Brea

Pardon me, but although these pictures are beautiful (some of them are altered, yes?), I fear that this book will only continue the mother-goddess myth of bellydance. Is there a place in your book where you mention that you are simply using bellydancers as depictions of these things, and not claiming any goddess origin to bellydance? Is there an annotated bibliography I can read that connects these goddesses/creatures with documented academic sources?

Also, will you be using any male bellydancers?

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www.breamorgiane.com

Michael Campbell

Thanks for that Amands
try going to index page or typing
gallery.mac.com/michaelcampbellphoto#gallery

.Mac Web Gallery

and click on Book Layout...
copy and past address into the browser may work too.
.Mac Web Gallery

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Moon

Dear Michael,

Is the purpose of these pictures just to create beautiful pictures, or to be used as serious marketing tool for bellydancers? Because in the last case, people might prefer pictures of dancers actually dancing in a studio or restaurant. It shows what they look like while dancing and it shows they have some experience.
Although your pictures are very beautiful, I think they might be not very suitable for a dancer to show what bellydance is really like. After all, everyone can pose in a costume.
Please note I don't mean to offend you.

Michael Campbell

Thanks for your comment. They are all altered, I got fed up with reality years ago.... ! I much prefer fantasy...

does everyone feel that way, if so I can explain these are just belly dancers and have nothing to do with goddesses (except in my warped mind) ...if that is necessary.., maybe i should change the title. I have not written the text yet, (maybe you would like to help? what do you suggest i write.... ?) also unless I can scrape up $15,000 it will never get printed anyway.... ..... so far everyone I have photographed likes their pictures. There will be an index at the back listing the dancers and their web sites.

No, I do not know any male belly dancers, or for that matter male goddesses... maybe if I lived in San Francisco instead of San Diego and I was gay, it would be different....

Several have been used on their business cards for example... Lucia is the District Attorney in San Diego by day and a belly dancer by night.

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Moon

Regards,
Gay Moon from San Francisco

Michael Campbell

They say honesty is the best policy, but advertising also pays...
I have made dozens of images like this for some of the best dancers in California specifically to be used on the dancers' business cards, web sites, flyers and DVD and video covers, Music CD covers etc.... .
see for example
Ansuya - Belly Dancer, Actress, Model
in previous post are the two sides of card Lucia had me print 2000 business cards.
They have appeared on many magazines (with no photocredit or fee paid ! ......
I have also photographed in restaurants like to one of my friend Tarciana on right below. It was too dark to even photograph with the available light so I used flash and it is horrible lighting and background . She likes the ones I did in my studio .

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Moon

Indeed: "Ansuya - Belly Dancer, Actress, Model"

If you're also a model besides a dancer it's important to have good pictures with good lighting etc.
However when you're a dancer, it's also important to have a few pictures of yourself actually dancing in some venue. I, personally, would not be so quick to hire a dancer who only has fantasy-like pictures of herself that show her beautiful body but have nothing to do with dancing. But that's just my opinion.

Reen.Blom

Hey Michael did YOU take all this pictures? ( and edited them afterwards?) If so it is really great!

I personally do not get all that Goddess thing though.... I agree there is space for editing and making fairy-tale like beautiful pictures, fantasy as you say. Through power of imagination to disregard all the imperfections and bring it to a perfect beautiful world.

As for goddess thing- it is REALLY bad. You are going to have mixed feelings form the dancers who try really hard to break the misconceptions and stop people selling belly dance as some goddess worship.

I can envision belly dancer in a role of nymph or fairy, or whatever else, but goddess myth is really harmful imho.

Bravo for the pix thou, I did that type of stuff myself!

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Aziyade

The new link worked. Thanks!

Michael,

Professional dancers routinely work to dispel the myth that our dance comes from ancient goddess-based rituals or something like that. The simple fact is that the origins of belly dancing are lost in time. While it MAY have been used a certain way by certain people, there is no written record, and so anything is pretty much speculation.

A lot of Americans latched on to the "Mother Goddess" idea and that's created some problems in the community. Thus a lot of people are sensitive about the association. Just FYI.

Most people date modern belly dance to no earlier than about the 1930s or 19403 -- when Raqs Sharqi as a performing art form developed. While there is no doubt that people have been dancing since we climbed out of the trees, there's a great debate about what dance looked like in prehistory, and very little evidence that BELLY DANCE as we know it dates to that time. Again, FYI.


well, "Goddess of the Dance" isn't specific to bellydance. Personally I don't have a problem with it, but no matter WHAT you do, it will make somebody mad. Welcome to America LOL.


If you seriously want help, private message me. I did something similar for our pagan community -- creating dances and meditations based on goddess archetypes. FUN. I'd be interested to hear your take on some of the more obscure goddesses.

Plus you HAVE to have an Eris in the collection. I have lots of ideas in that direction


Have you actually tried to shop this around? Instead of self-publishing it? A publisher MIGHT be interested in doing this. I just worked with a client who took pictures of novelty bar taps and made a sort of coffee-table book out of it, and his project was bought by a publisher. Not a big publisher, but he's actually MAKING a bit of money instead of spending it.

Your other option might be print on demand services. I know there are several self-publishing, on-demand providers on the internet, and Amazon may offer something similar.


Now, now. It has nothing to do with being gay. You don't want to be snarky about that -- Men dance as well as women. We can hook you up with male dancers if you wanted to add a "God" section. But I get your point about "goddesses" and the male presence.

Seriously -- get in touch with Neon and Blanca at World Dance New York. (World Dance New York | Flamenco, Samba, Hip Hop, Bellydance Video | Flamenco, Samba, Hip Hop, Bellydance DVD) I think you'd like what they've come up with.


BTW -- gorgeous gorgeous photos. I wish you were in my area -- I'd love to have a truly professional and artistic photo shoot.

Reen.Blom

gone

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