'This is how I feel when I travel. Lack of sleep and full speed ahead!'
During my time working on FH, hair has been a recurrent visual theme. It makes perfect sense, hair is important to appearance, and often connected with self esteem. No matter what we look like, or what we wear, hair has the power to totally change how we feel about ourselves, and how we're perceived by others. We also are all attracted to different colors styles and lengths of hair on others. Whether it's the hair on our head, on our body, our face or pubic region, decisions about changing our hair's length and appearance is something we've all faced at one time or another.
The power of hair is extraordinary. Not only to change moods and appearance, but to also alter assumptions. When Lights On Studio's Tom Nakielski sent on his work with 27 year old Kyle Bender, I was instantly struck by his hair. Kyle's facial hair and natty dreads instantly brought forth assumptions. Before however cementing Kyle as a weed smoking, incense burning, nature loving hippy I checked out his full Model Mayhem portfolio.
When I'm featuring one artist's work with a model, I don't usually weave in another photographer's images, but in this case, I thought it important to include an image of Kyle from a few years ago before he grew out his hair and he got his dreads.
Kyle by GWPHOTOGRAPHY
Not only did Tom not mind, he graciously reached out to Gene from GWPHOTOGRAPHY to ensure he was ok we included the shot. Not only did Gene's image of Kyle bust any theories I had about Kyle from only seeing his current look, it's also such a beautiful and striking visual contrast with the images from Tom's recent shoot. Although I didn't ask about weed or incense, it is clear that Kyle does share the nature loving, free spirited traits often associated with a guy with dreadlocks.
dread-ly - (dred-lee)
-Having attitude commonly referred to when a person has dreadlocks; having attitude that give great personal strength or self knowledge due to dreadlocks.
-Description of a person with beautiful, wild, natural or otherwise adored dreadlocks.
'A big passion of mine is traveling and the new experiences that come along with it. Working for a year, travel for a year lifestyle has rewarded me with friends from around the world, learning about different cultures, and seeing beautiful corners of the world. Currently traveling Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and will stop in Australia to flair bartend. See you down under.'
Kyle is currently on his year of travel, hoping to find photographers in Europe, Russia, Asia and Australia to shoot with along the way. Although he does describe himself as laid back and chilled, Kyle is also very adventurous and enjoys skydiving, scuba diving, spinning fire, bartender flaring and participating in Burning Man Events around the world. Kyle's favorite shoots include adventurous and physically challenging concepts and Tom shares that it was Kyle's idea to hang upside down from the rope.
Tom has been enjoying following Kyle on Facebook and reading out his daily exciting experience of making friends at hostels and his travels to Romania, Chernobyl, Auschwitz, France, Poland and Budapest to name a few. Tom says his session was a lot of fun and that Kyle was more than enthusiastic about creating interesting images and offering suggestions about shots and poses. Kyle says many of his creative inspirations for shots comes from his travels and just walking around new cities, towns and beaches and soaking in creative inspiration for his work in front of the camera.
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