Swimfans

Hey, so remember how a couple weeks ago I published that sexy/dark short story by my friend Paul Kwiatkowski? And I said he took some pics of me burning the fuck out of a Barbie that I would post soon? Well, here they are. The pics were recently featured in Nasty Magazine. This is was Paul had to say about the pics:

“The photos are based on a group of girls who were on my high school swim team. That liked to steal my disposable cameras and take photos of one another in the locker room and at their homes. I never knew they had done it until I developed that first disposable camera, and then almost passed out. I lost most of the real photos, except for one, and wanted to recreate the images. This happened back in the early 90s. Two of them claimed to like Pantera and Ministry, but I knew they still had New Kids posters and collected My Little Pony, which made their photos infinitely hotter.”

Comments

Comments

14 Replies to “Swimfans”

  1. why didn’t the vice thing happen here? you are so great and smart! like i said over there, you have great natural counseling skillz! you are a natural.

  2. Everybody who has a bit of brain and can read and has been visiting a school at least.. knows that the swastika (sanskrit: lucky charm) is just being used by the nazi regime as: what a big surprise: a lucky charm. This symbol is much older than this crazy shit that happened. About six thousand of years ago.. so before judging you should think. Or at least google.

    Now to the photos, they are amazing, love the braids and how natural you all look, a bit like AA commercial.

    1. While this is true, the image that the symbol evokes is far from ‘lucky’. It has come to represent an awful regime. Of course you must understand where things have originated, (another example- the word cunt), but what they have evolved to is arguably more important. And if you choose to re-appropriate an image, you have to do something more than simply wear it (like Laibach, who use the idea of ‘over identification’ to embody Nazism to show how ridiculous it is). Regardless, it is quite problematic, and simply wearing the swastika doesn’t mean anything – the majority will see it as a symbol of genocide. And living in Germany, this is not something to light heartedly represent.

      1. i wasn’t even going to dignify that comment with a response and i’m glad i didn’t because you (emma) replied better than i ever could. thank you!

        1. So girls, my comment was the response for candys comment above me and I didn’t even noticed yours Chelsea and yes Emma I live in Geman.. for nine years, I’m not German. Anyway, no offense.

      2. Except it hasn’t exclusively come to represent that. The swastika is still actively used in the traditional way in cultures throughout the world, particularly Hindu culture. You’ll even see the six-pointed “star of david” paired with the swastika there, with different semantics.

        You would really have to be brain-dead to think that a Brooklyn hipster would be literally symbolizing genocide. They don’t have to wear a footnote saying “(not an actual Nazi, dumbass)”. Maybe if “the majority” gets agitated enough they’ll google swastika or “why are hipsters wearing swastikas” and learn something. Thus proceeds the process of re-appropriation. I think it’s a nice fuck-you to Nazis, actually. We may even become a little more aware of and resistant to the process of being manipulated by nationalist symbolism.

        Sorry, back to looking at tits.

        1. That’s the dumbest response ever. So people are supposed to automatically give an individual the benefit of the doubt with swastikas as long as they look like “a Brooklyn hipster”? Get real.

          Also, out of respect (and out of not being a total moron), most Hindu Americans do NOT display swastikas in this day & age.

          Attempting to “reclaim” the swastika is SUCH a half-assed “hipster” attempt at seeming culturally aware. Bleh.

          Nice pics.

  3. hey! can you recommend any BDSM dungeons in ny? my roommate used to frequent them, but wouldn’t give details. Much appreciated. Also: your friend paul is supremely talented.

  4. I thought I would re- post this thread of comments here, as for some reason people are commenting about the swastika necklace in the comment section of a different post:

    morbid uncle says:
    April 22, 2012 at 8:47 pm

    this comment refers to the previous post that features you wearing a swastika necklace in one of your innumerable i’m-so-sexy photos. i understand what you think you’re doing but i beg you to just reconsider the next time you are about to do something that you think is shocking (but that is just really stupid and offensive) like making rape jokes or wearing swastikas. your actions are totally transparent although i’m sure you think you’re the first person to ever do anything along these lines. i don’t believe that you mean any harm to anybody, you just want people to think you’re a badass. isn’t your boyfriend jewish? how does he feel about it? maybe he thinks that being offended by a swastika, especially worn in a ‘sexy’ pose, is uncool but for every one insufferable hipster who feels that way there are untold numbers of people who are rightly offended and hurt by it, myself included. it’s not a cute, funny abstraction for vast numbers of people. get it? not funny. not cool. bad. stupid. hurtful. yes, it’s your blog, yes, you have the right to say what you want, yes, we’re tired of being told what to say and what not to say. but you’ve given me a forum to assert the same right, and i’m just reminding you that if you have a choice between making a joke about rape or not, or wearing a swastika necklace or not, you will never regret ‘not.’
    Reply

    your mum says:
    April 24, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    You are so fucking dumb.

    karleyslutever says:
    April 25, 2012 at 4:22 am

    Dear Morbid Uncle, I do not want to speak for Paul the photographer, but I feel compelled to respond to your ridiculous comment.

    First off, this is a photo shoot for a fashion mag so the aesthetic, setting and wardrobe for the images was clearly thought through, and I was put into those clothes by a stylist. Also, if you read what was written in the post, you would know the photographer was re-creating images taken by girls in his high school. So naturally, the “models” in these images have been made to represent specific characters from his past. Does playing a nazi in a movie mean you are a nazi? No. Does dressing up like a teenage girl from the small town in Southern Florida that Paul grew up in, for a series of narrative photographs, mean that I really am I teenage girl from Southern Florida? No.

    I hate this moral high ground bullshit.

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