'I like to bring out certain things that no one else has seen before in them and capture the inner side of each model.'
While profiling the work of international art and fashion photographer Ohm Phanphiroj this past August, (The Sensuality In Sorrow) a realization I had been coming to for awhile was elegantly, but firmly confirmed. I always new my favorite artists, and my favorite images, caused me to feel something, but what emotions specifically were triggered was what Ohm's imagery helped me to define.
Great images have the power to cause change, either with how you look or feel about something, or with how your emotions. A quick and deliberate change which occurs the second your eyes meet what is in front of them. For many people who spend a lot of time seeking out images of the male form, the change they are most looking for is something to change, or stimulate their penis. Hopefully to rise. Erotic motivation, or as a visual impetus to orgasm, images can lead to visual fantasy's to assist with getting the job done. Using an image as launching point is something pretty much everyone has done at one point or another.
It was this type of change that first drew me to images of the male form but it was not enough to sustain my passion. Ultimate working on FH, and spending time with the work of some of my favorite artists has changed the way I few deeper emotions, especially ones that surround my past, my relationships and my acceptance of who I am both as a man, and a human being within this world we all share. When I think now of what images stimulate me sexually, they are not usually the ones I choose to feature on the blog. The most of unskilled photographer can capture a hot guy, a beautiful penis and a great ass. The image doesn't have to be great to get the job done.
The images, and the photographers, I have been drawn to over the last couple of years have triggered emotions and hit nerves that don't usually get hit through my daily life and relationships with others. My days are generally made up generic feelings of happiness, mostly cheery and positive thoughts weaved within compassion and empathy, determination and of course love. Of course I am human, and often also feel frustrated or angry, scared and nervous but those feelings and others such as sorrow, regret, melancholy and shame are actually more powerful to me when channeled through art. In life, they so often suppressed, and even when able to express them, they often come out awkwardly and are rarely welcomed by those who surround us. When an image brings them forth however, they can be welcomed and safely embraced within the privacy of the image, your thoughts and you.
The images created by Ohm Phanphiroj are often described as a mixture of voyeurism, provocation and the sensual intimacy between him and his models. This particular type of intimacy is why I love Ohm's work so much. Ohm is not simply the documentarian, the capturer of moments, in many ways he is as much a part of what you see as the model. Many photographers spend their time creating an atmosphere in which they limit the impact of their presence as much as possible.
With Ohm, he and his camera become one, they are alive and present, the other person within the room whom the model interacts with. Their friend, their enemy, their lover. Their tormentor or a stranger they just met and brought to their room. Whatever the relationship, Ohm is the other man in the room, then one the models eyes are fixed on. The one receiving whatever love or hate, confusion or frustration or ecstasy or sorrow that is being expressed.
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