Wonder of...

Ashley Graham! Damn!! 

NOT FAR: Europe's DARK AGES!

Grief after Kavanaugh's appointment. 

photo by Mary Mathis. October 5, 2018.

I shot the Kavanaugh protests this morning for NPR, and this is the photo that will always stick with me. I walked up to her after, needing her name for the photo but knowing it was a terrible time to ask. When I asked, she ignored me and said, “How are we going to find the strength to keep fighting?” I was speechless.
She said, “Are we going to be out here for another 30 years? I don’t have 30 years left.” - Mary Mathis

Kyla Cole, in the powers of... 

photographer unknown. Sorry. 

Worked into her Dream.

Clara Alonso (born 21 September 1987 in Madrid) is a Spanish model. Alonso was the only Spanish model to walk in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show since 1999. She has been the face of GUESS and AX Armani Exchange.

A regular in the Spanish runways, Alonso didn't make the jump internationally until she finished her studies. Once completing her studies she coincided with John Pfeiffer, a prestigious casting director for prominent shows, thereafter jobs abroad filled her agenda. In Florence, June 2008, Diane von Furstenberg hired Alonso for her "Cruise 2008-09" collection and months later was called to New York for the spring-summer 2009 fashion shows. While in the Big Apple, she also had the opportunity to work for Custo Barcelona. At 21 Alonso became Spain's new top model, chosen to be in the Victoria's Secret fashion show 2008 held in Miami, a historic landmark, since only two Spaniards, Esther Cañadas in 1997, and Eugenia Silva in 1998 and 1999, managed to participate in the VS fashion show. (WIKI)

Clara Alonso was the only Spanish model to walk in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion show since 1999.

Just a look at red...

Pink shorts, a penetrating pairs of eyes, and pretty legs!

Red Zara dress worn with a pair of cream Avida sandals becomes a sensual visual in this light!

Differences between the African and the Euro-American

Abby Parece ,by the way in jeans, makes the light look better back in 2015!...

Abby Parece made a statement in 2015: "If you keep looking back you might miss what is standing right in front of you!" "What would Sankofa say?" would be the question to ask, not being a white man. I am an African First Nation man.

Sankofa affirms the spiritual practice of looking backwards to better see the present and the future. It is distinctly Akan, from the Adinkra system of writing in present day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In Colonial times European countries after slaughter and subjugation the continent of Africa was divided amongst the war participants against African rule, thus becoming countries with multi-linguistic groups, and cultures living in new circumstances.

The immediate task to maintain cultures and rituals throughout the continent of Africa was, and to this day difficult because Europeans as Colonial powers are extremely brutal. There are quite a number of West African authors, from the 1960's onward who have critiqued this time and illustrated detailed stories of that initial period, and how it moved through the decades. In these struggles, Sankofa was the appropriate technique amongst others to maintain the ancient cultures as France, and England, in particular thrust their nasty spirit into daily life!

In the United States, white Americans have inflicted themselves with gross contradictions to live by as they spread dark forces upon the people indigenous to this land, and the enslaved Africans they kept alive to copulate bringing forth more 'property' to bear upon their individual, and collective wealth. This system of manipulation for financial gain and cultural dominance to this end slaughter ancient ritual practices of the many African traditions that survived the Middle Passage. The Church, the educators, the business men, and the Department of War were the high priests of this orgy of dismantling the soul of people, Red and Black.

The 20th century bore fruit from this violence in both of our communities. Sankofa became more of a presence in the African spiritual communities in major cities as more and more Black American's struggles brought them closer home to who their ancestors prayed better understanding of self over mere survival. Washington DC's African spiritual communities are 'houses'.

There are eleven (11) houses: Yoruba, Akan, Ausar Auset, and one house of Voudoun. Each employ Sankofa in the practicality of unlearning what white people poured into our souls, as bowel. It is safe to say, and accurate to say the Sankofa presents itself to need, and is indifferent to being disregarded the way whites like to overcome their dichotomies with denial insisting upon other ethnic groups to simply get over whatever they (we) think they did to us!


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
March 7, 2018

Abby Parece by EASPHTOGRAPHY in October of 2015.

A history of Times Past.

Jane Birkin was loved by those wishing to be decadent, revered for her lines by artists, and studied for who she discovered within herself in an era seeking to better in their souls! - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/1/18

Astrid Kallsen by Todd M. Heilman, a study of contradiction.

This is a good place to comment about a gross contradiction. Khrushchev, in the 1950's, predicted the fall of the United States from within, without a shot fired. At the time it was dimly understood. By the unfolding of the 1990's it was clearer. Today, in the near the end of the second decade of the 21st century it is glaringly obvious. Clarity does not have the talent for changing dire predictions in a people, who think they are the greatest thing in history believing God made them the best country in history!

So, the question is: what do we do in the light of inevitability? Prepare for shit to happen. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/01/18

Jane Birkin was loved by those just out of reach of something special within themselves. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/1/18

a Life she Lived.

Countess Vera von Lehndorff-Steinort (German: Vera Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort; born 14 May 1939), also known as Veruschka von Lehndorff, is a German model, actress, and artist who was popular during the 1960s. She is known professionally as Veruschka.

Yasmina ROSSI, french model.

Yasmina Rossi, a breathless beauty in this age evokes play, sensuality and a sense of timelessness into the spectacle of existence. It is a gift this stage of Life. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/3/18 

Yasmina Rossi, a compelling beauty, refreshes the soul simply gazing upon her. You can't just look at her, you have to see what she is looking at within! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/3/18 

What A Story!

The Sports Illustrated model issue in February in the beginning was suspected to be sacrilegious. Sports is one of the religions with an unfair amount of absurdity to its structure and as a practice: dangerous. The danger of this religion is the overriding contradiction it enjoyed for a long time that men declared in the spirit of domination! This empowering emotion took pleasure excluding women from the inner sanctum in front of the family TV on any Sunday!

When women stepped outside of their prescribed assignment: serving food and drinks and retiring to another room men would typically get upset because their mental focus on the screen was incapable of venturing in but one direction. When the idea of making bikini clad white models the focus of the holy text of 'the' American sports magazine for February, a lot of men were upset! That was what Playboy was for; not this publication! 

And then was the threat that wives would take exception at the growing excitement, and acceptance of this issue as sensual stimuli legitimized by the respectability of Sports Illustrated! What happened was a bonus! The issued became the proverbial pat upon the head! Wives decided to let their husband's this one pleasure, in part; I suspect, because it was very public. Without secrecy sensuality in this medium was given a status Playboy could not, did not have! Wives could live with this and be amused at the same time.

Over time, the monthly display of flesh in the sun during the worst of winter time blues was welcome and the models began to come from other ethnic groups, straying not far from the white standard of beauty.

It all comes together in this one publication. Western contradictions abound upsetting cultures around the globe. Despite the turmoil Europe created in the images and perception of Beauty, womanhood, and sex they've mysteriously taken over the images that dominate and control billions of people's concept of self in this monthly issue!

It is a powerful demon, at best. It comes alive much like Lazarus from the dead with each publication of the Sports Illustrated's swimsuit magazine, in February. What a story!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
Jan. 22, 2018

Sports Illustrated model Genevieve Morton in the 2014 swimsuit issue.

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover has been revealed for 2015, and it stars none other than Hannah Davis.

Sports Illustrated model Ariel Meredith (2013)

Sports and Beauty.

The best part of sports, for me, became the Sports Illustrated swimwear issue until my wife introduced me to Lingerie Football! Thank God, for alternative things during the football season! And then there are books, and the quiet outdoors during the games on the weekend, and delightfully the quiet outdoors during the Super Bowl, unless the wife takes me to a Super Bowl party at someone's house! Those are fun!

The food, at least with Black folk, is exceptional, and in abundance we have full course meals in big houses with large televisions! Laughter, jive talking, the soft smacking of lips sucking meat off bones, and the soul music coming from a room just off the side. Then the commercials and the biggest relief: one can watch the halftime show! There is no talking heads running off at the mouth endlessly during this time. I love it because during the regular games the most annoying thing is the constant stream of men talking from beginning to end, and worst of all: during the halftime shows.

People, groups, schools hustle all year to perform at these games and do not get in the national spotlight anymore! It's a shame, a damn shame! I can compare it to my childhood watching the games in black and white with Daddy understanding more than I do now about the game. Those halftime shows were something! They stopped fans in the chairs, rose them off their sofas! It was really something before the endless chatter in the same kind of voices took over the spotlight, the cameras and center stage!

Anyway, that's all I got for now! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1/26/18

Emily Didonato - SI Swimsuit 2015

Chrissy Teigen's Sports Illustrated swimsuit picture. (2015)

Sports Illustrated model Genevieve Morton in the 2014 swimsuit issue.

Xena, the Warrior Princess (r.) and Gabrielle. Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor.

Lingerie football team players. (2016).

an Understanding



model VIKI Odintcova by Girls In Calvin Klein Underwear
for FRONT magazine
 (June 2. 2016)

"What we create in the world, we must first create within ourselves." - Shakav

 

Poetry.

Rosa Brighid shooting for her website, OfficalRosa.com January 2017.

Poetry has her way of appearing. She as a form of art knows a thing or two about being elusive, vague and meaningful with but a few words, or cumbersome with many things to say. Poetry as an art form creates around the style of expression one can see, one can read, one can perceive, and one can know in one's soul by her presence, her beauty and the way she stands in time.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Jan. 16, 2017

Rosa Brighid. A self-portrait of appreciation after session work with Creative Instincts Photography. 2017.

5 views of one Standard.



Gregory E. Woods by Wesley Boyd at 20th Million Man March celebration in Washington DC in sacred circle set up & protected by a warrior society in red shirts. (October 2015)

"Because of my bloodlines and who I am in the real worlds I live in some people, in person, have asked me about the images of white women on my blogs. They never ask about any other ethnic group. It is the white women that draws the speculation. The question is why and the answer is plural."

Over the years the profound impact of the image of white women becomes more powerful. Of particular importance is the notion of measuring, superiority, and fear of who she is and what powers she represents. White men believe complicated versions of their women are not to be examined but accepted. It is part of conquest. If the white man could turn Jesus white, and Christianity into a Western religion who is going to argue against the idea that white women are whom our women should measure themselves?

"Do white women have spiritual qualities to measure against? Have they ever in history?"

That is a seldom asked question in public, and when answered by women of melanin it is done in silence because a significant number of their men respond to white women in a fashion that invites the anger of their women, or the admiration of their male friends, if sexual conquest is the measuring stick of masculinity and radical politics.

"Do white women have what is superior to other women?"

The answer is often a subtle one. Despite what women the world over say their actions speak of horrid realities. Asian and African women are bleaching their skin. Iranian women are altering their noses. Black American women have long embodied the essence of and the soul of white women as a survival mechanism, and as a model for being a woman. There are women who have killed themselves because the pressure to accept 'white women domination' is contemptible and heavy upon their essence, their soul. Central American and West African women quickly learn to model their parenting styles and sense of place in the social construct of the U.S. after white women, and suffer for it over time watching their children reject more and more of their cultures to become white American citizens, or distort themselves to make white people, in general, comfortable.

Women the world over are trying to be accepted by white women, and measure their esteem against the myths about white women, and as conquered people open protest against this standard is done by women holding on to their culture and languages as best they can.

"Are white women's bodies the ideal, or affordable?"

Apparently, white women's bodies are the ideal. They have become the ideal over time. The second insinuation about affordability is worth investigating because women of other ethnic groups spend millions of dollars to create the visual illusion they are white, or could somehow be respected or mistaken for one because they thinned their waists, narrowed their nose, obsessed over what white women fuss and fret over in the media circus, and the tendency to digress into comparative studies of their men against the standard of successful white men in business!

My last thoughts are complex; not for the shallow, the faint of heart or the pretentious.

"If Mary, the mother of Jesus is white how did she become intertwined with the spirituality of women from various tribes and nations with deep connections to their wombs when the spiritual powers of white women have been held in contempt in European and white American sensibilities?

In short, how do white women measure, or stand in the esteem of the ancient and modern spirituality of other ethnic groups with deeper roots in womanhood than white culture allows?"   - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.12.16






Sports Illustrated models Samantha Hoopes. Hailey Clauson. Kelly Rohrbach. Genevieve Morton. Anastasia Ashley.

 

Say It In Red.

Rosa Brighid at Paul's Studio Manor House Event. June 3, 2016 !!!!

The body in this dress is full, strong and demanding.

Elegance, poise and pretense pass for sophistication in today's world.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6.28.16

What We Don't See In Youth.



She is a model, but like models she influences thought and behavior
in children, teenagers and disturbingly older women. . .
FRONT magazine
December 21, 2015

She is a model, but like models she influences thought and behavior in children, teenagers and disturbingly older women who have not advanced beyond the years of uncertainty youth is charged with. It is quite the theater to have such power so young, but without the idea of what maturity looks like growth is stilted towards preserving a look, a feeling that was never meant to be permanent.

Every young woman goes through the insecurity of the embryo in their teens and twenties. What isn't effectively instilled is the certainty of death in relationship to change and transforming into a woman and later the Old Wise Woman, if that is to be the Path. If not, she will just be an old woman who has done a lot with her life, or has not. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.13.16

A Thought Caught in the Air.

Rosa Brighid composed and still in a simple setting.

"Opulence and how it feels is the temperament of the person."

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories Jan. 16, 2017

"Opulence and how it feels is the temperament of the person. It is different from wealth, the accumulation of money. Opulence in the language of spirit is composure, composition and a contribution to the stillness one needs to appreciate being alive!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Jan. 16, 2017

Instagram.com/RosaBrighid

Once a girl, now a woman.

"If you must insist on improving the quality of life improve yours." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Rosa Brighid by Danny Desantos early in January wearing a harness by Malice Lingerie.  

Early on little girls like to imitate and later emulate women whose sense of fashion is an essence, a being true to themselves that creates an atmosphere around them. It is elusive so it is mysterious. The woman who is not a lady, yet is still a woman can become many things, or embody the deeper treasures and become a Sacred Woman. It is the lady whose mystique is a quality girls can perceive, but cannot articulate until later in their lives, who hopes they become ladies because she can help them become ladies! 

The Little Girl, the Woman, the Lady, the Sacred Woman are moving entities within the soul of the Feminine. Without them women are just bodies, les carapace; and Art is lost.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

1/16/17

Rosa Brighid's book in print Now available to order in print:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1122913 

a Thought from a Man ...

Legs Emporium



Elena in the beauty of a moment of beauty.
February 19 , 2016  

Don Frye said, "The best thing about legs is where they join. That being said: While admiring the long, well turned stems of any woman, I am reminded to not be in a hurry in this endeavor. For life is about the journey and not the destination. And in the case of a woman's legs, the longer the journey the better." Feb. 21, 2016

 

IN the Depth of Her LIFE!

Carmen Dell'Orefice in the 2005 Red Dress Collection for The Heart Truth

Carmen Dell’Orefice, an American model, 83, was at the Kensington museum

to launch Horst. Photographer of Style in 2014.

Carmen Dell'Orefice seated composed at Christmas lunch 2016 II Buco NYC.

Inspired by Carmen Dell'Orefice's life force Sandra Elizabeth Della Chiara  said, "God has blessed you with beauty and health. You are a truly unique woman. I am happy that you share your life as we can see that life does not stop at 50 for women and that we can look forward to many more years of feeling and looking beautiful. Thank you for sharing insights into how to make that happen, you are a role model to many including myself." [Jan. 12, 2017]

Her Nature of Natural.

Rosa Brighid by Adrian Crook photography, edited by Carla Monaco Model.

November 5, 2015 

Rosa Brighid by Terry King. 2015.

You can see my portfolio here: Purpleport.com/portfolio/bhrose