I haven’t written anything for nearly a week as I was away in Las Vegas for nearly that long. I just got back home tonight – and the plane was late, of course. Mel Brooks was on it, though. As I passed him by I shook his hand and told him that “The Producers” (the original, with Zero Mostel) is on my short list of top favorite films. (The plane ride out to Vegas last week went perfectly, but these days it’s asking too much to expect two straight plane rides to go without a hitch.)

Well, the big news is that the inaugural issue of Carrie Leigh’s NUDE magazine – with an eight page feature on me and my photography – was officially released this past Friday. If you like my photography and/or B&W art nudes, I think you’d find it to be worth seeking out. The thing is that seeking it out is what you may need to do.

As I wrote before I left to go west, I found several copies at the Borders bookstore on Broadway in lower Manhattan. Those copies were in the Photography magazine section. I next went to a Borders location in Las Vegas – and they unfortunately did not seem to carry it. Apparently each store does things differently.

So, I went to another Borders in Las Vegas yesterday morning. I did so after calling and being told that the magazine was there. I first looked in the magazine section and didn’t see it there. Then I went to the cashier’s desk (as I was told to do on the phone) and asked for it. Yes, they had five copies of it – but it was kept away from public reach, laid flat, along with the sex, porno and gay magazines! I couldn’t believe it. And this was in Las Vegas - Sin City!!!!!!

I asked why the magazine wasn’t displayed upright so people could see it, and the young woman at the desk told me that to do so would be “inappropriate” – even though the cover photo shows no ‘naughty bits.’ Perhaps it’s just the word “Nude” that was the problem. At any rate, the way they had it, nobody would even know about it or know to ask for it if they didn’t already know about it. I guess it just shows that people in New York City are more sophisticated and artistically aware than those in Las Vegas. (I know, I know - that's not saying much.)

Then I got a message today from my friend Dave Levingston telling me that he found a copy of the magazine at a Borders in Columbus, Ohio, but that it was hidden away in the Foreign magazine section – even though it’s an English language publication. I guess the good folks in Ohio couldn’t imagine that a publication about artistic nude photography could have possibly originated right here in the United States of America. (I mean – what upstanding American could possibly produce such a thing? Jeez.)

So, the moral here is: if you want to get a copy of Carrie Leigh’s NUDE and you don’t see it, please ask for it! I think you’ll be glad you did.

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In other news, I had breakfast on Saturday with a Las Vegas photographer named Terrell Neasley. I’d seen on his blog recently that he began photographing nudes not too long ago and that he admired my work a great deal. I’m always happy to meet with other photographers, especially those who are relatively new at what I do, so I offered to meet him one day. I could see that Terrell was very much a gentleman and genuinely interested in what he was doing photographically, and as he wrote on his blog (http://www.tnap.blogspot.com/), the four hours we spent talking about photography and looking at our respective work just seemed to fly by. I’m posting here a photo I made of him with an abstract nude from his portfolio that I liked quite a bit. I’ve added his blog to the blog list on the right here, too. I thank you again for your hospitality, Terrell – and maybe one day next year we can go out on a photo shoot together with a couple of models.
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Finally, you can read a short interview with me on Chris St. James’ website, Univers d’Artistes, at: http://universdartistes.blogspot.com/2007/09/dave-rudin-interview.html .

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Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll return to my regular blog entry style of photos with commentary for my next entry. Stay tuned –and if any of you do get a copy of Carrie Leigh’s NUDE, comments would be most welcome.

Yours,

Dave

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