'With no idea of what to expect, we were heading to southeastern Pennsylvania with three New York City models (Alex, Bond, Oleks). Although they were abounding with enthusiasm, none had a farm background. One grew up in an apartment building in the Ukraine, one was from the suburbs of Buffalo and another from Metropolitan New York.'
Over the last four years, FH readers have come to know, and come to look forward to, NMS (New Manhattan Studios) work with the charming and sexy Bond. As surprising as it may seem now, it wasn't Bond, nor was it fellow FH favorite Alex, that had me first initiate contact with NMS' Wes. It was actually images of another model, Drew (An Empowering Process) that inspired me to first reach out back in 2012.
Why the history lesson with Drew, well it all ties to the images featured here. Although Wes's work with Drew was the first NMS shoot that I featured, as soon as we began communicating, the New York based photographer, he was already thinking about possible future collaborations. Wes was eager to share his work with Alex, and very quickly, the studio's images, most notably shoots featuring Alex, became regular highlights for myself and FH viewers.
I remember getting an e-mail from Wes a short time later. He was excited about a new model that he had just recently shot. That model was Bond. Bond made his FH debut back in 2014. (Those Who Wait). The Halloween themed shoot wasn't however, Bond's first time shooting with the studio. They also were not, the first shots of Bond that I'd seen. The first images of Bond that Wes had shared, were from Lancaster County, a shoot from earlier in the summer. Below are a few comments from Wes introducing me to Bond.
Alex & Bond
''Bond is a real sweetheart and a delight to work with. He's a natural, and is slowing easing into modeling. When we met in January., he was a little timid about doing full-on nudes, but he quickly got past that during our third session together. We did some very classic/formal looking work with a white scarf. Once he knew that we were doing art, not porn, he opened up and was incredibly relaxed on the Lancaster shoot.'
Wes, NMS (2014)
After seeing a half a dozen shoots from the farm shoot, I immediately began to bug Wes about featuring the series on the site. Not only did I want to feature Bond and Alex, I also was hoping to introduce the third model Oleks, to FH viewers. Wes was on board, but due to various circumstance, we decided to wait and instead, introduce Bond onto the site with a solo shoot with just Bond in focus.
Although Lancaster County was put on hold, I still had hope that we'd be able to feature the shoot down the road. We'll, five years later, we're well down the road. Last summer, in part due to Bond's work with NMS heading towards a finale, Wes headed back into the archives and chose his favorite images from the shoot to compile in a new photo essay book featuring the images from Lancaster County.
'The publication of Lancaster County has been a long time in coming. The images were to have been part of a much larger series of men and horses but those ambitions ultimately waylaid the project. With access to a working stable in Pennsylvania, we had quickly arranged an out-of-town, overnight “shoot with horses” and three of our top models.'
'I particularly enjoyed watching the guys compete with each other throughout the weekend. The shots of Alex and Bond doing chin-ups was not staged (except to turn them around for a second shot).'
'Featuring three of the studio’s most popular models, several of the images have been released over the years as individual shots but until now they have never been presented as the set that they are. In addition, Lancaster County includes many newly-edited and explicit images never before released.'
'After all these years it has been fun being back in the Lancaster folder. It contains my favorite photo of one of my favorite models, Bond. He had begun modeling six months earlier and he’d only finished his second session when we invited him to join us on a horse farm. He immediately accepted, eager to work with horses. His boyish demeanor and reserve at the shoot masked his maturing self-image as a model and it was not until I was back in New York and viewing the session on my large screen that I recognized his potential. When I encountered the shot of him at the barn door, I realized that he had fully grown into the role; he radiated a confidence that had not been there before.'
'It's been years arriving, but here's a happy backwards look at some of our earlier work and favorite models: Alex, Bond and Oleks. While images from this session featuring individual models has been released in the past, this is the first time most of these images have been presented, and the first time as a set in a 56-page photo essay, which you can check out HERE:
If you want to see the three urban cowboys out of their plaid, denim and chaps—and who doesn't?—head on over to the next page. In part two, the guys are not just petting, feeding and working with the horses, but riding them as well, Lady Godvia style of course! Check out PART 2 HERE:
Check out order you're own copy of Lancaster County on New Manhattan Studios HERE:
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