Above:
Chaz by Robert John Guttke
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Sunday, October 14, 2018
Standing Naked: Chaz by Robert John Guttke
'I have the knowledge I can stand naked in front of a group of people without being embarrassed. Useful for a porn career.'
Chaz
Being naked is one thing, but standing naked is something different entirely. For most of us, being naked in public is something we maneuver our way through. We're forced as kids to figure out our way around a locker room, a doctors office, even mooning from a car, or streaking across a football field. Standing naked however, completely still for a camera, a discerning artist or photographer, or a class room full of art students is an entirely different matter.
It can especially intimidating if that artist is Robert John Guttke. Robert is not just a photographer, but an artist who has spent his life capturing, drawing, sculpting and writing about the male form. He knows how best to light it, to pose it, to shoot it, to present it. Robert's goal is not only about how to best present the model in front of him, but to showcase his incredible skill and eye for beauty within the images he captures and releases.
There are some photographers who allow a model to hide, to shield who they are behind costumes, themes and Photoshop. Some allow a model to fade behind a large penis or another body in focus. Robert is not one of those artist. The Minneapolis based artist has been creating his entire life and doesn't have the time or patience for models who need to hide. Given the locations Robert often shoots in, and some of the theme and water elements used, standing still could be the least of your worries...
Robert and Chaz first connected in June of 1985. Chaz was just moving to Minneapolis an was at a gym when he saw a poster that Robert had put up where he was looking for models. Chaz remembers that the poster had a image on it of one of Robert's sculptures, one he recognized from Heavy Metal magazine.
'Soooo., I went over to his house and took off my clothes for him. He told me to do more sit-ups! I did my first shoot for him a few months later, in August or September of '85. I've been doing photo shoots with him on and off ever since. He was one of the first people I met in Minneapolis.'
I have been interested in featuring Robert's work for awhile now. In many of our conversations about photography, and communicating about pieces for FH, Chaz's name would come up. Having worked together so frequently over the years, an artistic alliance of sorts had developed with Robert often using his work with Chaz to work on new ideas and concepts as well as the development of an incredible visual scrapbook of Chaz's looks and incredible body over his over three decades in front of Robert's camera.
'Chaz was responsible for showing me the wonderful amo factory. I also had a unique shoot with him at a warehouse with BEAUTIFUL light- then the damn place was torn down. So Chaz owns that location and the light.'
As you can see, especially in the images above, Chaz has nailed down that standing naked thing. He got a lot of practice modeling for art classes in college (in a speedo at first as his college didn't let males pose nude, only the females) When Chaz moved to Minneapolis, he posed for one of the Classical Realist schools, which entailed standing in a specific pose for months at a time and remembers that most models who work for them ended up with back problems from having to maintain poses for so long.
The job did have a few unexpected drawbacks. Chaz remembers many of the students were recently divorced women. Some of them were still transitioning through a period of hating all men. Others however, were ready and eager to interact (in a variety of different ways...) with the hot model standing naked in front of them. Unlike when posing for Robert, standing naked for this particular audience came with an entirely different set of hazards and risks.
'I remember my final day on that job: I went into the classroom to start the session and the students (all female) had put up Playboy centerfolds on the backs of their easels- the idea of course, to see if they could get the model erect. . The students, who had discussed sexism often over the course of the class, were now doing exactly what they complained men did to them. I told them all that the class would not start until the photos were taken down. In between giggling, the centerfold did come down.'
Chaz 2018
Horror Hunks: Landon Liboiron in Hemlock Grove
I first noticed actor Landon Liboiron back in 2010 when he was appearing on Degrassi: The Next Generation. The Canadian born Liboiron has such beautiful eyes and his distinctive face comes form his Polish (from his paternal grandmother), French-Canadian, German, and Swiss-German descent.
The Howling Reborn (2011)
I next noticed Liboiron in 2011's The Howling Reborn and although his character Will wore glasses, they only added to the actor's sex appeal. Although he appeared shirtless in the film, unlike his werewolf predecessors like David Naughton (HERE:) in An American Werewolf in London, there were no naked runs through the forests, parks or zoos.
But... we needn't have worried. Liboiron went on to play another werewolf a few years later. Liboiron played Peter on the Netflix series Hemlock Grove and this time...there were many opportunities for our wolf to be wear-less.
Hemlock Grove (2013-2015)
Hemlock Grove clip SOMS
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