusty Springfield’s Record Collection introduces a young fan of Dusty Springfield’s music as she searches for her records at the iconic Mystic Disc record shop in Downtown Mystic on a recent afternoon. Unbeknownst to her, the ghost of Dusty Springfield will also pay a visit to the Mystic Disc.

    Written and directed by Mystic photographer Michelle Gemma
    Edited by Jim Canty
    Dusty Springfield’s Record Collection song credits:
    Released June 1, 2023

    all noises by Ellery Twining
    Except: David Bentley / The Bass Guitar

    Produced and Recorded by Eric M. Lichter for Dirt Floor Recording & Production – Haddam, CT
    Recorded between December 2022 and April 2023

    Dusty Springfield’s Record Collection video credits:
    Released August 17, 2024
    All photographs and video by Michelle Gemma
    Except video footage of 17 Relics from Disc40 by Frank Fulchiero for SEC-TV in Groton, CT on September 30, 2023
    Models: Carly Straub as the young fan and Issy Paterson as Dusty Springfield
    Mystic Disc workers: Emma & Maya & Fiona
    Mystic Disc owner: Dan Curland
    Filmed on June 30,  July 16 & August 7, 2024 at Mystic Disc  in Mystic, CT USA
    Appearing in the photographs: Mystic Disc, Carly, Issy, Glastonbury Grove, DJ Shecky, DJ Jimmy K, DJ Mark Amado, Emma, Maya, Fiona, James Maple, and the Dog Dan Curland.

  • Love Conquers All

    Love Conquers All

    The Demeter and Persephone Story: The Genesis

    As the legend goes, Hades rarely ventured out of the underworld. But, the few times he did, he encountered Persephone. She was the alluring daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

    From the moment he first set his eyes on her, he was drawn to her and instantly fell in love. So, Hades went to his brother Zeus to consult him. Zeus had previously promised Hades one of his daughters in marriage. And when Hades told him that he wanted to marry Persephone, Zeus obliged.

    He knew, however, that Persephone’s mother Demeter would never allow her daughter to marry the dark god of the underworld. Hades was heartbroken that he would never be able to have Persephone as his wife. So, the two brothers hatched a plan that would see him marry the woman he desperately loved.

    The next morning, Demeter and her daughter descended upon the earth. The two were incredibly close just as most mothers and daughters are when girls begin to transition into womanhood.

    Demeter was the life-giving goddess of agriculture, grain, and harvest. She provided mortals with plants, food, and vegetables. She also gave them the ability to cultivate wheat.

    She showed them how to plant the seeds, nurture them, and harvest them. She even taught them how to grind the grain to produce flour, which they could turn into bread. Demeter left her daughter with the nymphs of the sea to watch over her while she went to tend to her earthly duties.

    Zeus knew that the nymphs would never let Persephone out of their sight for fear of Demeter’s wrath. So, he had Gaia plant an enchanting narcissus flower in a nearby garden. As Persephone wandered away from her mother and into the garden, she saw the flower and was immediately drawn to its beauty.

    (more…)

  • PHOTO document by Michelle Gemma for Portersville & Greenmanville: A Presentation of 1990s Mystic Art & Culture at Mystic River Park — 29 September 2022

    $3 Depth Charge at the NLPL for Postage Magazine 1996
    17 Relics at Sergio Franchi Drive 1994
    Maria chez Depot 1993

    Read More

    READ MORE

  • Full Moon in Sagittarius at 23 degrees

    “The body’s wisdom musically in touch and in tune, sensing the resonance of cellular awakening. Eager and enthusiastic and bright, you have given over to the process. Always in midstream. Seizing upon opportunities, challenges, openings. Needing to know just how it feels at the micro levels. What is it like to be free, to be joyous, to be unrestricted, here in the body, in the world? You seek the full-on motivating spark of knowing what it feels like to be tuned out and discovering what it really means to be tuned in all the way.” from Sagittarius at 23 degrees by Ellias Lonsdale

    In much the same way in which he characterized planets and asteroids as powerful, gendered beings in Inside Planets, Ellias Lonsdale gives new depth and nuance to degree analysis, an area often seen as technical or reduced to cliche.

    Lonsdale builds on three main degree interpretations: Dane Rudhyar’s concept of the Sabian Symbols described in The Astrology of Personality and An Astrological Mandala, Marc Edmund Jones’s Sabian Symbols in Astrology, and John Sandbach’s recent Chandra Symbols. Beginning in 1988, Lonsdale worked with his wife Sara in tracking the Sabian symbol, the Charubel Symbol (the most useful of the other sets of degree symbology) and the Chandra Symbol. After Sara died in 1993 Lonsdale worked with her (as Theanna) and their friend Alita “to pierce through the veil,” as he says in his Introduction, “to find the angel behind each degree. This ultimate version is won from death and fused with rebirth and each word shows this power.”

    The degree symbols are most useful in elaborating a personal birth chart. One can learn about personal cycles from studying the place of a transiting or progressed planet by degree at a given time, revealing collective as well as personal timings. The Zodiac degrees also act as an oracle. One can open the collection anywhere for a given day, or in reponse to a question. The degrees will reveal what is happening now and if we are attentive and responsive to the cues, what is required of us. Comparing charts of friends and famous people who are known for certain qualities, one can gradually discriminate among the degrees.

    These beautifully written and fully imagined readings of the Chandra degree symbols speak to a deep level of personal change and authenticity.

    Ellias Lonsdale is the author of Star Rhythms, The Book of Theanna, and Inside Planets. He lectures widely on astrology and is an astrological counselor in Santa Cruz, California.

    https://aquaorfire.net/astrology/inside_degrees/inside_degrees.html#sagittarius

    featuring Model: Titus Abad
    as Sagittarius for the Personal Universe Series
    Photograph by Michelle Gemma

  • Venus Enters Cancer on the Last Quarter Moon in Pisces 2 June 2021 Gemini Season

    featuring Model: Morgan Vail as Cancer for the series Personal Universe
    and also the subject of the forthcoming book, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl
    sneak peak here https://michellegemmaphotography.com/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-girl-2/
    a continuum of photographs of Morgan from age 12 to age 31 and beyond

  • FULL MOON IN SCORPIO 26 APRIL 2021

    EVERYTHING MATTERS
    featuring Model: Emma Rocherolle
    as my Scorpio on the Full Pink Moon
    Photograph by Michelle Gemma
    shot with the Mamiya 7
    on Ilford Delta 400 Pro film
    Inspiration: Flatliners by Peter Filardi

  • Waiting in Sagittarius for the Last *FULL MOON* of the year and decade in Gemini

    GEMINI 20
    A bull stung by a scorpion.
    The elaborate ritual of putting yourself through life or death crises to determine what you are made of and how far you are willing to go in this life.
    Choosing from expanded faculties the optimal situations to enact this battle royale.
    Selecting what is karmically familiar. Variations on old themes involving bondage and freedom.
    When you are trapped, caught, stuck, a furious inner force asserts itself and can reconfigure everything. But it is a high-stakes ritual drama and loaded with real dangers.
    You must check yourself out in ultimate ways, for there is surging in your blood an impulse toward liberation, which cannot be distorted in any way.
    An extraordinary journey through radical tests and trails of an initiatory intensity.
    It is all about guts, and stripping away everything but the true inner direction.
    And if you must slay and move through illusions on every front, that is just how it is.
    You cannot survive any longer on old ways to do it–it is time to welcome the enemy into your very midst and discover that there are no enemies.”
    Text  by  ELLIAS LONSDALE © Copyright 2019 published on https://www.mysticmamma.com/full-moon-in-gemini-december-11th-12th-2019/

    Photographs by Michelle Gemma
    All clothing by Susan Hickman
    Models: Carol W., Liz Walz, Alycia de los Santos, Vicki Rock, and Julia Farrar.

  • Last Quarter Moon

    The LAST QUARTER MOON occurs on Thursday, November 29th, 2018, at 7:19 PM EST.
    Thursday evening, the Last Quarter Moon is exact, when the Sun in Sagittarius forms a square with the Moon in Virgo.
    The Last Quarter Moon phase points to some sort of crisis of consciousness.

    Outtake from “The Balance of Power”

    a new photo narrative featuring Model: Jane Alice
    as my LIBRA
    for the new series: Personal Universe, an astrological study starring the model stable of Michelle Gemma (2017-2018)
    Photograph by Michelle  Gemma
    27 July 2018
    Stonington Boro, CT  USA
    Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

    https://michellegemmaphotography.com/
    https://michellegemmaphotography.wordpress.com/

     

  • Destroy The Negatives

    “Hi Michelle,
    Although I have not run into you around Mystic in a very long time, I am sure you remember me since in the past you took photographs of Maria.

     

    I have been meaning to call you, but usually do not remember until it is too late at night to do it.

     

    As you know, Maria’s father was not at all pleased with the pictures of Maria.

    Since the art festival is quickly approaching, I am emailing to ask that you absolutely do not use any photos of her in your booth this year or in any future years

    – or show them at any other local events.

    We have a friend who seems to go out of his way to check your booth each year and report back to her father, which always sends him into a tirade about how it was never the right thing to do.

     

    I truly think it would be best if you destroyed all negatives of her pictures.  I know some were exhibited at the Wayne Richard Barbershop when it first opened, because someone else mentioned that at the time also.

     

    Sorry this did not work out well.

    Thank you for your consideration.”

    —-Maria’s Mother

    note: the photographer’s father was protective, also.

     

  • “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”

    “The dream has gone
    But the baby is real
    Oh you did a good thing
    She could have been a poet
    Or, she could have been a fool
    Oh you did a bad thing
    And I’m not happy
    And I’m not sad”

    —-the Smiths, “This Night has Opened my Eyes”, from Hatful of Hollow, a compilation album released 12 November 1984, Rough Trade.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatful_of_Hollow

    featuring Model: Liz Walz wearing a handmade dress by Susan Hickman for Crocker House FashionShow
    Photograph by Michelle Gemma