Bring it Down Like Rain / August 29, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

"Sometimes, when you’re asleep, I want to do it to myself while I’m watching you. It would be easy, two fingers along my clit, back, in, back out. Your skin’s heat comes into me, adjacent. Through the mussed chrysanthemum— petals, your big child’s sleep-face, closed around its openness, gives me your mouth to ground on, but only with my eyes. I could come like that, but I don’t—take you against your will, it seems like, and I wouldn’t; rather wait adores in sunlight, with this morning heat condensing, a soft cloud above my groin gently diffusing brightness there, until you wake up, and you bring it down like rain." —Marilyn Hacker

We Are Making Photographs / August 13, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

“We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.” —Ralph Hattersley

I Go to the Sea / August 12, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

"When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused." —Rainer Maria Rilke

When Love is Not Madness / August 11, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

"When love is not madness it is not love.” —Pedro Calderón de la Barca

A Tree Says / August 10, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail."

I Shall / August 9, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day: - I shall not fear anyone on Earth. - I shall fear only God. - I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. - I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. - I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.” —Mahatma Gandhi

Forest Leaves / August 7, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

And then I said "Baby, promise me that when our Denver sentence is up, we'll never again live in a place where the forest leaves aren't larger than our heads."

Catch and Release / August 2, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

I think like so many others, I have these moments, these days or weeks or sometimes even months where I'm doubting myself in some tormenting capacity. Is this where I'm supposed to be? Have I been eating all the wrong foods? Have I gotten heavier? Am I spending enough time outside? Will I always be reliant on a desk job for a paycheck? Are there enough people that care about me? Am I proud of myself professionally? Can I call myself an artist? Where has any of it taken me? ("...to Rome?" Thanks for the reminder Kirsten!)

The Burden of Filling the Vacant Spaces / July 28, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

So many never wake with clenched jaws, with jagged teeth newly softened and smoothed and transformed to powder. So many have never hosted such a civil war in their mouths. They'll never mourn the fatalities, the wounded, the lost. You'll never crush things between your teeth the way you used to. You acknowledge this.

Naked in the Woods / July 24, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

What if this is Heaven? What if this our reward for being good in a life of bleakness and despair, darkness, and savagery? What if we, holy, starved while all the others ate each other before turning themselves inside out and rotting to waste in the pulsing sun? What if earth is paradise?

The Lover's Gift / July 8, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

When I was still a teenager, I bought a beautiful book showcasing some of the most gorgeous nude and erotic photographs of the time. It was phenomenal, and it only fueled my passion for photo documentation of the female body. Anyway, on the first page there was a a graceful but delicate quote about how all photographs are essentially about love. And I loved that quote. It alludes me now and a quick google search yields no results, but I know I still own the book. Someday soon I'll find it.

Conquered Hearts / June 17, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

Happy 2nd Birthday to dear Adalynn, my good friend Kristin's little girl, the sweetest note in the melody of her parents' lives!

You Were Born to Love / May 18, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

Love without apology, without reservation, without fear, without safety and security and that hard shell you swore no one would ever crack. Love without boundary, without apprehension and cynicism and timidity over exposing the soft part of your flesh. Love like it's the last time you'll ever love because this life is much too short to waste such a precious commodity. You were born to love. Anything else is wasted potential.

How Deeply I Loved Him / May 15, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

We would meet in a chatroom in 1997 when were just teenagers. We’d grow close and in 1998 when my father killed himself, Mike would become one of the only people I could talk to about it. I would read his sweet words on the screen, grieving over the loss, sinking into my swelling isolation and wishing I could disappear into his strong arms. I quietly fell in love with him then but he lived in Philly and I lived in New Mexico, and 2,000 miles is enormous to two kids with no means to cross it.

Love in Utah / May 13, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

“What it is...is a place where I can return to myself. It's enough of a scramble to get to...that the energy expended is significant, and it translates into a change in my body chemistry and my psychological chemistry and my heart chemistry...”

Like Paintings / April 26, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

Don't you love photographs that look like paintings? I can hear your heart beating in the trees, baby, they're all pulsing so steadily and in rhythmic unison. Let's crawl under the blanket of snow and hide until the warmth of Spring thaws our frozen grip on each other's necks.

Beauty in the Age of the Selfie / March 12, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

Last Summer I was interviewed by Fluffer Magazine for a feature and I learned today that it's finally up! Do keep in mind, that the questions were translated from Italian but the interview is in full english on the Fluffer site. Also, as this is a nude and erotic publication, do keep in mind that the images chosen to accompany this feature are NSFW in most instances (unless you know, you happen to work somewhere that isn't terrified of the nude female form).

Young Enough to be Humbled / March 10, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

It really is true what they say, isn't it? You think you'll never change from the person you are when you're 15, 18, 21, 25, 30... but you DO, friends. You really do. I think I've finally reached an age in which I understand the older generation's contempt for youth. Kids really don't know a damn thing.

Hopefully I'm still young enough to be humbled by that realization.

50 Shades of STFU / February 15, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

I'm not a prude by any means. You don't have to know me long or well to know that about me. I love fine art nudity, sloppy and amateur porn, the many crazy kinks and fetishes that abound, sex, sex, and more sex. I love exercised dominance on both sides of the gender field and so long as animals or children aren't involved, I can appreciate any and all preferences, no matter how strange, in the bedroom. I especially love that women are beginning to feel less ashamed and more empowered in this realm and that we're slowly moving into a world where it's just as acceptable for a woman to embrace her sexuality as men have been doing without consequence for eons.

Happiness / February 1, 2015 by Rebecca Tillett

You know where to find your happiness. It's in your heart. Follow it. Fear and logic may lead you down the path of least resistance because it's easier and far less terrifying, but you'll never be able to silence the aching whine emanating from your chest. Listen to it.