'I love to shoot the nude form in nature. Is there anywhere else, that is more beautiful?'
I so many fairy tales and children's stories, the forest is often depicted as a dangerous place. A scary, dark and shadowed filled maze of bushes and tree's, with wolves, witches and ogre's waiting to pounce and devour us. In truth, forest can be dangerous and many bad things have occurred inside them.
Because they can be so vast and secluded, people have gotten lost, and many bodies have been found within the woodlands. Although you're not likely to come upon a witch or a dragon, you just might meet a wolf, a coyote or a snake. Less scary, yet also dangerous, are the insects and ticks that are just waiting to fasten to your flesh.
For so many of us however, especially in the gay community, the woods are not only a safe space, but a sanctuary. When I was a kid, and things got rough at home, I headed into the woods. I'd run through the tree's until exhausted, then sit by the lake for hours. I had my first cigarette, stolen from my mother's pack, in the woods. I had my first sip of alcohol, lemon gin, (barf) in the woods.
The woods is also intrinsically connected with sexuality and sex. I have a vivid memory as a kid, heading into the woods with some of my friends. One of them had stolen a Playboy from their dad, and it was in the woods we went to check it out. I also remember a few games of 'I'll show you mine, if you show me yours' in a secluded place in the forest.
It's also part of the culture and history of gay men, that the woods, were a place they could safely go to meet up and have sex. Although men still meet up in the forest, the risk factor have changed. There was time, when being gay could get you put in jail, or even killed, that the woods was one of the safer spots to be yourself and connect, with others.
It makes sense then, that many photographers head outside, and into the forest, to shoot the nude male form. There are other reason of course, nature is a brilliant, and less expensive, studio space. Even in the forest, if you find just the right space, you can utilize the natural light from the sun. The backgrounds beat the hell out of anything you can find in a studio, and the brilliant colors, act to accentuate the natural beauty of the male form.
One of my favorite photographers of the nude male form in nature is Dave Larson. (takeapic4u) I have been featuring the Iowa based artist's work since 2016, and most of the shoots I've featured were shot in the great outdoors. (HERE:) During a recent visit to Dave's portfolio, I noticed many of his shots, and many of his models, that I hadn't featured before. I asked Dave if I choose some of my favorites to put together for a post. As you can see, Dave agreed, and also answered some of my questions about his photos from the forest.
Shooting outside in the woods, you must have struggled with weather, maybe animals and insects, poison Ivy. Any stories?
There is always a threat of weather, so plan alternate dates for rain or whatever, but mostly haven’t had too much trouble. My favorite photo series is what I call “Dirty Nature”. It is tongue in cheek and includes beautiful models that are all dirty/muddy and natural settings. It started with a college aged model, early 20’s that I had done High School Sr. pics for and had wanted to get into modeling. We decided to do the standard set of photos to start his portfolio. Dress clothes, casual clothes, swimwear, underwear and some nudes. We shot the swimwear along the river and then moved to nudes and he took off the trunks and stepped into mud up to about his knee. Dang it! Didn’t plan on that.
Instead of stepping back and into the water to wash it off, he took another step in and started to slowly smear the mud over his well-defined, lean body. Over his torso and on his face the mud was spread. As it started to dry in the warm sunshine, it started to turn shades of grey and gave the appearance of a sculpture. I let him continue with this unscripted portion of the shoot and didn’t know what we were creating, but knew it felt interesting. The series/creativity grew from that moment and since then a lot of people have enjoyed the results. And to my surprise, he shared the photos, all of them with his mom of all people and she loved the nudes of her son covered in mud and looking like an artifact of a statue garden in a far away place. Gotta love it when mom loves it.
Have you ever been spotted by people passing by or hikers while shooting a nude model?
It is always on my mind to avoid passers-by. Although I have zero shame about what I see as the art we are creating, I do focus on where we are and what we are doing as to not create attention. Some would be offended, and the last thing I want is to negatively impact ANYONE doing these photos.
There was a time I was shooting a model in Des Moines in the river. We were in a quite secluded spot that he had picked. I knew nothing about Des Moines locations. We had shot for a couple of hours, all nudes, mud, the whole ball of wax, and he was in the river bathing it off as I was snapping more photos, when out of nowhere a whole canoe of older ladies floated up! He was in about waist deep water and facing away from me…you probably know the photo already, its one of my all time favorites. I don’t think it took them much time to realize he wasn’t wearing swim trunks and they smiled, waved and laughed as they rounded the next bend. I laughed and he smiled and shook his head. I could see he was bright red through the mud on his face. Ha.
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