Giambologna was summoned from Florence, where he was working at the court of the Medici, to create a bronze statue of Neptune. Eyes that stare blankly off in some awkward direction like they are dead inside. I get depressed and feel badly for these poor avatars. SOMEONE SAVE THEM!

Working at the Austin Motel, you hear it all. Many locals have grown up calling it simply 'the penis motel,' though we prefer the more stately designation 'The Phallus Palace.' It seems as if each new person that encounters the sign imagines they are the first to notice something familiar in its magnificence. No doubt Freud would have had something to say about such widespread pattern recognition. Bologna's Fountain of Neptune (Fontana di Nettuno) was erected between 1564 and 1566, when Pope Pius IV decided to give the Bolognesi something they did not yet have: a public fountain. Was it just a gesture of goodwill? Not really. People who have a new "love of my life" just about every month or so. Then they break up right as I go to press and I feel AWKWARD using the photo. What to do? Desperately centered photos. Stop it. Stop it now. Only your mom takes photos with everything dead center. (Okay, my mom does. Her vacation snaps are the worst. She goes to places and takes photos of her ancient friends and nothing of the scenery, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to show them to me. Including the duplicates.) Since 1926, when their first car 'Tipo 26' started to run, the trident proudly stands on every model.The call for submissions had a few stipulations. In all photos, the subject needed to be seated, the photos needed to be in portrait format at a 5x7 aspect ratio, and we wanted to avoid mirror selfies. There is a great deal of scholarship on the "seated portrait," which we will not go into here, but for our purposes, the requirement had the effect of making the portrait a deliberate act. In that way, the photographer was more likely to consider the messaging and emotional content of the photograph, and how feelings of isolation and loneliness were impacting their lives during the pandemic. The aspect ratio and orientation were chosen for presentational purposes. As curators, we wanted to ensure that the images formed a collection and that changes in the physical dimensions and orientation would not detract from the collective message(s) contained within the collection. This was considered especially appropriate not just because the Neptune Fountain is one of the main symbols of Bologna, but also because Neptune represents strength and vigour. The blue wildebeest is mostly active during the morning and the late afternoon, with the hottest hours of the day being spent in rest. These extremely agile and wary animals can run at speeds up to 80 km/h (50 mph), waving their tails and tossing their heads. An analysis of the activity of blue wildebeest at the Serengeti National Park showed that the animals devoted over half of their total time to rest, 33% to grazing, 12% to moving about (mostly walking), and a little to social interactions. However, variations existed among different age and sex groups.

I always try to capture catch light in the eyes of the birds and mammals in my photos but it's sometimes difficult to even see the brown eyes of a dark colored mammal, of any large size, because, if the entire animal is in the photo, its eyes are usually so small they're almost impossible to see. This certainly is true when photographing wildebeest so I purposely zoomed in on the eyes of this animal.Hippos inhabit rivers, lakes, and mangrove swamps, where territorial males preside over a stretch of river and groups of five to thirty females and young hippos. During the day, they remain cool by staying in the water or mud; reproduction and birth both occur in water. They emerge at dusk to graze on grasses. While hippos rest near each other in the water, grazing is a solitary activity and hippos are not territorial on land. The hippo is among the most dangerous animals in the world due to its highly aggressive and unpredictable nature. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory canine teeth. Each day, we at the motel get asked if we see it too. We certainly do. We see it and embrace it. And, though the name of the sign’s designer is lost to history, we’re proud to say that his or her greatest erection lives on." BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! - The Magazine will be officially launched at the "BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!" exhibition at Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles from June 10 -- June 30. There will be further events worldwide including during Photo London in September.

Austin Monthly, April 2020: "The History Behind Austin's Most Iconic Neon Signs" by Madeline Hollern. Over the years the gallery has come to represent more than 60 photographers globally putting on exhibitions and producing two sold out books.The monument is the result of a collaboration between architect Tommaso Laureti and Flemish sculptor Jean de Boulogne, known as Giambologna. I find Jays very difficult to photograph as in my area they are extremely shy and wary of humans. Although I know they can often become indifferent to humans in urban parks where they are not persecuted. It took me ages to manage a half-decent photograph of a Jay, then my next target was to capture one with its crest raised. Yesterday I achieved this ambition when I was photographing a nesting Tawny Owl. This Jay spotted the owl and started calling and raising its crest in agitation. I turned my attentions from Owl to Jay and managed to capture this photo with its crest raised high in a Mohican style. There was the added bonus that it perched on a photogenic moss-covered oak branch too. Female porn star/super-heroine with unfeasibly big breasts. This works great on the side of white vans. Despite being commissioned by the Church, the statue is all but religious. To begin with, it represents a pagan god, Neptune.