Above: Tricks & Treats
Friday, October 31, 2014
Happy Halloween!
'There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.'
One of the themes that arose from this years Halloween posts was the contrast and weaving of childhood innocence (above) with the much darker themes (below) that haunt so many adults. Both of these themes come together to form the core of Halloween, and one of the reasons I love the holiday so much.
3 Images below from LightWeaver
So many of my interests combine both the fun with the fear that we experience as we make our way, the best that we can, through our lives. I think the combination of bright, and broken, also plays a part in the art, and artists that I am most attracted to. To simply be good, without flaws....or to simply create light, without a degree of dark... is really quite uninteresting. There is nothing really more terrifying to me than a perpetually cheery person.
Happy Halloween To All!
Fallen Angel by Frisky Frolic
'For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment'
2 Peter 2:4
A FH holiday would not be complete, especially a Halloween, without the work of JayBee from Frisky Frolic. No one weaves that fun and fear I discussed with such creative and erotic finesse. Jay sent on a couple of themes from his Halloween themed shoots amd I was especially drawn to these images of the Dark Angel. Is there really a more perfect example of lightness blended with dark than beautiful black angel wings. Angels are symbols of Heaven, light and goodness and traditionally presented in white. A dark Angel means a fallen Angel, one so evil, wicked or rebellious that Heaven has cast them down, gone forever for their sins.
Those Who Wait: Bond by New Manhattan Studios
'We have some orange, we have some black...Halloween is this month...Let's do this!'
Usually, when one chronicles a year or creates a calendar, the starting point is January. Although there are nine great months of story, and images of New Manhattan Studio's work with (Bond), given today is Halloween, I thought it more appropriate to jump in a bit closer to the end of the journey, October.
New Manhattan Studio's Wesley is a bit of a tease. He first mentioned his work with Bond months ago, and I could feel his enthusiasm and excitement over the work they were creating together. Over the next few months Wesley dropped little tidbits about how incredible a specific shoot with Bond was, comments about a fun shoot with Bond and Alex on a farm. Bond's incredible growth or new look and how amazing the last set of images were. Wesley knew full well he was driving me crazy, knowing I was just waiting to see some of the finished images. Good things come to those who wait....
'It was Bond’s sixth photo session with us and I very much wanted to get some head shots in the studio with the longer hair he was now sporting. For the first half of the evening we worked on white paper, getting those and other fashion-oriented shots. The concluding head shots were taken with Bond in a bright orange shirt. He still had it on when we walked over to the black paper where we would be doing art nude work using a piece of sheer black fabric on a black paper background.'
'As he held the black fabric against his bright orange T-shirt, Bond joked that we were just in time for Halloween. I laughed, nodded, and continued tweaking the lights. He still had on the shirt when we did the test shots. Looking at the back of my camera I saw the bright orange shirt floating on a sea of black paper and loved the contrasting colors. When he undressed for the art nude work I asked him to leave the shirt on for the first few shots.'
'The shirt stayed on much longer than I had expected. I didn’t see the colors as restricting us to a Halloween theme and I loved the bright splash of orange it added to the photos. If I had one handy, I might have been tempted to hand him a pumpkin or a black cat but we weren’t doing a holiday calendar shot. And I’ll stand by my credo, less is more. Halloweenie or not, it’s a dramatic palette and I loved the resulting images. I’m happy that they’re making their debut on October 31st.'
'Of late, the studio’s stylist/production assistant, Alex Corso (who’s also a model) has been expanding his wings in the studio. He’s been shooting with a second camera at some of our recent sessions. I’m glad he was hard at work at Bond’s last session. Unbeknownst to me, I was having “issues” with my camera during the shoot and did not get a huge percentage of my shots during the last hour. If it hadn’t been for Alex, most of the orange and black work would have been lost. I’m happy to report both that a majority of the pictures in this posting are Alex’s and that I hope to be sharing more of his work in the future. He shows great potential on both sides of the camera.'
I instantly fell in love with Orange & Black, and not just because of Halloween. Bond looks incredible bathed in both colors, highlighting his great body, his beautiful hazel eyes and of course his incredible head of beautiful hair. Over the last nine months, Bond has gone through a few changes in front of the lens, not the least of which was his hair. Bond's engaging personality also comes through the camera, and his energy and enthusiasm for his look, his work and that work may be perceived is clearly visible, making his images that more enjoyable, and definitely hotter!
I am not usually a fan of the tease, but in this case I have to take a cue from Wesley. Given my love of story, I can't just share one chapter, especially chapter 6 which flows so far into the story. Check back Sunday, for the full story, including images and video, this time... starting at the beginning. It will be worth the wait. In the meantime, to continue to wet your appetite, check out Wesley's sexy and spooky video presentation featuring more of his and Alex's work with Bond HERE:
'During this last shoot in particular Wes and Alex really encouraged me to expose hidden sides of myself and I think it really turned out great!'
The Body In Blood: Tower Of Evil
Every Halloween, I try to find a new movie to watch and feature on the blog. My hope is to find a rare movie that might not be familiar to most, and of course it must have a bit of male eye candy. This year, my research took me to a naked male body, given the season though, he was of course dead, laying in a pool of blood. I think I came upon a gem this year, we shall see.... Full disclosure, I have only seen the first 15 minutes. I scanned the rest to make caps, but decided to save it for the weekend so that I would have time to sit down and enjoy it.
Tower Of Evil, also known as Horror on Snape Island is a British Horror film from 1972. Snape Island is a small isolated point off the English coast. A Team of archaeologists head to the island to uncover possible treasure but instead of treasures, then come upon a series of brutal murders. Whoever, or whatever is doing the killing, begins to pick away at the islands newest visitors.
Starting with end seems to be the theme of the day. The end in this case is the beautiful back end of British body builder turned actor John Hamill. The movie opens with the archaeologists coming upon Hamill's (Gary) naked body lying face down in a pool of blood. From there the movie goes back to tell the story of how he ended up there.
John Hamill's physique was clearly part of the selling of the flick, and images of the naked actor were heavily used in the film's marketing. In the late 60's, Hamill was one of Britain's most popular physique models before turning to acting, studying at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Hamill had a fascinating acting career appearing in television shows such as Space 1999, Dr Who as well as a trilogy of British sex comedies. Hamill also has the distinction of co-starring along side Joan Crawford in the 1970's science fiction flick Trog, which marked Crawford's last appearance on the big screen.
I haven't watched enough of Tower Of Evil to comment on Hamill's acting abilities, but although there were no frontals, (that I saw) he was pretty much kept naked for most of his scenes.
There were two other hunks stripped down in Tower Of Terror, Robin Askwith and Gary Hamilton. I had never heard of either before, but both had the look, and hair, of someone in a 70's rock band. Askin seemed to work steadily, the last seven years on the British soap Coronation Street. Hamilton was especially delicious in the flick, but his career seemed to pretty much begin and end with this film, with only other credit after in 1973. I will give a quick thumbs up or down in a future post once I finished watching the entire movie.
Robin Askwith (Des)
Gary Hamilton (Brom)
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Ghost Stories
Clearly, if you check out FH, you are well aware I love Halloween. Starting back in 2007, each October I have themed pieces to celebrate the holiday. Incredibly photographer showcases, salutes to some of my favorite horror movies and of course my history of Hunks Of Horror.
Writing is my passion, but I still require motivation and in most case, the images dictate the words that follow. This year, a concept from Matt Lee, one he shared in just a sentence or two led to the story of the back of the house. While spending time engrossed, staring intently at Matt' images, the story flowed out almost writing itself. I am a pretty 'light' person in real life, hopeful and happy. For some reason however, it is the macabre, the creepy, the gruesome and grizzly that stimulates the creative parts of my mind and body stronger than other fare.
FH is full of stories, hundreds of stories. Stories about me, stories about photographers, artists, models, actors, staircases, windows, basements, mine shafts, banks, warehouses, old sheds, abandoned houses, beaches, mountains and forests.
Schöne Albträume
Every Halloween I encourage readers of the blog to check out my past Halloween posts. But I also want to encourage those with a few moments this Halloween season to check out some of the site's stories, especially the Ghost stories.
Expressive Masquerade by Mount Photography
Stairway To Hell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)