farenellphoto's avatar

farenellphoto

of Farenell Photography
3.6K
Watchers
3.9K
Deviations
246.9K
Pageviews

This post is bitter-sweet & I've been struggling to articulate my thoughts into words. However I feel the dA community should know.


It is with a heavy heart that the dA community lost one of our own Jillian Durgin, sometimes freelance model & founder of Ritual Fashion, here on dA she was known as "JillianAnn999." She was in a tragic car accident outside her home in Rome, GA on 26 Aug, 2023.


When I first heard the news, I didn't believe it. I knew she was going throughthe usual BS most public personalities have with online a**holes so I called her number & left a voicemail asking her to call me, hoping what I'd heard was a different Jillian. Came inside, Googled her name while I waited, & was devastated to read the first entry was an outside news report of the car accident. This was later confirmed when her family & company's Instagram spread the same news.


The news link is here: https://www.wrganews.com/2023/08/26/rome-man-killed-in-chattooga-county-wreck/


Here's the rememberance page her family setup: https://www.masonfuneralhome.com/obituary/MsJillian-Durgin


Jillian came onto my radar back during the LiveJournal blogging days (2005'ish?) when she'd post both her modeling pictures as well as her unique fashion pieces & was captivated by her command presence.


We parted ways as so often happens in the age of social media til I found her again on yet another platform. Posted a throwaway comment not thinking anything would come of it since we were literally on opposite sides of the country, only to find out a couple weeks later she was trekking to the area.


"Do you still want to work together?" she basically asked. I'm like (eff) yeah! Figured out a place & time & went with it.

Shoot day was a complete cluster(eff). It had more to do with it being literally the 1st nice day AFTER New York City loosened their Covid restrictions. Us Upstaters were already accustomed to the relatively loose restriction because of our rural culture but the location being an hour or two outside of NYC meant they all flocked to the lower Hudson Valley at the same time.


Tried doing Plan A but that failed because of people. Then B, C, D, E & F. Please understand it was originally supposed to be a "nudes in nature" shoot but there was a crazy amount of people around, I'm not the type of photographer to push a model do something that "I" am uncomfortable having them do. The situation just sucked.


I was going to call it quits, more disgusted at the circumstance we found ourselves in until she pulls out one of her fashion pieces out of a giant duffel bag that probably about half her 3/4 o her bodyweight. In the back of my mind, I'm like "May as well!" LOL


Migrated to a yet another part of the park again, to many people. So we continued to do clothed work. Tried the "nudes in nature" again & no joy. Taking that it was a sign from the Art Gods to go where the art flow is taking you, we continued to do more clothed stuff until the good light finally dictated we call it.


We have since produced A LOT more interesting stuff together & you'll eventually see some here when I get around to it but here's one that fondly brings me back to that day.

8947

I will always appreciated Jillian's patience, creative drive, poise, as well as our long conversations. I will especially miss her kindness towards others & her drive to make this world a better place.


Jillian Ann Durgin, you will be missed.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Happy New Year everyone! May your 2024 be better than 2023.


I'm normally reluctant to have people use my work used as reference or stock material because in all honesty, I view my work as a finished product. Its an intrepretation of my vision. Even when looking at samples of a prospective artist's work, its kinda a mystery as to how my finished product will look once its filtered through their prism.


- Will it be trashy?

- Will there be actual effort put into it? (Sorry but a crop job & playing w/ the colors doesn't cut it)?

- Will they publicly credit me as their source material?

- Will the finished product be demeaning to my subjects?

- Will they even notify me when its done?


Its always a crapshoot.


Don't even get me started on my objections to AI art. You're welcome to read my feelings about it here.


So long as the prospective artist asks beforehand (instead of just assuming I've already given permission), I'm likely to approve such request.


Fellow deviant Wytherwing recently extended that courtesy & produced the following image from one of my pieces with Anastasia Arteyeva & really like what he produced! It has this super stylized, 1980s, Patrick Nagel inspired, pop art feel to it.


Below is Wytherwing's piece, followed by my original in case you're interested.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

Just say no to AI "art."


We artist are ALREADY undervalued, underappreciated, & underpayed. To say nothing about our work routinely being stolen.


How does that effect the dA experience?


Each time I open a lovely piece to comment, I view the keywords & if it has "AI" or something like that. I immediately move on. The more I move on & not find what I'm hoping for, the more difficult it is to find worthwhile artists who are *gasp* actually human!


Let's be real.


Me complimenting a computer program isn't going to inspire them. Making a suggestionin isn't going to improve something either their approach or subject matter or view it in a different way.


Schmucks like me who've been around the block aren't the ones effected by dA's acceptance & promotion of AI art. Its the budding "human" artists who are effected because they have to deal with being amongst the riff-raff.


On the upside dA is giving us the avility to block keywords & a checkbox that specifically "Mutes AI Art" in the Settings --> Browsing --> Mute AI Art. (See picture below)

for AI Art criticism

The irony being AI programs were supposedly meant to free people from doing the boring activities nobody likes, to enable us to create things that make us unique - like art or music. Yet those pushing the AI programs are instead pushing to free us from what makes us humans unique, to give us more time to be more like drones.


Update: This is interesting.


A federal judge in Washington DC has ruled that AI generated Art is not protected by Copyright Law because it "lacks human involvement."


I fully expect this AI "art" stuff will be ongoing for sometime & below is an article about said ruling. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/us-judge-rules-ai-generated-art-is-not-protected-by-copyright-law-1234677410/

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

I'm proud to announce that I've stared my own Patreon.


https://www.patreon.com/farenellphoto


dA's been fun & largely still is. But I got told of receiving "sensitive contents" labels attached to my posts whenever I dared to post a portrait of a female wearing a t-shirt on a cold day.


I choose Patreon over OnlyFans because it "feels" like its better geared toward my end of still photography. I don't really do enough video which I think is a strength to OF. & I don't want to have to deal with OF sale game - where you run a sale to gain new subscribers. But from observation, much of how Content Creators run those sale undercuts what they offer for multi-month bundles. If it works for them, who am I to tell them they're wrong? I don't feel like that's for me.


I'm gearing my Patreon towards the exclusiveity angle. They'll be the very first to see certain sets or pictures or A LOT more of said sets than I show anwywhere else. There's (again) exclusive access to myhotoblog before its published anywhere else.


For the upper tiers, I offer high res wallpapers to decorate your desktop as well as mailing complimentary 4x6 &/or 8x10 prints.


I intend to keep my dA though. It still feels like my creative home & is the SM site I have the fewest problems with. I just don't know how I expect to use it yet.


Anyways, I look forward to seeing y'all there. & if its not for you, that's ok too.


Let me know if you have any questions. I'll answer them the best I can.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In

I may have my disagreements with dA in how they manage things here but I just want to say I'm soooooooooooooooo grateful I have a place where I can post my kind of work & not have to worry about running afoul of nebulous "sensitive content" rules.


It really says something about your social media company when they FREAK OUT when I post a picture of a female wearing a white t-shirt in cold weather yet its perfectly ok for another person to spew their vile hate speech & threaten someone with bodily harm.


I'm also fascinated how social media companies are desperate for you to use their site right up until the exact minute you choose to monetize that sh*t, then all of a sudden throw roadblocks & sometimes outright ban you for doing it.

Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Now a MULTI-Award Winning Photographer by farenellphoto, journal

Reports of My Deletion Have Been Exaggerated by farenellphoto, journal

Announcing my Revamped Photoblog by farenellphoto, journal

Bye Bye Tumblr by farenellphoto, journal

I'm now an Award Winning Photographer by farenellphoto, journal