Amalya

Shandelman

EVOLVE
Each of us is born into a rigidly finite world, our uniquely inherited chain of DNA pervading our every cell. As we grow, we strive for the infinite, for liberation from that daisy chain, to become much more than mere natural determinism suggests.

Observe my alter ego Irina, a mirror image of myself, demonstrating that noble transformation from Prometheus bound to unbound. Like a serpent shedding its skin, she frees herself, in layers and stages, of a purely mathematical definition, congenitally bestowed. She unravels that chain of command. No longer controlled by nature, she influences nature, directs it, even creates it anew.

We grow and thus we evolve, to much more than nature alone would have had us become.

EMERGE

An "e" prefix is most often short for Latin "ex": "out of, from."

So "emerge" can be understood as "e-merge" - merging with something by leaving it.

Which is obviously a paradox on the face of it! Can we make some sense of this?

But look at it this way. By becoming each day a new and better version of ourselves, we also become newer, truer versions of everything we always were. Think of it as an e-merge: Leaving our old selves to merge back into ourselves, bigger and better.

Life is not static. It is about dynamics. Life is about change.

As a portrait photographer, those are the dynamics I endeavor always to capture in my subjects. To help them see themselves as I see them: Constantly emerging and stepping out of themselves, but then to come back in - truer and better.

What joys of expectant motherhood!

A harmonious blend of love and stylish glamour that leaps off the page and into our hearts.

What greater happiness can there be, than the imminent expectation of new life?

And not just any, but a new life that *we* are bringing into the world!

Is there anything greater than bringing new human life into the world?`
We don't think so.

This Mom Soon To Be has got it all well in hand.
As she awaits the big day.

It won't be long now.

Motherhood is a joy to experience.
And also a joy to behold.

Behold.

Many mothers choose to de-emphasize their own needs for the sake of their baby.
Many do, but not all.

Observe, and be inspired.

Man reaches for the heavens, but his success remains to be seen.

Woman ad-"dresses" that challenge very differently.

Wrapping herself in lustrous sky-blue azure, she declares:

I am woman. Look no higher, look no further.

I am your heaven on earth.

I stand before you, naked and concealed. A hard shell of glass surrounds me, a protective wall of translucent safety. Take it from me! My blooms pour from its spout for you, for me. Be gentle with them. Part of me wants me to let go, to shatter the vase and let its water flow. I stand before you holding nothing. Exposed. But I cannot bear to shatter my exquisite vase. And so I set it down gently. Do stand beside it as a friend. To admire me in my utter exposure is to admire my blooms and my vase.

I stand before you, naked and concealed. A hard shell of glass surrounds me, a protective wall of translucent safety. Take it from me! My blooms pour from its spout for you, for me. Be gentle with them. Part of me wants me to let go, to shatter the vase and let its water flow. I stand before you holding nothing. Exposed. But I cannot bear to shatter my exquisite vase. And so I set it down gently. Do stand beside it as a friend. To admire me in my utter exposure is to admire my blooms and my vase.

I stand before you, naked and concealed. A hard shell of glass surrounds me, a protective wall of translucent safety. Take it from me! My blooms pour from its spout for you, for me. Be gentle with them. Part of me wants me to let go, to shatter the vase and let its water flow. I stand before you holding nothing. Exposed. But I cannot bear to shatter my exquisite vase. And so I set it down gently. Do stand beside it as a friend. To admire me in my utter exposure is to admire my blooms and my vase.

Motherhood and family harmony - these are the themes that pervade this photograph.
These are fundamental values that make our lives happier and our world better.

Sarah is an uncommonly lovely and talented young lady, with career aspirations that will use both her looks and her brains to great advantage.

We know she will reach great heights. But if there's any ladder, corporate or otherwise, that Sarah plans to climb, assembly-line aluminum isn't going to cut it. Nope. Antique hardwood is much more her style. And, as you can see, she's already got herself planted firmly on its rungs, preparing for a swift ascent.

(P.S. My son hangs out with Sarah as often as he can. If that isn't a recommendation, then I don't know what is. :-)

Deep in the essence of every soul is a desire to feel what it means to "wander in wonder." Freedom, joy, and fresh experiences are luxurious invitations common to almost all people.
Travel is arguably the one process that encompasses all of these luxuries in a single framework. Seeing children playing naked and unabashed on a sandy beach, clothed in nothing but their birthday suits, and with sand between their toes - this is one of the grandest freedoms we can encounter. Feeling the skin of one's foot land on God's green earth opens one's spirit to the vastness of greater possibilities if you have never before experienced it except in the pages of a book. In this space, lands collide. The mountains touch the sea, complementary races embrace new cultures, and we experience acceptance. Travel is the most glamorous expression of a well-lived life.

A beautiful woman does not have to go out on the town. Or wear the latest designer dress in order to feel special. Or any actual dress at all, for that matter. Her true beauty is the beauty she feels from inside. Only that is the real fabric of her being.

Leave it to the Italians to take something ridiculously crude and utilitarian, and turn it into high fashion. (We cannot be sure it was them in this case; but who else?)

In ancient times, bags made of sackcloth were used for two related purposes:
For carrying grain home from the market.
For toting your most prized possessions, so that all the nosey passersby would think you were just carrying grain home from the market.
But those days are long gone. It's now a thing of beauty.

Your woman is your grain of truth -- the secret of your economic success in a highly competitive marketplace. She's also your most prized possession, so protect her from prying eyes. The fabric of simple ambiguity will serve you well for that.

And all you men out there who can't seem to catch the woman of your dreams, take heart. This one is in the bag!

When modes and mores change decade by decade as they do, two centuries can seem like a veritable eternity. While the stately elegance of the nineteenth century is by now mostly just the stuff of musty museum displays, some of us still refuse to forget the likes of the great German painter and lithographer Franz Xaver Winterhalter, and the royalty whom his portraits immortalized. That those grand traditions of elegance live on, infusing their subjects with anti-anachronistic, thoroughly contemporary vitality, can be seen in this striking image by Houston portrait photographer Amalya Shandelman.