last quarter moon

The LAST QUARTER MOON occurs on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, at 5:45 AM EDT.

On Tuesday morning, the Last Quarter Moon is exact, when the Sun in Libra squares the Moon in Cancer.

“The Last Quarter Moon phase points to some sort of crisis of consciousness. After basking in the awareness symbolized by the full light of the Moon at the time of last week’s Full Moon, we disperse our knowledge and come to a point when we need to sort out what works for us–and what doesn’t–in preparation for next week’s New Moon, when something new is born once again. This is not the best time to start a major project, as the decreasing light of the Moon symbolizes a descent into unconsciousness. It’s time to begin finishing up the details of that which was conceived at the last New Moon. What revelations did you have last week? What did they mean for you? What can be done now?”
https://cafeastrology.com/thisweekinastrology.html
Kodak 5063 Tri-X film
Photograph by Michelle Gemma

Seventeen Seconds

1.   “A Reflection”
2.   “Play for Today”
3.   “Secrets”
4.   “In Your House”
5.   “Three”
6.   “The Final Sound”
7.   “A Forest”
8.   “M”
9.   “At Night”
10.   “Seventeen Seconds”

Photo Narrative
“Seventeen Seconds”
featuring Model: Titus Abad
all Photographs by Michelle Gemma
Eolia Mansion at Harkness Park, Waterford,  CT  USA
Photo Captions  from the album “Seventeen Seconds” by the Cure (1980) Fiction Records
I picked up this album in 1992 at the Heathrow Airport in London on a trip with my friend Matthew Hannan, on our way back from a visit to Megen Cox in Scotland.
An important trip as I brought a camera along and shot my very first roll of film, almost completely damaged by the airport x-ray. But the remaining frames, developed with assistance by Matthew Mclaughlin at the first Greenman Collective at Alice Court in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, led to the cover shot for Green, the Red Beard, a book of poems by Hannan, on Hozomeen Press.  Full Circle, here we are, together again at PortFire.

“There is a Light that never goes out”

SCRIPT  FOR  MICHELLE  GEMMA  PHOTOSHOOT

featuring Model: Alycia delosSantos   as my Leo for the forthcoming series: “Personal Universe” (an astrological study of the zodiac featuring twelve models portraying their sign)
today’s locations: House of 1833 in Old Mystic  and the Mystic Hilton in Mystic

“There is a Light that never goes out”

3 PM: arrive at the House of 1833:

You are my Leo goddess queen, and you are invited to the Mansion for a party and you are the honored guest.

We are going to get you dressed up in a fur coat ; in a beautiful vintage backless burgundy dress and you’re ready!

 

You’re ready for the honor,  for the party ; to celebrate and be celebrated!

You show up to the Mansion as expected: you stalk around waiting for it:: you go room and room and it’s empty:

no one is there: the fireplace is not lit.

You change outfits hopeful that the party is about to start:

we were just a little premature:: more stalking; as in leonine prowess::: “what is going on?”


— Nothing


So we go to the hotel for the party:

4 PM: arrive at The Mystic Hilton
There are lights there are people: there is a fire:::

 

You can dance
You can see people and be a lioness.
I keep thinking of the Smiths lyric:
“Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
Who are young and alive
Driving in your car
I never never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one anymore”
So this is the triumphant realization of our arrival at the hotel:: we are seeing people and we are happy and at peace!

 

 

 

You have fun then at the end we wrap you in velvet swaths and you retreat to your den to relax and to dream:::::

“There is a Light that never goes out”
all Photographs by Michelle Gemma

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

 

“The fog was where I wanted to be.”
“Halfway down the path you can’t see this house. You’d never know it was here.”
“Or any of the other places down the avenue. I couldn’t see but a few feet ahead.”
“I didn’t meet a soul.”
“Everything looked and sounded unreal. Nothing was what it is.”
“That’s what I wanted—to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself.”
“Out beyond the harbor, where the road runs along the beach, I even lost the feeling of being on land.”
“The fog and the sea seemed part of each other. It was like walking on the bottom of the sea.”
“As if I had drowned long ago.”
“As if I was the ghost belonging to the fog, and the fog was the ghost of the sea. It felt damned peaceful to be nothing more than a ghost within a ghost.”

featuring Model: Kathryn O’Reilly
all photographs by Michelle Gemma
Photo Shoot for Aquarius:
Personal Universe series
24   August  2018
Bluff Point,  CT  USA
Eve of the Full Moon
script:  Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night excerpt:
https://michellegemmaphotography.com/
https://michellegemmaphotography.wordpress.com/

The Balance of Power

The woman is perfected.
Her dead
Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The illusion of a Greek necessity
Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare
Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over.
Each dead child coiled, a white serpent,
One at each little
Pitcher of milk, now empty.
She has folded
Them back into her body as petals
Of a rose close when the garden
Stiffens and odors bleed
From the sweet, deep throats of the night flower.
The moon has nothing to be sad about,
Staring from her hood of bone.
She is used to this sort of thing.
Her blacks crackle and drag.

 

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/

featuring the Poem:
Edge      by      SYLVIA PLATH

 

 

 

 

“I’ll Make You Forget”

“Ooops alright
I’ll come over
And pour myself over you”
“Jars of fun!
Exciting stories
I’ll make you forget”
“Tickle you a little bit
Seduce out your good temper”
“I’ll shine all over”
“I’ll cook my best dish for you”
“But then it’s my turn
I want all your adoration”
“Dog, I own you
Sit down fool”
“You own me”
“I’m yours
I’m the sun”
“I’ll shine all over you”
“Grab the rays
Sugar”
“I’ll make you forget”
“I’ll make you for-get”

“I’ll Make You Forget”
a photo narrative featuring Model: Caroline Walz
Photographs by Michelle Gemma
11 October 2016
House of 1833
Old Mystic, CT  USA

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

inspired by the song “Ooops” by 808 State, 1991.
Songwriters: Martin Price / Andrew Edward Barker / Darren Alan Partington / Graham Vernon Massey / Björk Gudmundsdottir
Ooops lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., BMG Rights Management US, LLC

“Return From The Sea”

The Captain has been on a long sea voyage to find his fortune, having left behind his beloved.
He has anxiously awaited his return home.
He knows that his beloved has paced away many nights at the Mansion up in the Widows Walk, craning a look through the telescope: hoping to see a ship , any ship, any movement.
Movement is life.
The sea has movement but it can betray the visible truth because there is so much movement in the sea.
The sea waves back at you, is hopeful.
The Captain has arrived at the Mansion.
He enters each room and looks around.
Then he walks upstairs to get a better look. The Widows Walk has the best view. Plus there is a telescope: he will find her…

“Return From The Sea”
a new photo narrative starring Writer: Royal Young
Text and Photographs by Michelle Gemma
25 June 2018
Spicer Mansion
15 Elm Street, Mystic, CT  USA