I’ve had a very fortunate life, and nothing brings me more joy than to help those not as fortunate.'
One of the benefits of calm and quietude is the ability to really think and reflect. The world around us is really noisy, and louder with each passing year. It is more important than ever, to take time to relax, reflect and really take in what feel, hear, experience and see.
I strive to make FH a site that people struggle to quickly scroll through. I want every post to be special, every image to grab visual focus and attention. I know that's not really possible, but it's one of the reasons I don't just present imagery, but tell the stories behind them.
Last year, one of my favorite stories to tell, and one of the stories that stuck with me, long after I posted, was my December spotlight on Jeff from ShutterClickPhx. Jeff is an artist I'd describe as a cautious contributor to the site. Not reluctant, just not totally comfortable with the promotional and commercial components associated with art. Jeff loves that others enjoy his work, he's just not incredibly interested in self-promotion.
Jeff's is more than fine with the models he works with sharing his images, and has always been enthusiastic with helping out with my posts. I think Jeff shares the 'If you built it, they will come' philosophy, in that if that work is substantial, it will be seen. Given this, I'm even more grateful he's been supportive with my posts, and with sharing his philosophy and stories.
Last December, I asked Jeff about doing a piece featuring some of his favorite images. Jeff sent on so many great choices, I divided the piece into two parts. (HERE: & HERE:) Because of how much I loved both the images, and the words Jeff shared, this year, I wanted to hark back to the piece and link to the story for anyone that missed it.
I contacted Jeff about possibly sharing a few additional favorite shots to add to the post when I linked back to the story. As he did last year, Jeff sent back over 50 shots for me to choose from. The focus of the favorites, evident from the images, was full facial portraits. I think it's actually a bit easier to skim by bodies than faces. Our bodies may differ in size and shape, but the configuration is basically the same.
Faces and heads though, have so many facet differentiations. In addition to the overall facial structure, lips, ears and noses are different sizes and shapes, not to mention hair color, length and style. Then of course there's the eyes. With each of these images, it was the eyes that drew me in.
I'm always first drawn to eyes and faces, bodies come in a distant second. I've seen so many impressive bodies, hot butts and pleasing penis in photographs, but they all run together without a great face to go with them. Those eyes, that face, share more about the man than any other part of the body. Equally, these portraits also share much more about the artist.
No comments:
Post a Comment