Séduction

Seduction (Eng.)/ Séduction (Fr.) vb.: To lead or draw away as from principles, faith, or allegiance. To win over, attract or entice.

It should comes as no surprise that the timing of this exhibition in Paris and the recent outbreak of popularity of the 50 Shades of Grey books in the United states is auspicious.

"My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain."

- Helmut Newton

(Helmut Newton Exhibition, Grand Palais, Paris, Juillet 29, 2012)

"There must be a certain look of availability in the women I photograph... I think the woman who gives the appearance of being available is sexually much more exciting than a woman who is completely distant. The sense of availability I find erotic."

- Helmut Newton

(Charlotte Rampling, hotel Nord-Pinus, Arles, 1973 by Helmut Newton)

"Photography was always his mistress, and I was his wife. Let's say it was an open marriage."

June Newton (aka Alice Springs), Helmut's model, muse and wife.

(Helmut Newton, Monte Carlo, 1987 by June Newton, aka Alice Springs)

"Look, I'm not an intellectual. I just take pictures."

- Helmut Newton

(Catherine Deneuve, Paris, 1976, by Helmut Newton)

La peur

La peur (Fr.)/ Fear (Eng.) noun: a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.

Charlotte Rampling: The Look on Nowness.com.

Today is Day Three of a 30-day challenge to write a 50,000-word novel (National Novel Writing Month).To keep on the pace, I should write approximately 1,700 words per day. To say that I am behind that pace is an understatement. I spent Day One in a drunken state hoping that the wine would deliver me with a story idea, a brilliant character, a setting. Something. Anything. Instead it gifted me a hellacious hangover and zero words. Day Two I was too hungover to write, although I did birth a rather long (dare I say 1,700 words long?) mental list of reason why quitting was a good, no a great idea.

This morning I awoke to a fabulous bit of advice in my inbox... "Just plan to write a 50,000-word pile of hot steaming shit." Which is what I have now officially begun to do.

"Write what you know" I once heard said about the writing process. After too much coffee and a bowl of fruit,  I have written 2,936 words about the first time I tried living in Paris, back in 2006. Only 47,064 steaming hot words left to excrete.

Is there a story line here? A plot? Interesting character development? I have no freaking idea.

"There's an animal excitement about confronting situations where you have no idea what the outcome will be. When you're presenting yourself in front of crowds... what can happen. There's a challenge element to the exposure which is quite, well it's almost erotic. In a sense challenging your senses to that, you're pushing yourself to go dangerously into places. But that's what fuels most interesting things. Fear."

- Charlotte Rampling, for The Nowness