Girl Gone Wild...

One of my biggest passions is for fashion. I love getting dressed. The ritual of getting ready and picking out an outfit that will reflect my mood. My calling card to the world. Screaming out loud and letting the world know who I am or how I am feeling based on what I am wearing. I love fashion as an art expression and it is not about labels but uniqueness. While I appreciate the efforts of the big design houses I use them as inspiration and a point of reference. My sensible mind and budget would never allow me to buy anything to wear that is as much as someone's mortgage or rent. The thing is not even the price tag can keep me away from the fashion shows.

I once was asked to share a fantasy and my response was to shoot for Vogue while wearing spiked knee high boots... Louboutins of course. You would think it is my fantasy because I am graceful but I am not and this is my fantasy. The fantasy is the set up to what happened next.

To the show I wore a vintage blouse from the back of my closet. A blouse that was once my grandmother's this in itself is what makes it vintage and gives me the cred I need if asked who am I wearing. A black see-through blouse with long sleeves, embroidered and slightly puff cuffs that makes the blouse look elegant almost Gothic also sexy because of the sheer material. I packed my camera bag wore my leopard print ballet flats and headed out to the show. I fumbled camera bags, equipment and tickets while it began sprinkling in Savannah. I quickly made my way to the theater and I was told where I would stand to shoot. 

I saw all of Savannah's socialites and debutantes in their designer duds. Some were the parents to my daughters friends and some were the friends of my daughters themselves. As I stood there photographing I became invisible to the socialites. That's the thing about photographers we tend to disappear in most crowds. We blend in. The lights were dimmed and the show started. I intensely and focused began to shoot. Like Lara Croft I shot my camera as fast as a machine gun. So fast that without any warning each and every one of the buttons of my vintage blouse had come undone. My very own Girl Gone Wild moment. Topless and proud I shot the works of twelve designers. Luckily I was invisible or at least I hope I was.

To follow the images of the Savannah College of Arts and Design (SCAD) end of the year Fashion Show and the pictures I took while just wearing a bra. 

The show ended with  glow in the dark pieces.
The best show hands down I have seen in a long time.

Have you had any fashion Faux Paux lately?
Happy Midweek Peeps...

Sunday In Savannah...

We went for brunch and a walk in downtown Savannah, GA. The air told us soon rain would be approaching but I have gotten to know Savannah's finicky self and her moods. Close to twenty years living with her and you get to know these things. I knew the wind was saying later in the afternoon I will sprinkle some on you but wait until tomorrow that is when I am really going to show you some downpours. So I trusted her signs and asked for a seating outside at my favorite place for breakfast and brunch in Savannah, GA. J. Christopher's. 

Underneath the shade of the Magnolia and Oak trees we sat. The Spanish Moss hangs from them as if they were waving flags inviting us in. I sat with my family and on that tiny table for four with the sunlight on their faces I never wanted the moment to end. When it was time for us to leave a family approached to claim our great real estate on that glorious Sunday. As if I was passing my first home to a new owner I told them to enjoy it. I reaffirmed there was not a better place to be or sit on that day. 

After brunch we walked to the Paris Market. Now ya'll know I have written about Paris Market many times... ( here, here, here, here,  ) 

It inspires me. It takes me to another place where I am no longer here but there. One of those things that just makes me happy. The place inspired me to camp out this summer with the kids. We are going to do it. Spend the whole night out underneath the stars. Because their window told me so...

Via

Baby M. wants to go fishing and I want to spend time with them and capture things that I can't capture when we are on the grid. Off the grid this summer we will go.

Instagram Freak

Follow @adrianairis 

Do you have any Summer plans?

Happy Monday Peeps...

Friday Freebie for Instagram users...

Everyone is doing it on Instagram...  They doodle and add speech bubbles to photos.

Here is a completely free option that I love. PicsArt Photo Studio.

Many filters, borders, collages, crop options, layering, mask, bokeh and more. 

You can follow me on Instagram @AdrianaIris 

Happy Weekend Peeps...

The New Song...

Telling my friend she is so lovely sparked a stream of consciousness.

As I read back the text I had sent, I realized how sweet those words were and how sweet the English language is to me. I also realized how I equate the Spanish language to a primal and tribal call that comes from my womb. A different person from a far away land this language is someone I used to be. English has now become this place of peace and quiet. English is calm and logical. My Spanish is loud and angry. Spanish is passionate and intense.  The children and even the husband knows when Spanish is what comes out of my mouth it is time to run.

I am now reading Neruda, Marquez and Cervantes all of them in their original Spanish language in hopes I can reach that space where Spanish is sweet. I am biting around it like a jelly doughnut anticipating when I reach the middle in a melodious harmony.

Because at this time... I am finding myself leading what feels like a double life. Praying and whispering in English and the rebellious filled with ecstasy driven yells in Spanish. I try to somehow lay out all these words, ideas, idioms and catch phrases and sew them up into a colorful patchwork blanket to wrap myself with. I try to build a lyrical bridge between the island and the mainland to make a new song.  

Instagram Freak...

Will be back soon with new images.

The Summer of Love...

Summer of 1999. That was supposed to be my summer. First time alone for two months without a care in the world. It had been years since I was alone for so long. I became a mom at a young age. The kid begged to go away with his dad for 2 months that summer... I obliged.  Quickly the summer became everything. The space and time where I could be whatever I wanted to be.

But it became my summer of love...

 We met and it was never meant to happen. That night I had a date with another boy.  A boy that held much promise since he was kind and good looking. As I was to walk out the door to meet the "date" he (now husband) placed a toe ring on my bare feet right after we met. Not used to wearing a toe ring all I could do during my "date" was stare at my feet and think about the boy I had just left behind. The ring felt as if it held some type of magnetic force and my toes kept tingling. Right there on my second toe I had been chained.

Needless to say my "date" with the Latin boy lasted 60 minutes they were timed by my watch and a few beats from Fatboy Slim. I ran back almost breathless to find him where I had just left him. Right there I proclaimed with a  big smile I am back. That was fast- he replied. Still catching my breath all I could do was smile. A week after that fateful meeting we became a family. We ignored the whispers, the talks and fourteen years later here we are...

On May 9th my husband and I celebrated our 14th anniversary. He walked me to a Savannah bridge where the Parisian custom of locking a lock and throwing away the key lives. We couldn't make it to Paris but somewhere in time in another dimension we did. In that moment Savannah became foreign to me. No longer chained we are now locked.

Mother's Day.

I have three kids but the one in the middle stole my heart on Mother's Day. Maybe because of her age . Maybe because she loves me. She gave me the best Mother's Day a kid could have given. Breakfast in bed. hugs and kisses and a stage performance.

On Instagram LtoR 1.The Show Oklahoma! 2. Breakfast 3. Oklahoma! 4.Baby M. and Me. 5. Sunflower 6.Thespian.

Hoping your weekend was sweet... Happy new week friends.

A Savannah Sunset...

Today was one of those days when I felt like getting away.
15 Miles later I was here...

And I found the best companion I could possibly have to enjoy this sunset.
She asked why do I photograph so many sunsets.
I said because today's sunset would never ever repeat itself.

Ms. M turns 13 soon.

Because sunsets are cathartic and intense.
They make me nostalgic and induce a dreamlike state to my being.

Birds in Flight

Because just watching a hopeful fisherman at sunset inspires me.

Because even if it has been done a thousand times the thought of squeezing the sun is grand...

Because a sunset holds so much promise.
Tomorrow will be brand new and with another sunset another chance for change and redemption.

So if you are down or feeling low... Take a walk at sunset.

It worked for us...

Happy Midweek Peeps...

La Vie Boheme...

There are things that make me really happy some of those things are French. Why the Francophile obsession. The answer is quite simple. I am a brown girl and all the eras in history have sucked for those that are brown. Except one space and time that was grand enough for anyone with enough talent. There was one place in time. One era glamorous and fabulous enough to satisfy my sensibilities regardless of my skin color. The time, space and place would have been Paris. Bohemian 1830-1930's Paris, France. My father fell in love with Paris when he performed and lived there and taught me the lyrics to La Vie En Rose as if it was my national anthem.

Not In Paris. Savannah GA.

A place where I could have been that brown girl sitting in a cafe, writing , while smoking a cigarette. 

A place where my photography could have lifted me regardless of my gender. 

A place where I could have had as many lovers obvious in inspiration to Cuban Spanish Anais Nin.

Not Paris...

And I sit here in front of this laptop while I imagine the cobblestone roads, the cafes, the fashion and the way the sun might set on a rainy afternoon in Paris. I crave the promise of a long gone era as if it wasn't carved out in time yet. I crave it and this is my vehicle... my time machine... my escape.

River Street Savannah GA

And I discuss with passion and intensity every aspect of politics, art and religion with my fellow Bohemians. We drink absinthe and toast with made up poems that are bred out of smoke and foreign languages. Poems so intense and those words were never heard of again. I would have bedded many free of shame. I am the rebel and the outcast. The misfit, outlaw and anarchist... not far fetched from who I've been in decades past.

Not Paris...Forsyth Park.

Like most things, I would have grown tired of it because it is fickle the mind of a time traveling Bohemian. At some point I would have rather been on the island selling alcapurrias by the beach. At some point I would have probably settled for a litter of kids and scrubbing rags by the river. Salted cod fish instead of caviar. Coconut water instead of champagne. That's the beauty of this place and space. The ability to time travel. 

Is there an era in time you wish to have existed? 

About Normal...

I used to tell my husband when we would be traveling to far away distances that the ability of traveling so fast could cause the soul to have some type of delays. Some things to me are not "normal". For example: Huge boats the size of skyscrapers floating in the ocean, traveling so fast in any type of craft, the ingredients of a Chicken McNugget to name a few.

So my previous "theory" will serve as an excuse as to the reasons why I have perhaps been a bit bizarre and absent minded. The reason? Is that my soul has just arrived the Florida and Georgia state line. I will blame it on the fact that I traveled so fast up and down I 95 from Savannah to Miami Beach... that my soul stopped for some free orange juice samples somewhere along I 95. Filled with excuses we repainted the sun room. I am now very happy with it.

It is a happy place but yet warm and I have vowed to stay away from Winter colors.

The color's name? Pumpkin Patch. Autumn enough?!?

Something else that isn't "normal" to me would be the recycling of certain things. For example: Old boyfriends and Ex husbands, diapers and jobs. Yesterday I was asked back to a job that I had previously quit due to the high levels of stress. For 24 hours I pondered whether I should return to post like an obedient soldier. Times are tough and many are looking for work but one thing I now know is thyself... So for now I leave and I am quoting the great poet Brandon Flowers from The Killers which once stated... I got soul but I am not a soldier.

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Happy almost weekend and please stay sweet.

The South...

The days are flying by and summer is upon us in Savannah, GA. The days are longer and with all the sunlight more opportunities to photograph my surroundings. On a daily basis I fall in love with photography. Every time I get that one image that feels as if I took the brush to a canvas. Capturing that fleeting moment gives me such satisfaction. A moment that otherwise would be lost in time. Because I am addicted to my surroundings and all of the beauty that I see.




*Savannah Sidewalk Art festival is one of my favorite art festivals. Artists creates exquisite pieces of art which today are gone. Chalk art taken to another level.  Like Buddhists monks they create these beautiful pieces that are just for a moment in time.


Colors so bright and intense and this is the moment that I realize I am way too fast and impatient to be a painter. It is now that I want to capture all of it. I want it to be with ease and fluidity and  my hands could never move fast enough.





Just as my brain begins to wrap itself around all the colors and surroundings just as I am beginning to feel the breeze, the sun and all of this art... history shows up and slaps me on the face. A war that saw the end of slavery and the downfall of a southern planter aristocracy.







There wasn't a family in the South that did not lose a son or brother or father.







It was the birth of a new freedom...
The most necessary, horrible and heroic conflict this nation has ever witnessed.






I felt as if I was falling down the rabbit hole with so much pain and sadness yet glad to be here in the year 2013. I return to meet with my tribe and there she was smiling so big. Right there in the middle of the Historic District in Downtown Savannah...






The place where once her father and I would not have been possible to be.


Happy Monday peeps.

Savannah Fashion Week...

Savannah Independent Designers Fashion Show...

SID (Savannah Independent Designers) is a showcase featuring the latest works and collections from a selected group of designers and jewelry makers living and working in Savannah Georgia. As a new addition to Savannah Fashion Week 2013, SID wrapped up the week with looks from Mangled Courtesan, Brooke Atwood, Mamie Ruth, Aureus by Troy Allen, aRe carnes, Brazen Design, Meredith Anne-Sutton.

Enjoy...