Since I last checked in with Art & Perception, I’ve been exploring the synthesis of two of my most persistent obsessions: Manhattan and beatuiful men. I was partly motivated by comments on this blog questioning my lack of people in my city views and details. As a result of that, I have of late gone in a completely opposite direction.
Truth be told, I rarely enoy nude male photography, it leaves me cold. Too obvious. On the other hand the naked city in all of its hardness, rigid angles and cubist statements is to my eye powerfully masculine and quite arousing. So I wondered if I could use my camera to create some kind of visual and emotional communication between the stone, steel and glass architecture, textures and colors of my adored metropolis and the architecture, textures and colors of beautiful men.
I’m not sure I’ve succeeded quite yet, but I do feel I am on the right path. And I must confess–not surprisingly–the exploration has been great fun.
Perhaps the strangest part of this experience has been that the sexual and visual pleasure that I’ve been experiencing during this process of of exploration has been unique and extraordinarily intense in ways I had not imagined. Furthermore, the experience has given rise to intense personal feelings that I’ve not experienced during the actual act of sex. Partly, this is because–with one exception–I have not indulged in sex with my models despite the fact that one of the criteria I’ve used to select my models has been powerful sexual attraction. Limiting myself to the visual experience has opened the door on new sensations and much more powerful visual experience than I’ve ever had before.
Have I discovered my inner voyeur? Perhaps, but it is something much more. The combined beauty of the male form and texture and elements of the city has taken me to a very new place emotionally, sexually and aesthetically.
If readers show enough interest in this work, I’ll post more next week.
Richard,
Your aim, “to create some kind of visual and emotional communication between the stone, steel and glass architecture, textures and colors of my adored metropolis and the architecture, textures and colors of beautiful men” seems beautifully fulfilled here. The second-to-last photo, for example, makes your model look like bronze or colored steel, which isn’t quite as warm as one might imagine a human torso to be, but in perfect keeping with making him as powerful as the buildings behind. The contrast in the warmth of the skin and the cold sky scraper maintains the human focus. You have also taken your photos looking up at your models, thus seeing them like most of us see skyscrapers.
The couple seem warmer, more human, than some of the other amazing torsos. That’s also interesting. And the last photo, of the fellow on the pedestal, makes me roll my eyes. Somehow I’m much more impressed when the humans are backed by the inhuman and still retain their power.
About the excitement you are feeling in the project — I remember reading that in the late 19th century, New England aristocrats who believed in frugality and spare living sublimated their sexual desires in opera. As an opera lover, I could believe that. In fact, it seems to me that a certain form of excitement is common to sex, art-making, art-experiencing and probably auto racing. I suspect some scientist somewhere is wiring up various “excited” people and comparing the print-outs.
Are you interested in further reactions or are you clear within yourself what you are doing with this and where you would like to go?
Richard,
This seems like a great way to combine the subjects you’re passionate about. I especially like the minimalist style of the first photograph, and also the very explicit contrast of human skin and curves against the rectilinear geometry of the city. And yet this person belongs there, it’s where he lives, and he’s just looking out from his terrace (or so it seems, anyway).
The other images, except for the couple, and perhaps the night silhouette, feel more posed and self-conscious, and therefore I don’t feel as much that there’s as deep a connection between the person and the architecture, or between the person and the photographer. There is some interesting conceptual play going on, but I end up less drawn to those images.
I’ve never tried portrait or figure work myself, and I expect I’d be very bad at it, at least for quite a long time. I’m sure it would be rewarding, though. I admire your jump into it.
Richard,
I love the first shot with your Empire State Building, great colors and textures and movement. My eyes are drawn up from the bum cleavage to the top of the Empire State Bldg.
I also love the movement in the second to last picture. I would omit the street lamp that interrupts the upward surge of the lines.
In the photo above, picture 8, I appreciate the relationship between the bulge in the pants and the curvature of the yellow brick above it. But the picture also makes me feel uncomfortable. Perhaps, that is intentional.
Previous comments made say it all – great work!!!
I’m intrigued with the first photo in that to me it relates to our earlier debate about Courbet’s Origin of the World. Could this be the homosexual version? could I have asked a more loaded question?
Tree — <snort>
This is a work in progress for me. I mostly agree with all of your comments. My challenge is to create a synergy between the man and the city. Sorry about the bulge; that wasn’t intentional but clearly the model was enjoying the attention.
Hmmm. Well, one snort and no bites. I take it no one is interested in wading into the murky depths once again ;-)