Indochine's Top Shelf

Melany Doucette - Exotic

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Melany Doucette is a very hot chica. The first time I saw her pics on the net I went on like a 2 hour hunt to find every photo I could. I've posted three of my favorites here, taken by Paul Cobo. But I invite you to find more. She is one of those rare combinations of a truly alluring and sexy face and a dynamite body. If she was about 10 pounds heavier, heaven help me, lol. (By the way, I searched high and low to find the very best version of these pics on the net - there are a lot of low grade versions of her photos on places like LazyGirls.)

Melanie has been in BlackMen magazine, but not SHOW or Smooth.
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Temeca Freeman - SHOW Magazine

We criticize SHOW around here for their often cartoonish looking airbrushing and staid set ups, but in many instances SHOW's images are the best available of certain models. In other words, if it weren't for SHOW's professional sheen, some of these women couldn't really say that had come close to commercial level modeling. That isn't quite the case with Temeca Freeman, but these are some of her best pics. (There's an extremely easy Easter Egg within this very post - right click is your friend Happy )

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Ms. Ice aka Tina B - Inergee Studios

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This is video of Tina B. at a photo shoot with Inergee Studios. I think Tina is an important model to showcase because she's a natural. No tatts, no implants, no excessive piercings or Photoshop - just 100% pure brick house. You don't see that much anymore and the line has increasingly blurred between the real and the fake. I featured her on my blog a year ago before she got popular and I'm glad I did. Winking

The video was shot by the homie Affinity Ratios, who is quite the photographer in his own right. Nice work.







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Melyssa Ford 2004 Calendar - Sweet Spot

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The 2004 Melyssa Ford Calendar represents an undeniable sweet spot for urban modeling. Shot by Garth Aikens in Melyssa's heyday, this calendar set the bar for eye candy at the time. Interestingly, due to a dispute with her manager at the time, Jeff Robinson, distribution of this calendar was very shoddy and many people who ordered it never saw their copy. (I got mine off eBay early on - at one time, these calendars were going for up to $100 on eBay.)

Another interesting factoid about this calendar is that photos from it never hit the internet in high quality. As proof, just try to find either of these pictures at this quality level anywhere on the net. The reason for that is that, due to the unusual size of the images in the calendar, this is not an easy scan job - the photo has to be scanned in three parts and stitched together. There about 6 photos from the 2004 Melyssa Ford calendar that are truly scan worthy and over the next month, I will post them in hi res just like this one. Enjoy!

(Click the images to be taken to super hi res version)

UPDATE: Additional pic added...

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Panel Discussion: "Bling, Booty, Bullets - Materialism, Misogyny and Violence Portratyed in Hip Hop"

So I stumbled upon this interesting panel discussion of the negative of effects of the images of video models and hip hop on the black community held at my alma mater (UCLA) earlier this year. It's an interesting discussion, even if that annoying music in the background makes it nearly unbearable. There's a female UCLA student at the 1:50 mark who is exceptionally articulate. Also interesting: Director X nearly loses it when he comes under attack.

This video made me think about all this and where I stand on it. My position remains the same: the problem is not that there are sensual images of beautiful women of color out there. As I stated in response to another poster on this blog, "Men have been admiring the female form as long as we've been on the planet. It is evident in the poems of Shakespeare and the paintings of Picasso. The visual admiration and resulting objectification of women’s physical attributes will never disappear because it is a natural part of human sexuality. Criticizing it is like criticizing the squishy sound the heart makes when it beats. What’s the point unless you’re advocating we all drop dead?"

So, again, in my opinion, the problem is not that there are sexy images of ethnic women out there, and anyone criticizing the visual celebration of the feminine form is headed down a dangerous path that will inevitably lead to hypocrisy. The problem is that there is a lack of dimensionality and substance associated with women of color in this context. For example, Pam Anderson and Kim Kardashian have both taken a plethora of sexy images in Maxim, FHM, etc. but they are also respected as business women. Where is the African American analogue of these women? Melyssa Ford has made significant headway for urban eye candy and single-handedly created that genre, yet she is constantly berated as a "video ho." Last I checked, Ms. Ford didn't have a sex tape out there like Pam Anderson or Kim Kardashian, and yet neither of those woman have suffered this negative stigma.

I'd be interested to hear what other's opinions are on this topic.






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Jenna Shea

I like Jenna's experssion on the first shot. Reach Jenna Shea on Twitter here.

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Precious - SHOW Casting

Continuing in my series of proving that Indosplace is not above some good old fashioned T&A occasionally, I bring you "Precious" from SHOW's casting section.

This is where SHOW showcases models that are too cute to go undocumented, but not quite cute enough to make it in their magazine. But the real bonus to the Castings Section is that it is one of the last places you can see completely unretouched photos of models. (Apparently, Precious came back and they retouched her the 2nd time around. I've included one of those shots (white sheets).)

The unfortunate thing about the Casting Section is that there is no contact info. or anything for the model, so even if someone did wanna give them an opportunity, how would it happen?

(Click image to be taken to gallery page...)

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Mesha Seville - Sexy

Click to expand these NSFW, extremely sexy pics of Mesha taken by Frank aka Hot Sauce

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Meagan Tandy - Unstoppable

Meagan Tandy plays Denzel Washington's daughter in the new thriller "Unstoppable." With pics like this, I would say she is unstoppable. Laugh

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Alysha Young - Commercial Appeal

My favorite model Winking

Credits - Model: Alysha Young | Make-Up: Tai Young-Jackson | Hair: Tara Copeland | Photography: Indosplace.com

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Gabrielle Union - Venice Magazine 2001

For a long time, I was trying to track down this issue of Venice magazine just for this photo of Gabrielle Union. Surprisingly, it's not quite as good as I remember it being, but it's still nice to finally get my mitts on it (thank you eBay).

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Kathie Pham aka KathieMouse

For the life of me, I'll never understand why models take these photos and put them on the net and then hide their identities from the world. Kathie used to have a Model Mayhem profile, but she pulled it for reasons unknown. Of course, the photographer doesn't list her name or credit in his MM port. Meanwhile, her photo has received over 1,000 comments on Tumblr. *sigh*

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Khrysti Hill Candid

An all natural Khrysti Hill for ya, and one butt shot, lol.

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Halie 305 - XXL Magazine

XXL Magazine has always been a cut above when it comes to their eye candy photography. They eschew the overdone retouched look of the urban market for a more natural, softer image. And they don't use the usual urban photographers either, which is probably why they can achieve this look. Amy Postle shot these, and if you look at her portfolio you'll see all the tale tell signs of a working commercial photographer: heavy use of natural light, bright colors, photorealistic retouching, etc.

Halie is 23, 5'5", and her measurements are 36-24-41. Wow. Oh yeah, she was one the last standing on Chad Ochocinco’s VH1 reality show, The Ultimate Catch.

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Melyssa Ford Black & White

I hate to double up like this on Melyssa Ford, and I'll probably get flack for it (the obsession continues, right? lol), but honestly, I'm having problems finding stuff to post these days. Sad I think I've kinda painted myself into a corner being all principled about what I think urban modeling should be, lol. I mean, there's stuff like Jazzie Belle's new shots for Gorgeous Magazine, all retouched to death with her wearing blue contacts (*sigh*), but I'm just not posting stuff like that any more. I guess this could lead to fewer posts over time, but I'm gonna try to just stick to stuff that I'm really excited about and that I think is good for this small niche market (steps off soap box)... (P.S. This does not mean no more voluptuous women and booty shots - just only the really good ones Winking )

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Photography Website Finally Up

For many years I've been using Model Mayhem as my primary online portfolio. Not very professional I suppose, but convenient. Anyway, I finally got a website up this weekend. Nothing too fancy - just a simple showcase so that people who visit get an idea of what type of pictures I produce. If any of you have time, take a look and let me know you thoughts. It should look something like what you see below. Constructive feedback welcomed.

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Melyssa Ford - KING July 2004

One of the regular contributors on my blog read that I no longer had this issue of KING Magazine from July/August 2004 and was kind enough to send it me. I hadn't seen this actual magazine in several years. The pages with Melyssa Ford in it are in pristine condition, so I decided to share back with my blog and scan this page.

Looking at this picture, it reminded why I have this blog to begin with (and yes, sometimes I have to remind myself why I keep this effort going). Unfortunately, you can't see all the details from this scan, but this picture doesn't have the same type of cartoonish retouching you see these days. That's 90% real Melyssa Ford, and that's just crazy. Where did these type of models disappear to? To me, this image represents what urban modeling used to be about, and needs to return to. Fine women with unusually curvaceous bodies and pretty faces. No tatts, no piercings - just unadorned beauty. (Click to enlarge)

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