Have we changed culturally since the inception of Rocky Horror 41 years ago or do we still live in a delusional fantasy world of manufactured dreams?   I guess I really question how many people actually live their lives instead of dream them.

The lyrics from the musical Rocky Horror have been drifting through my mind all week “Don’t dream it be it, don’t dream it be it…” Missoula was privileged to see one of the most extraordinary productions of Rock Horror I have seem in a very long time.   It was a small independent production company who produced it at the old historic Wilma Theater downtown.  I had shot the promotion photos and received some comps to the show.   I took some friends who where not familiar with the play or movie and boy were they in for a ride.  The Cigarette Girls, a burlesque troupe, whom I have also photographed, opened for the show, and got the audience revved up.  The audience went wild throughout the entire show, like I have never seen an audience get so into a show before.  I began to think about what a powerful show Rocky Horror is and question how relevant it is to where we currently are culturally.  The stage musical first premiered in London in 1973 and I believe became one of the most inciting reasons from the sexual revolution in the 70”s.  It showed us a side of ourselves we had never seen.  It opens in the quintessential American Dream of the time, boy/girl marriage.  Brad and Janet represent where society stood at that moment in history.  They enter a world where they are titillated and tempted to escape that safety net they are conditioned to accept socially and explore a pleasure of the senses and taste the temptation of forbidden desires.  It teaches us to face our fears and give way to what we are destined to become, to live without fear, without judgment, and to follow our passions and fulfill the object of our dreams.

This week as I began working through and cleaning up The Naked Man Project site this musical keep creeping into my subconscious.  I began to question my own reality, am I actually living my desire or do I live in my own delusional fantasy world.  In a sense my world of photography becomes a fantasy, I manufacture my own illusion that is based in my own reality.  I am an artist and so I create every day.  This is certainly my reality.  But I also live in a world where I see and talk to so many other people who have an idealist aspiration for their reality but still live in a dream.  Perhaps too afraid to show the world who they really are.  There seems to be a lack of self-confidence.  Our modern world of Internet chat seem to allow us to escape into alter personas and allow us to embellish or disguise who we really are.  When we should just be accepting and put our true selves out there, even for our odd synchronicities or proclivities, because it’s really what makes each of us unique.  For many we are still trying to fit into the norm of what is acceptable culturally.  Unfortunately we are constantly conditioned toward this sort of heighted reality, when we access the Internet, it is about perfect abs and big dicks, no wonder we all feel so inadequate.  It feels like everyone is racing to the climax and forgetting to enjoy the ride along the way.   I personally think since the sexual revolution of the 70’s we have actually taken a step backwards.  People are living the fantasies of what they desire to become within the creation of their online profiles.  Thinking the world will not accept them for who they really are.

I was thoroughly excited all week working on this project because I realize through this project I have become “it”, and have moved beyond my own dreams and exceeded my wildest expectations!!!!   I have faced my own fears and doubts and am now have become what I always dreamed.