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Shaw: But you were in a book, and as a fan of the book, your work was very erotic to me, what's different now, then it was back then? I can see a vast difference myself, but what do you attribute to making the leap from your old work to your new work?
KRT: What's different, is that back then I had limitations. Ideas, a fantasy, thought, etc..is great in your mind, on paper, sketched out, planned, but in the end it always comes down to execution, and in that, I didn't always have models who seen a project as I did. Being young, I would accept that and move on to a new, "safer" project. Now, years later, I see that this showed in my early work. While I love all I ever did back then, I also see where I would hold back with shots, just to at least get something out of it.
Shaw: Wait!..........Sorry to stop you, but let me get something clear, you're telling me that your early work was limited by models who refused to do the kind of shots that you wanted to do?
KRT: Yes and no! To do erotic work, that is well past a general fine art nude, you have to have a model who is in it in mind and spirit with you. They have to envision what you are seeing, just exactly to the tee as you are. Or, they have to at least get a sense of your direction. I had a main model and models, who were very good at general fine art nude work, but when it jumped into the erotic, it was hit and miss. And being young, I didn't have a sense of how to convey or boost their moral to go a step further. So much of my erotic work back then was a few here and few there. But at least it was enough to get my name out there and noticed. It served its purpose. I cherish every image that I shot back then. My thrill to this day is to walk into a Borders Bookstore, walk to the area on sexuality, and pickup The Mammoth Book of Illustrated Erotica, open it to page 414 and gaze upon my work, it's my fingerprint.
Shaw: So what's the difference now? And, you speak of a "fingerprint?" What do you mean?
KRT: The difference now is night and day. In essence the old work I did, was buried along with the vision in my right eye. Now there is many new elements in my life. Rachel is a primary. She is as good a sexual partner as she is a willing model. We fit! And yes! That makes a vast difference. I have a new attitude now, and that attitude is one of, I don't give a damn! I intend to live my life, and do my work, create, exhibit, etc..what I see fit, and not what others feel is what I should show. Rachel is along the same thought. It also helps that she is extremely sexual. What you see in the pictures is just a small scraping of what she actually is. When we begin to shoot a whole new persona emerges. It fuels me, the shoot, and then we just feed off each other. It's then that we push the envelope, and the eroticism comes out. So what you see now, with the new work, is pure reality being recorded. It's very much out there, we don't hold back. Now what I create and think of truly comes out in each and every shoot, sometimes more. I'm not sure there is a limit. I have too much to say, and I speak through what I shoot and what I write. My art, has always been my voice. Also what is new, is an anger, but that anger is more tongue in cheek now.
Shaw: Anger?
KRT: Let me rephrase that..........a past anger. I'm not anymore. When I picked the camera back up and shot my way, with freedom, and with self confidence in myself. An extreme amount of anger went away. For the 7 years I was technically blind I had anger at those who tried to shame me for the work I had produced in my past. Even going so far as to apologize for the work I had done. They made it out to be dirty, disgusting, against a higher power, you name it, and I was made to feel bad for it. And like a lamb I just went along with it. But you have to understand. I was blind in my right eye, health wasn't very good, no job, self esteem on the floor, and then to be drug through a pile of my past and told it was wrong. That works on you. I couldn't even look at my work for along time. I took to painting and that was that. It's odd how people feel the need to tell you what to do, tell you how to live your life and how to think, how to dress, look, etc.. It used to anger me to the point of hate for them. How dare they. I was humbled by my fall enough, yet they insisted on shaming me.
So my first step was to walk away from these elements, and go on my own. I worked on me and while doing that I found Rachel. It was then that I came back to being the artist I used to be. Once I picked up a camera again, I knew that I wasn't anything that they had said I was. My past wasn't a sin, or wrong. I hurt no one! I created. As I shot and shot, the anger melted away, and now I rarely think with any kind of anger. Every time I shoot a new image and display it, or when I receive admiration for it, I take one more step forward for reclaiming me and the anger vanishes! It's cathardic and rewarding at the same time. Now the anger fuels me to show them. It doesn't matter if they see it, I know it. And the best part is,............my fingerprint will forever be! They can't take that from me ever, it's there.
Shaw: There's that word again, "fingerprint!" What are you referring to?
KRT: Sorry! We went into other topics and I kept rolling over on that explanation. When we have children, be it male or female, you are passing along your DNA, your genes, your bloodline. If you have girls, your bloodline goes on, but not your name. I have girls, so my bloodline will go on, but not my name, and that's fine. My children act alot like me, and as long as they remember me, then I will live in their hearts forever. But! I want you and the world if possible to know I was here and I existed. If you go to a museum, you can see "fingerprints" all over. Lincoln's hat, his speeches, or Michelangelo, left his sculptures, his paintings, etc.. A fingerprint, is what you leave behind, that says this was what he or she did, what they were known for, what they touched, created, seen, a part of them. I want that so very badly. I love that my life will live on within my children, my friends, Rachel and past loves, but in essence that just isn't enough. If I died tomorrow, some person will go into Borders and be looking through that damn book and see what I saw and created while on this world, my fingerprint. I'm passionate about that. I don't care about fame, could careless about money and being rich. But I do want to leave something that I created material wise. I love to touch art. I love to trace the lines of a sculpture, in a way it helps you to slip into the shows of the artist. That is the benefit of a "fingerprint!" If you're book is published and if it does well, then it will be forever out there. That is a fingerprint.
Shaw: I never looked at it that way. Interesting! Ok, so going back a bit, am I getting it right that this time around you are doing it your way and making no apologies as you go along? What do you mean?
KRT: Yes! That is exactly it. In the past I always had a safe line I stood behind, I shot erotic and nude, but always had a limit I maintained. I had people around me that would balk if I went too far. Or those that would tell me it was wrong. This time around I'm fully out there. For example, Rachel is bisexual, so we have photo sets with her and another model, playing. It's real and they were having fun. So I documented it, adding in my own style. It was erotic and hot. An intense turn on. That's what I want more of. I plan on pushing the envelope. If we luck into an orgy it will be on here. If I have a couple where they both want to be photographed, then move over I am working. My plan is to shoot men nude, in the full, Women nude, couples, 3 ways, etc.. If they are willing then so am I. And to those who try to tell me what to do,.......be forewarned, I'm lethal when crossed. That's when the anger comes out. Do you know how many times, Michelangelo had to scrap his sketches because they were considered too sexual by the Vatican? It's odd how others try and contain an artist in what they do. I don't care if what I do is considered perverted or wrong in your mind, in fact I hope it does evoke a response, then somewhere deep inside you it's made you think and imagine what I am saying.
