Above:
Kunal by rSEANd PHOTOGRAPHY
-See More Below-
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Happy Birthday today March 4th
Just Because: DWTS
Moment Of Rebellion: Kunal by rSEANd PHOTOGRAPHY
Time flies! I cannot believe it has been over two years since I have featured the work of Sean Dibble from rSEANd PHOTOGRAPHY. In my first profile featuring Sean's work with Luis Perrusquia my focus was on the creativity and imagination Sean incorporates within his work.
Although today it is expected that photographers of the male form will find ways to present there work in new, distinct and exciting ways. But it was not that long ago when most portfolio's on ModelMayhem consisted of naked men simply standing or sitting in front of a usually black sheet. Viewers of artistic and erotic imagery of men have now come to expect more. With the onset of sites like Model Mayhem, more and more artists are now able to share their work and the need for artists to stand apart and present their work in a unique way is all the more crucial to having their work noticed.
Sean Dibble was never content with that simple background and basic way of shooting, having a model simply naked was not enough. Sean was always at the forefront, pushing creative boundaries with images that beautifully straddled that invisible yet clear erotic line.
I would love to be a fly on the wall during one of Sean's shoots. He has a way of bringing out the bold, the fierce, the ferocious in the men he shoots. I have viewed many shots of the men Sean has worked with and no one brings out the primal emotions that he achieves in quite the same way.
When I contacted Sean last month about featuring more of his work I wanted to focus on a shoot, a model that has yet to make a lot of appearance on other sites and blogs. I narrowed my choices down to two but it was Kunal, especially his piercing eyes that grabbed my attention.
'I met Kunal in 2008 at a mall where he worked in the convenience store. I was friendly with one of the other workers and she was aware that I was a photographer and kept suggesting Kunal. I recognized that he was a very handsome guy, but he is exceptionally shy so I didn't follow up because I didn't think he would be interested. Well she kept pushing me and spoke to him about my work and it turns out that he had always wanted to have his photos done so we set up a shoot. The funny thing about that day is I had no idea his body was so muscular because he dresses so conservatively. When he took off his shirt, I actually said "where did all that come from?"
'Kunal is very easy to work with, undeniably beautiful and one of my most popular models. He is the one that people request new photos from the most, but our shoot was his first and last. He is from an ultra conservative Indian background and I think that shoot was his moment of rebellion. He loved the photos and I've run into him since then and he remains that incredibly shy and exceptionally friendly guy.'
Thanks to Sean for sharing his work with FH & thanks to Kunal for sharing his moment of rebellion!
Check out much more of Sean's work on MM, his official site and his great blog HERE:
Manhattan Men: Concrete Memories
Whenever I spend time with Richard Rothstein's Manhattan Men I know I will enjoy some of the familiar locations he loves to shoot at. The streets of Manhattan of course, Central Park, building rooftops, Bryant Park and Coney Island. There is one little corner, a concrete nook, a graffiti painted corner that had me curious. I had assumed was an alley off of some street close to Richard's home.
Well, it is close to Richard's home, and close to his past, but it is not on a street... I had no idea when I asked Richard about the concrete corner it was going to elicit such an honest and meaningful response. Now, viewing those images from the concrete corner takes on a new perspective with whole new level of appreciation and enjoyment.
'It's actually a semi secluded corner on the roof of my building, 45 stories over Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. In the early to mid 1990's I would take my tricks there from the local clubs along 11th and 12th Avenues. It was the perfect place for a sexual encounter, a place to go to wait for the ecstasy to wear off, a safer place to go with a stranger than into your own home, and a place that sustained the thrill of the adventure, the hunt and the conquest. It was mostly private but still outside with the stars overhead and the cityscape behind you.'
'One always risked being discovered--but the discovery would often lead to a threesome or more as my building in those years was pretty much of a gay ghetto in the middle of the infamous Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen mega clubs of that era (Sound Factory, Roxy, Twilo, Zone DK, Tunnel, Mars, etc.)'
'Today, I use it as a location to tell part of the story of my life. The nudity is an homage to my debaucherous club years. But the way I photograph the men today is a discovery of who they really are as men, something I never learned nor cared about during the club years. I've photographed musicians, dancers, yoga instructors, dog lovers, clowns, athletes and many others. In this work, I'm putting a "face" on dozens of anonymous tricks from a time in my life when I worked on my knees without a camera. Like much of my work, the images represent a link between now and my life over the decades on this bizarre and very queer island of Manhattan.'
Thanks Richard for the images and especially for the story! See more concrete memories on Richard's incredible site Manhattan Men!
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