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Friday, February 17, 2017
Man About The House: Austin by Gordon Nebeker
Most home owners set up boundaries and rules, especially if they have children. Many of us grew up hearing our mothers telling us to take our feet off the couch, or our fathers telling us that butts don't belong on kitchen counters. We heard endless lectures about how hard they worked to to buy the furniture, and we would understand when we got older and had to pay for things ourselves.
Although there's a place for rules, when the body laying so elegantly on that furniture is model Austin Wild, and the furniture is located in a luxurious Mexican vacation home, I say those rules should be beautifully bent. Earlier this month, I profiled Gordon Nebeker's Mexico shoot with Austin. In that first piece, True Paradise, the focus was on Gordon's shots of Austin outside in the pool and on the grounds of the property.
Gordon sent on so many incredible shots, I saved these shots of Austin inside, to post separately. I have told Gordon a few times, that I think he really needs to put a book together featuring the many models that he has shot spread so erotically over couches, chairs and coffee tables. I have seen many artists shoot models posed on furniture, but none as uniquely exceptional as Gordon's images.
Naked bodies and furniture aren't necessarily two things that always blend together naturally. Often images which weave the two together look overly posed and staged. In Gordon's captures, those naked bodies never looked place, but instead a natural addition to whatever they posing on or with. It is as if the furniture was made for them, instead of something they are utilizing wrongly. If you look at the two images above, you can almost imagine the designer created the chair specifically to best show off Austin's spectacular body.
A reminder that if you're lucky enough to be in the Fort Lauderdale area this week, Gordon's PHOTO EXHIBITION opens tonight at the Broward Art Guild. The exhibition, which features Gordon's journey to Lake Powell, as well as other recent words, including his work with Austin, runs through February 24th. Although Austin won't be there, I hear there are a couple models, previously profiled on FH, who will be tending bar at tonight's opening reception!
A Blizzarding Ballet : Chris Bell by Richard Rothstein
'Snow has always been joyful for me. Surely that sense of joy comes from my childhood. Snow days. Sledding. Wrestling and playing tag with my childhood best friend, Brandy, my boxer.'
I have written many times on FH about my love of snow. I remember watching Gilmore Girls, and a scene of Lorelai Gilmore's reaction to the first snow of the winter and remembered that feeling of magic when the season's first flakes began to fall. Although shoveling out from three storms in the last week has tested that love a little, the visual beauty of the glistening white canvas always finds a way of restoring my love of one of mother natures most breathtaking swaths of her paintbrush.
I certainly am not alone in my love of snow, and artist Richard Rothstein also feels the joy when the flurries start to fly. As many complain about the various obstacles snow creates, Richard does what he usually does with obstacles, making lemonade out the things many are complaining about. Richard has always had the ability to see the beauty in things and place most others ignore.
'There was also something incredibly sensual about snowy nights and dawns, the sound of steam heat, whistling wind, hiding under the blankets with my Superman comics. Yes. I did. Superman was my first lover. I was very talented with no. 2 pencils and erasers. In the 1950’s, a young gay boy had to be inventive in finding and making his own porn. Sear’s catalogs and National Geographic could only go so far and long snowy nights provided hours of cover for sketching an anatomically correct Superman flying faster than a speeding bullet.'
Although I grew up in the 80's, it was still a time before most homes had the internet. I remember as well, many snowy nights snuggling into bed with books, comics and magazines. I spent many snowy nights cutting my favorite images out of magazines and gluing them into scrapbooks, creating books full of tributes to old buildings that I loved, animals, especially wild cats and elephants and of course, celebrities and my favorite TV shows. I had not really thought of until writing this piece, but those scrapbooks, and my displaying and writing about my favorite things, were actually early incarnations of what is now FH.
Some of you might remember the beautiful head of hair, and the incredible body and dance moves of Chris Bell. I profiled Richard's work with the New York actor, model, singer and dancer last year, during the much warmer temperatures of June. (Dance With The Devil)
Richard and Chris headed out into the snow about a half hour before sunrise after last weekends blizzard. Even in the cold snow, Chris brings on the heat with his incredible movements and poses. As he darts between, and hides among the winter tree's, Chris reminds me of a dancing Mr. Tumnus, welcoming us all into a new and magical and snow filled Kingdom.
'I’m also partial to the raw power of winter trees. Perhaps the symbolism is a bit obvious, but the sensuality and eroticism of soaring bark clad “erections” against the pure wet snow is not to be denied. As it turns out, Chris Bell and I share that vision. Together we worked to capture the joy and poetry along with the raw sensuality and eroticism of a naked, raw winters cape. Fortunately, Chris did not suffer any frostbite or splinters.'
Richard Rothstein
'I really love working with Richard. He has an idea of how he wants the shoot to go and allows me to be free as I explore the concept. Richard is also a great conversationalist and really makes me feel comfortable. Some of the best shots in the bunch came while we were chatting about this or that. The ambient temperature that day was not warm but once we started working, the body heats up quickly. The only problem was the snow that was still freezing... which explains the doc martins. I tried going barefoot but my feet soon told me that was not going to work lol, Holding it in my hands and throwing it around was a chilling experience.'
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