"What's your bedtime story?" was the question put to the men on these pages, to be interpreted by each in their own way... Fact or fiction, these are the stories they shared. Only they know if this represents their real self, or maybe an alter ego...
Mark, studioMGphotography
FH readers, especially those who love the work studioMGphotography, recognize the mattress room. The mattresses and room has been a favorite location of Mark's for awhile and has shown up in several previous pieces featuring Mark's work on FH. Finding the location began purely by accident, the day Mark was shooting a model FH readers know well, Bond.
'Bond and I were out exploring at an old Army base. I was amazed by his incredible easy going personality, boundless energy, and of course beautiful body. He'd already commented that he'd never spend so much time naked (it was a long day or exploring and shooting). Late afternoon and the light is low and reaching into the old barracks. We did some shooting with graffiti on the ground floor then set out to see the upper floors. Finding the mattresses Bond started jumping on them like a gleeful kid. Winded after a while he laid down on his back, spread eagle, to cool off... I kept shooting and Bedtime Stories was born...'
Since that first shoot in the room with Bond, (above) Mark has been drawn back to the location many times, bringing dozens of models along to play on the mattresses. The room was on the third floor of a concrete barracks building, with maybe 40 rooms per floor. Two staircases connected everything, and on each floor there was a locker room style toilet and shower area in the middle of the building. Mark typically began his shoots by simply introducing guys the room,which he shares was less than impressive upon first site. Abandoned for over 20 years, it was dusty and grimy with broken desks thrown around, torn curtains and of course all those mattresses.
Mark noted that there were three different mattress designs, one with dark pinstripes he assumes was military issue. The others looked like they may have been purchased on sale by the Army, with wide pink and blue stripes or with huge flowers. Mark would tell models that their first decision was about how they wanted to stage their shoot,picking a mattress and deciding what they wanted to do with them.
Mark has been working on a book featuring the location for awhile, but it took a bit of time to put things together narrow down from the hundreds of images of the many models that he shot at the location. Bedtime Stories is finally ready with 119 pages, and over 160 photographs of featuring explicit content and full nudity with 40 different guys including many, (Bond, Yorgen, Renn, Anton, Andrew, Gabriel, Angel, Nathan, Jayk and John) FH readers have already come to know and enjoy.
'The 40 guys really cover a wonderful range of manhood... The age range is 18-48. Unintentionally I think I hit pretty much every ethnicity. There are gay, bi and straight boys. There are long haired boys and shaved heads. Blonds, brunettes, black hair, and a ginger... Professionally they are all across the board too; Dancers, students, engineers, a rocket scientist, a photographer, medical professionals, waiters & bartenders, personal trainers, a gardener, a military man... Some were fairly modest while others appears to not have a single inhibition. For several this was their first time in front of the camera, while others have modeled extensively.'
Largely, the look and feel of the images Mark captured were created by the models themselves. Mark would introduce the location, then, encourage them to do as the pleased, to get creative and enjoy themselves. Occasionally Mark brought a prop or two, and a few models brought along stuff themselves, but mostly, it was jut them, the room and the mattresses. Given the book's theme was Bedtime Stories, I asked Mark to share a few stories of his own from his time shooting in the location.
'One reason "our" room survived in the same condition for several years is that one of my early models was friends with a team of graffiti artists who were busily painting and tagging the buildings. He asked them to leave that room alone as it was being used for an art project as is. Whether it was his request, or the graffiti artists got bored, but the room was left alone..
One time a model and I could hear college kids coming up the stairs and then turning our direction on the central hallway. I popped out into the hall in front of them, giving them quite a shock since they didn't know we were there. I'm carrying the camera and giving them a "heads up" that there's a photo shoot happening here. About then the model also pops into the hallway, obviously still pulling his clothes on. The kids said "cool" and quickly kept moving down the hall!'
'Twice models brought their significant others along. A straight boy's girlfriend sat behind me quietly watching the shoot. Once or twice she'd make a comment (she modeled for a living), or swoop in during a break and touch up his makeup. It was one of the more erotic shoots to begin with and at one point after he'd been playing with himself for a while he locked eyes with her and jacked off. So focused on what he was doing I have no idea what might have been happening behind me!
Another surprise guest was a models boyfriend. This was already a duo shoot between two models who were not a couple, but knew each other well, if you catch my drift. They too had a pretty steamy shoot, all while the boyfriend sat in the corner of the room totally ignoring the shoot and playing video games on his phone.'
If you want to order, or check out more preview shots from Bedtime Stories check out
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