Dark Pinup inception!

I’m right on that threshold of whether or not I should write a blog or go to bed. I’m notoriously an insomniac and it’s probably because of decisions like this, but the first paragraph has begun. Here we are. I have some big milestones coming up this next week, both professionally and personally. Dark Pinup, the NFT collection that I launched on WAX through @facingsofficial will be releasing City of Angels on August 1st, now through @mirrorpool. This’ll be our first release on our own as an independent company and although I don’t expect to make money from the drop, it’s symbolically significant for us.

It had me revisiting some of the original collections and I wanted to share some photography that I’ve never posted here on Hive. Part of the collection in Act One was the mementos. These were photos taken of items from my years traveling and shooting. Metro cards from New York, flight stubs, train or bus tickets, etc. For Act Two, we did something a little different. The mementos were photos of photos from Act One. Kind of an, “Inception”, thing. The real reason I did this is because I ran out of actual mementos. We used them all for Act One, but this became one of my favorite parts of the set.

I did this buy ordering high quality prints from a local photography studio. I got them home and set them up one by one on elaborate backdrops that fit the aesthetic of the Dark Pinup set. Many signatures like the candles and tapestry across the table were homages to the last 20 years of photography I’ve done in the pinup scene. These items were actually used in many of the photos in the collection so in a way, it was like Dark Pinup lore. The visual of these new mementos have become part of the story and I love how this part of my career was told.

I’ve since gone on to use a few of these shots on my Etsy print shop and I’ve gotten compliments from them from customers that’ve ordered. I’m currently turning one of them into an ad for a tour I’ll be taking through the south, most likely NOLA and Austin, TX in the fall. It’s one of the things I love about this job. It can be stressful to be a freelancer, but it forces you to be innovative and one of my worst fears is stagnating in my job [and in life as a whole]. Always trying to come up with new ways to share my work with the world.