Summer Rewind: Ethan by New Manhattan Studios

'Our new photo essay, Ethan, captures the college student on summer breaks in the Berkshires of western New England. He traveled up from New York City with the studio's assistant, Alex, and spent a number of weekends in the country as a model and assistant.'

Wes, NMS

The end of September and first part of October can be seasonally confusing. This past week, some parts of Canada and the Northern US are holding onto summer, some are full into fall, and others have already had record breaking one day dumps of snow.  It's also a confusing time on FH., especially when choosing seasonal themed images. Autumn hasn't quite reached it's peak, it's a wee bit early for Halloween shots, and there are still the days when the sun's warmth feels like summer hitting your skin.  

Today, is definitely one of those summer feeling days. This past summer, in mid-August, while checking out the New Manhattan Studios Instagram page, I was captivated by one of Wes' shots of Ethan.  Ethan has the most beautifully angelic face and such beautiful eyes that express both a sweetness along with maybe a slight hint of sadness.  I of course had to ask Wes to see more. Although Wes was supportive of my featuring his work with Ethan, he explained that he had only dipped into his gallery while looking for summer art to use on Instagram and asked for time to return to the long-forgotten folder.

Upon revisiting the 6-year-old session, Wes found not only a number of new images to edit exclusively for FH, but decided also to craft a new publication to accompany the feature. Time sped by quickly though and although the piece began during the dog days of summer, seasons changed, and it was just this week, with fall in now in full swing, that I was able to sit down and start piecing the story together.

Now anyone who watches TV knows most shows, both sitcoms and drama,at one time or another, do a backwards episode.  You know the episodes I mean, the show begins showing viewers a crazy ending, then proceed to flashback to scenes which explain how everything ended the way it did. 

Now Ethan's story certainly hasn't ended, but the images you're enjoying are from the end his work with NMS,  a summer which which included several shoots over the course of one Summer in New England.. Although I wouldn't say the last shoot, nor the first one, was necessarily crazy, there were some interesting twists and turns along the way.

You'll have to wait until Part 2 to get all the details of how things started, but lets just say this set of images, shot in The Berkshires, came together thanks to NMS's Alex, who had just weeks before, connected with Ethan on Facebook. At the time,  Alex was still fairly new to the studio, had already found his place and was an invaluable support to Wes. 

Alex was not only modeling, but also assisting Wes behind the scenes in a variety of roles from production assistant to helping recruit new models..  Wes had a scheduled trip to Fire Island, with the goal to not only shoot, but scout for new models.  At the time, neither Alex or Ethan had been to the Island before, and both jumped at the chance to head out to the island and assist Wes on his hunt to find new models to work for the studio.

When they headed out to the Island, early one mid-June Saturday morning, Ethan had absolutely no plans to model, or how the day would end.  For Ethan, joining his new friend and his boss on Fire Island, just sounded like a fun adventure. The New York college student may not have intended to strip off his clothes, (at least not for a photographer's camera...) and spend the day posing on the beach, unforeseen circumstances meant that's exactly what ended up happening.  Although I skipped to Summer's end and began with Ethan's August shoot, we'll head back to June, and to Fire Island, next week!

Ethan's portfolio was one of the original galleries on the New Manhattan Studios site. Ethan also made an appearance in one of Wes' first books, and his art nudes have long been available in the Art Prints galleries.  Wes says however, that they held back from heavily promoting their work with the 20-year-old out of deference to his privacy given Ethan's decision not to pursue modeling. 

Six years later, Wes feels it's time to bring broader attention to the images, and his work with the striking young model.  This includes a new book Ethan, just released on Blurb.  Check out the preview HERE: 

All Things Ethan on New Manhattan Studios