Photography with Joe

My Kindle Books, Amazon, and the Ghosts of Locke So, Amazon wants to give me a free book every month. One. And a tiny bonus. Free. Kindle. Prime. They call it First Reads. I call it the digital equivalent of finding a single candy in a dumpster and thinking you’ve won a lottery. I download it. I open it. I start reading. But somewhere deep in my brain, the synapses twitch. These books—I don’t own them. Not really. They’re mine until Amazon decides I’m not. Until they disappear. Until the DRM ghost chains them back to a server that could blow up tomorrow and take all my “ownership” with it. And suddenly I feel like Locke, wandering through London in a powdered wig, scribbling notes about monopolies and print charters, except instead of the Stationers’ Company, it’s Jeff Bezos, wielding invisible, global digital power. Locke was mad about the Stationers’ monopoly. He called it absurd, ridiculous, tyrannical in ways most people wouldn’t think to call tyrannical because it was a private co...

.... Once upon a time, the deal was simple: You start small. You hustle. You scrape by on commercials, on bit parts, on late nights waiting tables. Those jobs were the ground floor — the space for the hungry, the unknown, the ones still chasing the dream. But now? The giants come stomping back down the staircase. Not content with the penthouses and the spotlights, they reach for the crumbs too. They take the ads, the cameos, the scraps — the very scraps they once left behind. It’s not ambition. It’s gluttony. It’s the greed of wanting every stage, every paycheck, every flicker of attention. They eat from both ends of the table — the feast and the leftovers — and leave nothing for the ones still starving. This isn’t just unfair. It’s a betrayal. The ladder was meant to be climbed — not ripped away once you’re on top. And so the newcomers wait in the shadows, staring at doors that no longer open, jobs that no longer exist, opportunities swallowed by the same people who ...

 Helmut Newton–style   Khiara Gray: cinematic, intimate, and raw! Khiara Gray She doesn’t enter the frame. She claims it. With nearly a decade of experience in artistic modeling, Khiara Gray moves between muse and auteur. Her body is not decoration—it is declaration. Her gaze dares the camera to flinch. There is nothing passive here. Every pose is a negotiation of power, of vulnerability, of knowing exactly how much skin to bare—and how much soul to withhold. Born with a restless eye, Khiara fell for photography before she could name her desire. Self-taught and instinct-driven, she honed her style by watching, absorbing, and ultimately transcending the work of the photographers around her. Then came formal training in painting—where anatomy, color, and emotion became language. Her preferred dialect? Portraiture. Not the polite kind. The kind that stares back. Her own paintings are psychic portraits—color-maps of people’s energy. Her brush listens to what can’t be sa...

 "Re-contextualization, Appropriation, Remix, Reinterpretation, PROJECT Zeitgeist" by 江戸門戸 Scholz©2025 offers a compelling prism through which Trump’s constructed self-image and broader public persona are dissected. By creatively juxtaposing elements such as reimagined Time magazine covers, critiques of artificial intelligence's capacity for mimicry, and satirical takes on Men’s Health that mock his famed fast-food preferences, the project incisively underscores the dissonance between Trump's self-styled projection and societal perceptions. Through a blend of satire and visual metaphor, the work interrogates themes of authenticity, well-being, and intellectual rigor within the sphere of political authority. By reappropriating these familiar cultural artifacts, the artist not only deconstructs Trump's "stable genius" claim but also reframes it as a symbol of the interplay between self-perception, media manipulation, and the public's appetite for spe...

Ghosting   The act of suddenly ceasing all communication with someone the subject is dating, but no longer wishes to date. This is done in hopes that the ghostee will just "get the hint" and leave the subject alone, as opposed to the subject simply telling them he/she is no longer interested. Ghosting is not specific to a certain gender and is closely related to the subject's maturity and communication skills. Many attempt to justify ghosting as a way to cease dating the ghostee without hurting their feelings, but it in fact proves the subject is thinking more of themselves, as ghosting often creates more confusion for the ghostee than if the subject kindly stated how he/she feels. Carmen: How was your second date with Kyle?   Beth: I thought it went well, but I've texted him a couple of times since then and he's been ghosting me.   Carmen: What? I thought he was more mature than that Neotech - refers the the 21st century culture and norm changes cause...