Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Long Stemmed: Junior by Andrew Bowman


'I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.'
Vincent van Gogh


Anyone who's battled anxiety knows the first thing professionals tell you to do is to take a few deep breaths, and go to your happy place.   Your happy place can be anywhere really, but it should be a specific place you can easily bring to mind when needed.  Some people contemplate kittens or puppies, or goat and lambs frolicking in a barnyard.  Most people however, have a very specific place in mind, a place they love to return to again and again.


Like so many others, mine includes water, beaches are very popular contemplation places.  When ever I need, my beach is there, the water is rough, but I'm safely high above in a vast field of wild flowers and sunflowers overlooking the waves crashing in.  It's a dark day, not rainy, but a storm in definitely brewing.  I guess it's that calm before the storm that makes the location so comforting, at least for the moments I need it to be so.


My happy place of course also features a favorite hunk, rugged and shirtless, walking towards me on the sand.  Unlike the water and sunflowers which are fixed, and always there the hunk, well he changes, depending on my mood.  Ever since first seeing his images on Model Mayhem a few years ago, Junior's often popped up on that beach, and now, thanks to Andrew Bowman, he's carrying a bouquet of long stemmed sunflowers to the one awaiting in the field above.


I can't tell you how many times I've virtually traveled to my happy place, contemplating my chosen visuals when nervous or afraid.  So many times when I've been sitting in a doctor's waiting room, moments before giving a presentation, or sitting nervously before a big event or meeting with my supervisor.  It never fails to invoke comfort, even if just momentarily.


Andrew shares that Junior, (a name which really doesn't apply....) was very comfortable handling his long stem, and that for this shoot, the choice of flower was actually pretty random.  Although the sunflowers, and their vibrant yellows weren't necessarily planned, Andrew especially loved how beautiful the sunflowers looks against Juniors skin tone. Check out Andrew's work another model with sunflowers, Giuliano HERE:

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