The Internet

Anthony on Rooftop
Manhattan, NY
April 2008

So, Jon Feinstein of Humble Art Foundation shed some light on the crazy starving dog story and sent me a link to an article which exposes the whole thing as a hoax - a stunt by the artist to cause a big stir, which it did. Over a million people signed this petition, which is at least a little heartwarming even if we are all annoyed for having been manipulated. It got me thinking about what we read on the internet, and how we might confuse truth and fiction, and how much weird stuff arrives in my inbox on a daily basis.

Besides the messages selling Viagra and other dubious drugs, I am regularly bombarded with messages revealing that I am the beneficiary of large sums of foreign currency once I have shared some details of my identity and contact information. But worse still are the inquiries from brides and grooms with sketchy yahoo accounts about the costs of my photography services for an upcoming wedding in NYC, usually opening with "Dear Sir or Madame..." and some words of flattery. Most of these messages are allegedly coming from foreign countries and the awkward use of the English language and the creepy tone sounds uncannily similar each time. Who writes these things, I wonder. Is there one evil mastermind with a million yahoo accounts or is there a sweatshop somewhere with laptops where workers are trained to perfect this particular style of bad English and ridiculously excessive formality?

Hmmm. Well, I just wanted to put something simple on the internet today - the face of someone I love and who I think is beautiful. My friend, Anthony, was in town for a long weekend for his cousin's wedding and spent his nights and mornings at my apartment in Brooklyn. While I have previously photographed Anthony on beaches in Minneapolis or making out with a cute guy on a couch in an apartment in the West Village, this time around, I got a shot of him on the rooftop of a building on 39th Street where the wedding reception was held. Too bad you can't see the awesome view of the city from this rooftop, but you might notice the slight coffee stain emerging from beneath his lovely tie which happened on our walk to the wedding in Central Park - the only blemish to his elegant beauty and sophistication as far as I can tell.

And one last thing ... thank you to Paddy Johnson for featuring my work this week in the masthead of her super smart and cool art blog, Art Fag City. You can find the post here: Tema Stauffer in Art Fag City