In the 1934 novel, I, Claudius, writer Robert Graves details the life of Roman Emperor Claudius as if written as an autobiography by the Emperor himself. Although Claudiu is a Romanian, the name is derived from the Latin Claudius.
I first profiled Claudiu last December (HERE: & HERE:) Claudiu lives, works and studies in Toronto. Though my communication with Claudiu it is apparent the Romanian born model shares many things with his praenomen, not the least of which is underestimation.
On one hand, Claudiu is a man of few words, yet on the other, he is language abundant. For so many, social media is an avenue to share the minute, the superficial. For Claudiu communicating seems a more organic form of expression, one which is unimportant unless there is a real meaning.
Due to some minor physical constraints, s limp and minor hearing loss, Claudius was ostracized by his family, and underestimated by the public. Since he was not seen a serious threat by most around him, Claudius used this to his advantage. It served the Emperor well, allowing him to reach great heights and do incredible things without those around him feeling the need to get in his way.
When I profiled Claudiu last Christmas, I loved his look and his images, but wrongly assumed there he had placed self imposed limitations and boundaries within his work. Many of the shots I featured at the time were a couple of years old. Claudiu told me at that time he was serious about getting the best out of his life, his body and career in the modeling industry in 2013. No joke! The passion he has put into his body has demonstrated no limitations nor boundaries. Claudiu has been working steadily since the year began with a number of artists creating a more dynamic, creative and energized portfolio.
Some of my favorite new images of Claudiu come from Toronto's Rich Archer. Any of you have followed FH know I am passionate about the use of windows within photography. I have written often in the past of the powerful symbolism of window's, reflection, looking in and gazing out. There is also simply such incredible beauty using windows within art. The natural light of course, but also the incorporation of both the studio inside and the world that surrounds it outside of the glass. When Claudiu posted the first image from Rich (directly below) in January his blog, I knew I wanted to see more of their work together.
Claudiu was thrilled with the results of his work with Rich and says it was a joy collaborating with him. 'I look forward to working with him again because of how great the experience has been the first two times !' Like for Claudiu, 2013 meant a change in career direction for Rich who is putting a greater focus on his photography.
'I'd resolved this year to make more time to be in the studio, and to finally do the kinds of shots I always wanted to do. So I contacted Claudiu and scheduled our first shoot. And it was great. The studio has a ton of natural light, which I really do prefer over studio lighting. The window shots turned out exactly as I pictured them. They were the first shots we did, and we just zipped along after that, bouncing ideas off each other, reviewing shots together...it really was a collaboration. We both had different ways of looking at shots, and understanding what we both wanted to accomplish really resulted in some great shots.'
Rich Archer
'Our second shoot a week later, it felt like we'd been shooting together forever. The one critique I had for Claudiu the first shoot was to vary up the facial expressions. The second shoot, I found myself focusing on just his face for so many shots, and they're some of my favourite shots of him. We'll definitely be shooting together in the future!'
Check out more of Rich Archer's work on ModelMayhem HERE:
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