Artistically Perving: The Photography of Markus Bollingmo

There is on going debate in almost all area's of the arts about the importance of education and skill vs raw passion and emotion. We have all heard songs sung by vocal masters that fail to give us goose bumps. Have seen performances by dancers, ones with years of training, that don't trigger any emotion except that of boredom. It must be one of the most frustrating things to have studied and practiced something you love only to still be told your not good enough.

I read bios of photographers which have included years of art and visual education, all kinds of related jobs and awards from the institute of blabby blah or whatever. Yet... when I see their work I feel cold, no texture, no depth, no emotion. Usually hundreds of images of great looking models, all in front of the same background or posed in the same way. A shot or pose that years ago got them a bit of attention and resulted in the death of their passion and creativity.

The first image I saw from photographer Markus Bollingmo was one of Dominick, standing by the window smoking a cigarette. (see post below). The image told an entire story, a personal moment told in beautiful shades of dark and light. The Norwegian photographer, now based in Paris says all his work consists of personal projects. Markus has never worked in a studio, he shoots on location, at homes, hotels and outside and the models, not usually professional models, but the young men who have passed through his life. 'So far finding inspiring models hasn't been a problem for me.'

If an artists images act as their resume, their bio provides the cover letter. Although I loved his images, I was also impressed and amused by the words Markus has on his Model Mayhem page. Although a lot of professional models and photographers have used MM as a great way to promote and network for work, there are also clearly another group who use the site to meet various other needs. 'Let's be real. This website is mostly a bunch of people perving on each other while trying to be artistic about it. You know I'm right!'

There is an honesty within this statement that I think is also reflected within Markus images. I often scratch my head when I see an image of a completely naked man, face looking animalistic and the photographer wants any comment which connects it to anything sexual removed. The image may indeed be artistic, but at it's core, its foundation is sexual.

'People try to rise above it I suppose, but when you look around MM, it's pretty obvious from a lot of the comments that many of people are just trying to find classy ways of saying "I find you hot". I suppose "I love the juxtaposition of the this and the that" sounds better than "Your butt pic gave me a boner", but it's still very obvious.'

If you haven't guessed already, all of the images in this piece are self pics of the artist himself. I find it interesting that at 29, Markus visually looks younger than he appears which juxtaposes the maturity and emotion he demonstrates within his work. And... to continue with the honesty theme, Markus is not only talented but hot... and so yes, I had my own honest, and personal reaction to his butt pics.

Markus has large presence on the net, so if you want to see more of his work (and him) I would start with his official site, if only for the really cool video graphic on the opening page. I would also head to his Live Journal site, which is not only where I found the set of images of Dominick, but the top of the page contains links to his work on Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook.

Markus Bollingmo