Saint Plan. Get yours at bighugelabs.com/flickr

An artist working at the crossroads of photography, performance, and the written word.

"I like to take pictures of myself. While I can couch this fact in all sorts of justifying terms -- psychological, metaphorical, mythological, political -- I suspect that anything I say about my work is really just a mask placed in front of this basic impulse. But masks are useful human implements and often reveal truth even as they seek to conceal.

"I usually work alone. That means I function as model, photographer, and viewer, all at once. The split-second transitions between these roles induce a kind of altered state of consciousness that is documented in the images and influences their content. Sometimes it feels like spirit possession, where I’m channeling something from beyond the scope of my conscious intention.

"Exactly why I like to take pictures of myself is a mystery to me, and I have mixed feelings about that. Part of me wants to maintain the mystery, believing that I get better results when I don’t think too hard about what I’m doing. Another part wants to make meaning of the pictures I’m generating, which is probably why I use text to help define the images or establish a premise for making them."

I was born in 1957, which makes me over 21. It also makes me over 50.

Please note: I am always flattered when someone makes me a contact. But if you don't have images of your own, or if your stream primarily consists of images you've downloaded from the net, I probably won't reciprocate.

Photos of Saint Plan (6)

  • Expo next MAY 3 - 21 in Bat Yam, Israel by The Collective & The Collection
  • Area Zinc special issue by nametor
  • lista de obras_7 by The Collective & The Collection
  • Mr John by Zach Manchester UK
  • 3 Years in the Making by Zach Manchester UK
  • IMG_9311 by innes b
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Saint Plan's favorite photos from other Flickr members (1,617)

  • In this world of today, I tell you that your concerns are my shadow and my words are your knife of suicide. by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • Right or wrong, your feelings seem to be only multiple views for the same Obsession by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • Young Hearts Be Free by Darwin Bell
  • In a winter ladscape the souls dont have a place, have a cloud. by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • It is magic how the dancer of clouds had been always the master of the souls. by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • In the winter ladscape, a man is not a man, is just a little shadow of him self. by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • San Reuterio dijo: nada estaba en su sitio, nada era claro. Ni el proletario ni el arcangel finalizaron sus propios cometidos by Conrado Rafael Maletá
  • Sieger Baljon by coen peppelenbos
  • Sieger Baljon by coen peppelenbos
  • curl by sinnen
  • Philadelphia 409 by Michael Penn Street Photography
  • Sex Please We're British by bse303
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Contacts (525)

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Groups (5050)

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Testimonials (4)

  • view profile

    Zach_ManchesterUK says:

    "Since giving up the sport of female wrestling, I worried that there would be little else for John to focus his skills upon. I needn't have worried.

    My predictable witticisms aside, John is one of a few photographers (in the truest sense of the word, not someone who 'points and clicks and hopes for the best') who really appeals to me on many levels. Is it the photographs of human fragility and vulnerability? Or is it the photos that show the more lusty, greedy (in my case, a general 'good time") side to human nature.

    Root through his stream. I assure you, you will find treasures that will delight, make you wonder, maybe even frighten you (because you might even see a little of you in his characterisations).

    John, can I have that $100 now?"

    1st May, 2008

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    tray | of | ash says:

    "He's my Flickr hero! The man takes creativity to levels that not many have the guts to. If you don't appreciate what he does then you don't appreciate art.....or there's a sign inside your mind that reads, "No Diving!"."

    23rd October, 2006

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    fesign says:

    "... anomalous, curious, eccentric, primo, an errant breeze..."

    11th September, 2006

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    Chephoto says:

    "As you enter Saint Plan's world, I ask you to reconsider your sense of visual grammar.

    Allow yourself to feel dizzied by his refelctions on gender, society, culture, beauty, pain, and most of all, love and self-love.

    His fantasmagorical images of saints, sinners, ghosts, demons, opera stars, and more, shall surely cause you to you contemplate your unborn children, the mother who loved or didn't love you, your realized or unrealized demonish tendencies, whether there is an innate gender in each of us, or whether our genders are merely learned behaviors.

    Dare to slip your hand into one of his mutated and fashionable glove costumes-- and see what transformations overtake you. A-ha!"

    21st February, 2006

Name:
John Borstel
Joined:
February 2006
Hometown:
Baltimore/Washington
Currently:
Silver Spring, United States
I am:
Male and Taken
Occupation:
Artist, Arts Administrator
Website:
John Borstel Portfolio