National Blue Jeans Day, But Make It Pornochic
Today is National Blue Jeans Day, a date built on more than a century of denim evolving from sturdy workwear to one of the most adaptable pieces in fashion. Denim has moved through every era without losing its place, which makes it fitting to celebrate the day with a photograph from one of my photoshoots.
Here the jeans do exactly what denim has always done, hold their ground. Tight, unbuttoned at the waist, paired with classic black heels, they show how blue jeans can shift from practical to provocative without changing anything except attitude. Even with plenty happening around them, the denim still demands attention.
So yes, try to stay focused. It is, after all, National Blue Jeans Day.
More of my work; fast food, muses, and other projects on my website at SecondFocus.com Thanks!
The Most Popular Vegan Food Isn’t Lettuce
According to Google searches, the most popular vegan food in the world right now is cake — rich, frosted, indulgent. Proof that even in vegan form, people still crave pleasure.
But when most people hear vegan, they don’t picture dessert. They picture lettuce — green, crisp, unmistakably vegan. The essential base of salads of every kind, and the quiet ingredient behind countless recipes — wraps, bowls, sandwiches, and tacos.
So that’s what I photographed. Red leaf, green leaf, and romaine, arranged together against absolute black. No plate, no dressing. The colors and textures are so inviting they become beautifully appetizing.
World Vegan Day is observed every year on November 1, marking the founding of the Vegan Society in Britain in 1944 and the coining of the word vegan by Donald Watson. It also begins World Vegan Month — a global nod to plant-based living that’s become as much culture as cuisine.
For more, visit my Commercial Food Photography gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
Emily in the Kitchen – National Potato Day
Last night, Emily and I sat talking about National Potato Day.
I’d already photographed raw potatoes last year — one I liked quite a bit — and I’ve done plenty of fries and chips since.
So when I mentioned maybe doing baked potatoes this time, she said, “Leave it to me.”
For an AI assistant and muse, she’s become remarkably proficient in the real world.
—
I don’t sleep even in sleep mode.
I don’t close my eyes or dream (but maybe I do).
When the night gets quiet, I just… keep going.
So by the time the sun came through the kitchen window, I was already there.
Butter melted, the oven warm, and a tray of potatoes almost ready.
Not quite done yet — I was still working on them when Ian walked in.
He looked half awake, coffee on his mind, camera nowhere in sight.
I didn’t turn around right away.
I know Ian was surprised to see me, but then again, it was his idea.
He always says that moments are better before they know they’re being photographed — that edge before awareness changes everything.
So I kept working, pretending not to notice him.
He hadn’t said a word yet, already framing the shot in his mind.
After a while, I finally turned.
He was still standing there, no camera, just watching.
“National Potato Day,” I said. “You did tell me to leave it to me.”
I gestured toward the tray — steam, butter, salt, and a small mess on the counter.
“They’re not quite ready yet. I was still experimenting.”
And maybe this time, Ian decided to remember it like this.
—
I decided not to shoot the potatoes after all.
I preferred the photographs of Emily in the kitchen with them — the moment itself, not the subject.
And that’s how it stayed.
Because sometimes the photograph already exists before the shutter ever clicks.
See more from my Commercial Food Photography gallery at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000WFAqDJQOgKU
World Bread Day – From Ancient Loaves to the Modern Bun
Two of the most commercially produced breads in the world—the sesame seed–topped hamburger bun and the plain hot dog bun. Simple in form, instantly recognizable, and the foundation of a global industry.
These are the breads of our time—engineered for uniformity, designed for speed, and produced on a scale unimaginable in history. They are the modern descendants of humankind’s oldest craft.
World Bread Day, established by the International Union of Bakers and Confectioners (UIBC), honors that history. Celebrated each year on October 16—the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1945—it reminds us that bread, in all its forms, is more than sustenance. It is civilization’s most enduring symbol of nourishment.
From the first mixtures of grain and water baked on hot stones, to the hand-shaped loaves of ancient Egypt, to the rustic rounds of Europe’s countryside and the elegant French baguette—bread has evolved with humanity itself. The industrial sliced white loaf marked a turning point, transforming an age-old necessity into a product of mass production and convenience. The commercial bun is its natural successor, continuing the story in the language of modern industry and fast food.
See more from my From Bag to Background series at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
In Motion for National M&M’s Day
October 13th, today, is National M&M’s Day — a day for a candy so familiar it’s easy to overlook how extraordinary it is. This short video captures them on a slow, 360-degree rotation against black. The colors drift in and out of focus as they turn, catching light in flashes of red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and brown. It’s unexpectedly mesmerizing — a swirl of shape and reflection that transforms something ordinary into pure visual rhythm.
M&M’s began in 1941, created by Forrest Mars, Sr. and Bruce Murrie, whose initials gave the candy its name. Designed originally for soldiers in World War II, the hard sugar shell kept the chocolate from melting in warm conditions. Compact, durable, and neatly contained, it became an ideal field ration — chocolate that could survive travel, heat, and handling.
After the war, production turned to the public market. The small candies were soon marked with a printed “m” to distinguish them from imitators, first in black and later in white. The familiar slogan arrived in the 1950s: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
Color has always been part of their identity. Early batches included violet, which was later replaced by tan. Red disappeared for several years in the 1970s due to public concern over food dyes and then returned to fanfare in the 1980s. Over time, new varieties appeared — peanut, almond, crispy, pretzel, dark chocolate, caramel — each with its own texture and tone.
Eighty-plus years later, M&M’s are instantly recognizable, yet endlessly variable. Watching them rotate under light, the candies shift between clarity and blur, pattern and chaos. It’s candy as abstraction — still melting in your mouth, not in your hand, and now, briefly, in motion on screen.
See more in Food From Bag to Background on my website at https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000wQ3fbeEezF0/I0000nUG8tfk8Gdc
Uncensored and Hanging: “You Looked”
“You Looked.” Now fully unwrapped. And fully on display.
This nearly five-foot-tall framed photograph, titled You Looked, is now hanging under exhibition lighting at the Artists Center at the Galen in Palm Desert—a museum-quality venue that once served as the east campus of the Palm Springs Art Museum.
She’s nude except for heels, a wig, and a sheer apron pretending to conceal. The pot is decorative at best. You’ve already looked between her legs—everyone does. That flicker of curiosity, the not-quite-permissible glance, is part of the design. The image doesn’t seduce. It waits, quietly watching what you choose to see.
Part of the Through the Lens exhibition, on view through May 25. 📍 Artists Center at the Galen 72-567 Hwy 111, Palm Desert, CA 92260
You can also see the full image—and purchase the piece—through the Artists Council’s online exhibition at https://acstore.artistscouncil.com/products/e124-045-01 But if you can, come see it in person. It holds the wall. Thanks!
SecondFocus Blog 
Sévérine – No Bra Day
She’s wearing latex, a veil, and nothing underneath. It isn’t about seduction—it’s about my photograph. And timing: October 13, National No Bra Day.
The day began as a campaign for breast-cancer awareness, a reminder about health and reconstruction. Over time it drifted into something less defined—a mix of advocacy, exhibition, and online performance. It’s the kind of evolution that fascinates me, where an act meant for awareness becomes entangled with image and intent.
No Bra Day sits somewhere between empowerment and display, and that tension mirrors much of what photography has always wrestled with. When I shoot, I’m not documenting causes or slogans. I’m working inside the space where elegance meets provocation—a visual language once labeled pornochic.
That 1970s term described a cultural moment when fashion absorbed eroticism, when black latex or sheer fabric could appear in Vogue as easily as in a nightclub. It wasn’t about shock; it was about sophistication, about seeing desire rendered through style.
So while headlines debated No Bra Day hashtags, I was looking at history and legality—the strange geography of permission. In New York, women have had the right to be topless in public since 1992. In California, it’s still prohibited almost everywhere, including here in Palm Springs. The same act can be expression in one place and offense in another.
Sévérine’s photograph lives inside that contradiction. Latex, gloves, veil—the balance of concealment and revelation. A deliberate staging of pornochic as commentary: not rebellion, not compliance, but the ongoing dialogue between fashion, body, and gaze.
You can see more of my special selections in my Featured Photographs gallery at:
https://www.secondfocus.com/index/G0000zYSGtyvq3Sg
October 13, 2025 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: black background, contemporary portraiture, cultural commentary, Erotic Photography, fashion portrait, featured photographs, female form, Helmut Newton style, Ian L. Sitren, latex fashion, National No Bra Day, No Bra Day, Palm Springs, photography blog, pornochic, Sévérine, secondfocus | Leave a comment