Janus: Ajuna and Stephen by Gordon Nebeker

In ancient Roman mythology, Janus was known as the God of beginnings and transition. Janus also oversaw other transitional portals including gates, doors and doorways, endings and the most powerful of all, time. Janus was usually depicted as having two faces, not because he was hypocritical, but because he was able to face in two opposite directions at the same time, both the past and the future. The Romans named the month of January in honor of Janus.

Thousands of years later, January still marks a period of transition and new beginnings for many. As the beginning of a new year, it can mean a new start, the beginning of a new way of living, acting and for some, even feeling. It is time of hope, renewal and maybe most of all planning. The planning may be outlined for just a 12 month period, but the changes planned and hoped for, are meant to flow through a lifetime.

With the promise of a new beginning, January seems then, to be the perfect month to make a vow. Less than a week from today, on Wednesday January 23rd, a new beginning is set to occur with the wedding of Ajuna and Stephen.

'You can really sense the love they have for each other! The purpose of the shoot was to shoot them as a couple and I told them that they had the opportunity here to show emotions and feelings that two random models paired together could never achieve and I think they did that very successfully.'
Gordon Nebeker

I have written on the blog before, how rare it is to find images of couples that I really love. It seems at times, some people struggle to accept that there can be anything between two naked men, that an erection can't cure. Although I am a big fan of erections, there are other issues within relationships such as intimacy, tenderness and of course love which often seem forgotten in images of two men. These images of Ajuna and Stephen are intensely erotic and speak to a bond and connection based strongly on the physical, but equally powerfully on the emotional and the experiences, both positive and difficult, that they have been through together.

Gordon Nebeker is one of my favorite artists to profile. The first image that had me wanting to connect, and find out more about his work, was a photo of Ajuna. (The Patience Payoff) I contacted Stephen last year after seeing some of his work, and until he replied, I had no idea of his connection to either Ajuna, or to Gordon. It is interesting to me, and a great pleasure, that those two photographs, initially thought to be unrelated, led, close to a year later, to this feature of Gordon's exquisite images.

Gordon reports the shoot was a long time in coming. He first brought up the idea with Ajuna and Stephen when they all in Florida. It was almost a year and half later before they were all able to line up their schedules and free up a half day for a shoot. Both Stephen and Ajuna work for the same company, although in different departments, and coordinating their schedules was a challenge. Ajuna had worked with Gordon previously and always enjoyed their work together. This time however, he wanted to do a shoot with his real life partner, Stephen. Stephen had done some modeling when he was living in Southern Florida but had not shot any new work in awhile and was happy to dip his feet back in the water.

'Photographing a couple is exponentially more difficult than photographing an individual but I enjoy the challenge. One has to be careful that both people are 'in the light' and then a perfect shot of one of the pair can be ruined by the untimely blink of his partner in the photograph. But these things develop a rhythm and these guys were wonderful to work with. I often tell my models that we don't 'take' good photographs, we 'make' good photographs and Ajuna and Stephen patiently repeated poses that were good but could be made better with some further adjustments. This is not a good recipe for producing lots of photographs but I find the ones that come out of it are usually better.'
Gordon Nebeker

'Gordon is an amazing host and a very professional photographer. We enjoyed our time together and look forward to working together again in the future. We heard he also can cook some amazing dishes... maybe we will be lucky enough to try one some day! It was a lot of fun and brought out both feelings of sentiment and excitement. It was hard to hide the excitement a few times... but we really enjoyed the bonding experience it brought us'
Ajuna and Stephen

'During one series we were photographing when they were both in T-shirts and underwear soaking wet, I tried to get them to act as if they were in a fight with each other complete with angry looks. Neither of them fell into their roles easily.'
Gordon Nebeker

Ajuna on ModelMayhem
Stephen on ModelMayhem
Gordon Nebeker on ModelMayhem