Robert John Guttke: Body Sculptures

'He must have painted you from memory... astonishing really!'

I received an e-mail early last month that artist Robert J. Guttke had passed away.  Robert had told me he was ill, had been for awhile, but the news still came as a shock.  I know many of you know Robert's work, and FH viewers knew I was fortunate to have featured his work many times between 2012 and 2018. (HERE:)  Robert was more than a contributor to the site, he began a friend.

I was first connected with Robert back in 2012 when photographer Dylan Rosser asked me to interview him for tMf magazine.  The relationship took awhile too click, Robert didn't trust just anyone with his story, or his work, and was very particular with what was said and presented.  Thankfully, I soon gained his trust and for many years after, contacted me almost daily.

Robert read FH every week, and didn't always like everything I presented and wrote.  He didn't shy away from telling me when I was being lazy, or coitizing certainly models or photographers I was featuring.  I welcomed his feedback, especially about my writing.  Robert was an artist in the true sense of the word.  Known to many as a photographer of the male form, Robert also drew, sculped and wrote.  The quote at the top of this post comes from an episode, When the Blue Bird Sings, from the series Beauty and the Beast that Robert wrote.

Robert was always sending me things.  Not physical things, but things I need to see, things I needed to watch and things I needed to read.  Because of my love of holidays, he sent lists of classic movies that he said I 'needed' to watch for each holiday.  He sent book recommendations, and links to models and photographers he thought I should feature.

Robert also included an image in each of his e-mails, a closing visual just below his signature.  About fifty percent were Robert's own images of the male form.  Many however, were also of the female form, Robert loved body sculptures, regardless of their body parts.  Some of the images were movie posters, book covers, famous sculptures and images he'd taken in London, a place he knew I wanted to visit.  Many were images of his beloved cats, some looking as they were professionally shot.  Most, shot as if taken by a loving pet parent. 

It took me a few weeks to gather images that I felt comfortable including in this piece.  Robert was clear to tell me which photos I might use on FH, and which I could not.  He always told me why.  There were many male models in particular, who shot nudes only for Robert.  They liked his style, and the locations he shot.  Those, Robert didn't want shared.  There were a few from very religious models, who shot strictly to show their girlfriends, or to capture their body at their peak.  Those, I could not share.

Thankfully, although I hadn't saved all of his e-mails, I did save some of my favorite images, and only the ones that were ok to share.  Now Robert's stories were a whole other thing.  Robert shared so many stories about his models.  I remember one about a particular female model who was sleeping with three of the male models he was shooting.  None of the guys  knew, and all came to their shoots sharing stories about the amazing woman they were now seeing and falling in love with.

So many of Robert's stories involved meeting models.   Robert's career began before we were all on-line and connecting via model sites and social media.  Robert met his models the old fashioned way, by going up to strangers, and asking if they'd be up for posing nude.  He did it at gyms, on the street, and his favorite place, in the park.  Robert said there were always hot guys playing sports or running in the park, and it was there, he had the most luck finding models to shoot.

Robert had several places he loved to shoot.  One of his favorites, was a ammo factory where so many of his early shoots took place.  Images of naked men hanging off the sides of buildings, off machinery and old tires.  You can check out some of my favorite shots from the ammo factory on the NEXT PAGE HERE:  

You can also check out my previous posts featuring his work on FH HERE:   Robert's blog, Guttke's Classic Nudes is also still up.  Robert spent house scanning his old film images to add to his site. You can take a look HERE: