Moving Forward at SecondFocus.com
For more than 24 years I have shared my photography, projects, thoughts, and experiences through a blog.
This particular blog began in January 2014 and has grown to nearly 3,000 posts containing more than 3,600 photographs and videos. Before that, I maintained a continuous blog for another 12 years on other platforms. Along the way I have also shared my work extensively across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, and other online communities.
As this blog has continued to grow, I have found that much of my work is better presented in organized galleries rather than individual blog posts. Whether it is commercial photography, editorial assignments, aviation, food photography, AI projects, videos, or my long-term photographic collections, it simply makes more sense to bring everything together in one place.
This will be the final post on this blog.
From this point forward, my website SecondFocus.com will be the central location for both new work and my growing archive. My intent is to update my galleries almost every day with new photographs, videos, projects, and other content. Rather than waiting for a traditional blog post, visitors will be able to see new work as it is added across the various galleries.
I am not going away.
I will continue to post regularly on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and LinkedIn, where I will share new photographs, videos, projects, and updates. My social media posts will direct you back to my website, where the complete galleries and collections will continue to grow.
If you have followed my work over the years, thank you. Your encouragement, comments, and support have meant a great deal to me. I hope you will continue the journey with me as I continue adding new photography, videos, and projects.
Please bookmark my website and visit often.
Thank you.
Facebook: Ian.Sitren | Instagram: IanSitren | Twitter (X): @SecondFocus | LinkedIn: SecondFocus
Julie Strain as Marilyn Monroe
One of the latest additions to my From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic) gallery is a pair of trading cards from the 1999 Julie Strain’s Marilyn 2000 series.
I picked them up a few months ago, but they found their way back to the front of my mind after all the Marilyn Monroe activity here in Palm Springs surrounding what would have been her 100th birthday.
Between the exhibits, celebrations, and the world-record gathering of people dressed as Marilyn that I photographed downtown, Marilyn seemed to be everywhere.
Produced by Comic Images in 1999, the series featured Julie Strain portraying Marilyn Monroe in photographs by Benjamin Hoffman.
If you were around glamour photography, magazines, or collectible cards during the 1990s, chances are you knew who Julie Strain was. A Penthouse Pet of the Year, actress, and model, she became one of the most recognizable glamour figures of the decade and appeared in everything from magazines and calendars to comic-book related projects and trading card sets like this one.
The card shown here is number 70 from the set.
The front contains a cropped version of the image along with the card number and caption. Turn it over and the entire photograph appears on the reverse along with the photographer credit, copyright information, and publisher details.
Trading cards are usually associated with sports, movies, television shows, or comic books. By the late 1990s, however, publishers were producing collectible card sets devoted to everything from fantasy art to glamour photography. Apparently someone decided Marilyn Monroe belonged in that world as well.
You’ll find both this card and card #20 from the Julie Strain’s Marilyn 2000 series, along with other photographs, slides, postcards, magazines, and collectible artifacts, here in From My Collections (Cultural & Erotic)
SecondFocus Blog 