'When we arrived on Fire Island, we headed directly to the house in Cherry Grove that we used as our base. The boys practiced their recruitment pitches while changing clothes and we took off for the beach in search of models.'
Last weekend, I introduced FH readers to New Manhattan Studio's work with Ethan. (Summer Rewind). As I noted in the piece, I chose to began at the end of the summer, with Wes' August shoot with Ethan in The Berkshires. Ethan's journey to modeling however, was exactly mapped out or panned. It began earlier in the summer, with NMS's Alex connected Staten Island college student on Facebook.
'Alex and I had been working together for about a year when we decided to head out to Fire Island to see if we could recruit any new models for the studio from the beaches and boardwalks. We would recruit in the morning for a photo session in the afternoon. Alex asked Ethan to join us, and since neither young man had ever been to Fire Island, each jumped at the chance to head out there on a Saturday morning in mid-June.'
'Landing on Fire Island for the first time is a rite of passage in New York’s gay community. After a couple of hours in the car and a ferry ride from Long Island, the dock lined with rainbow flags signals that you’ve arrived in Oz. There are two sizeable gay communities (out of many) on the 25-mile long barrier island: Cherry Grove and The Pines. They are separated by more than a mile of wild dunes.
'It was early in the season and the beaches were still lightly populated at this hour; finding potential models was harder than anticipated. As we passed through the unmarked but well-known area between the Grove and the Pines, the few people on the nude beach were people you didn’t want to see on a nude beach. Still, it was Fire Island and there were a number of attractive men out and about that Saturday morning. To draw attention to our effort, we began shooting Alex and Ethan, frolicking in the surf.'
'The recruitment pitch was an abject failure, however. Each person Alex and Ethan approached quickly rebuffed them. I was struck by how swiftly and resoundingly they were striking out. After walking the length of the beach between the two communities, we left the beach and headed into The Pines for lunch. Walking the boardwalks we discovered that we were not alone in our attempts to recruit models. Every other post seemed to sport a flyer for a major porn production company, post cards were everywhere, recruiting models for a video being shot on the island that weekend.'
No wonder Alex and Ethan's solicitations were being so quickly rebuffed! At lunch, Wes sat down to reassess his goals for the day. In the end, he decided it was best to abandon the recruitment effort. To salvage the trip however, and the fact he had his camera, a great location to shoot, the decision was made that Alex would be the focus, and model for the day.
'Fire Island’s notorious Meat Rack, where most of these photos were shot, wends through a wild stretch of sandy dunes and dense scrub brush between the two gay communities on the island. It’s about a mile of winding paths leading through at-times dense overgrowth.'
'Without being graphic, it is possible to see just about anything along the Meat Rack; it’s an open-air carnival of cruising and sex alfresco, day and night. It’s also a physically attractive area, largely desolate and starkly beautiful. It is a perfect venue for shooting our type of work.'
'We found a pleasant glade just off the path. When Alex began posing with a tree trunk he attracted a small audience of appreciative onlookers. Traffic through the rack was light that afternoon but there were curious passers-by. Some kept on moving along the path as if embarrassed by the unexpected nudity, most noticeably slowed their gait to enjoy the passing view, some stopped to watch the nude model at work. One appreciative onlooker was Ethan. When he saw how much fun Alex was having as a model, he decided he wanted to get in on the action, too.'
'And thus came to pass Ethan’s first modeling session. It would not be his last. The boys left the island that night with memories of modeling in the surf and dunes and hundreds of photos documenting their first trip to Fire Island.'
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:
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