'The goal for the shoot was to give Dex a few different looks to update his portfolio. We did the dressed look then took each of those looks further to nudes.'
FH readers know how much I love a reveal. It's my personal belief that's it's not possible to truly appreciate the beauty of the nude male form without first seeing it dressed. I know many of you might disagree, and that we all have seen images of a nude model and more than appreciated the visual. I'm not sure though, that an image, or a model, can really been seen in it's entirety, without a little clothing context.
We all enjoy final outcomes, a fully cooked dinner, a bouquet of flowers. But dealing in only final outcomes is sometimes less than satisfying. Sure, I love going to restaurants, but I don't think I truly started appreciating what makes a good meal, until I learned how to cook. Seeing something in it's entirety, at least for me, is far more gratifying than just seeing the end result.
For photographers of the nude male form, the end result is of course, an image of a nude male model. I've always been fascinated to hear photographers describe how they reach that end result. For some photographers, there's little finesse. Their expectation is that the model come in, get naked, then pose as they snap away. I featured many artists who work this way, and often, the results are spectacular.
Their process however, doesn't often lead to interesting stories, and process and story are why I continue to love working on FH. I suspect and appreciate that's it's the reason that many of you continue to come back to the site. I'm keenly aware that in many ways, FH is a little antiquated. Blogs became out dated almost as soon as they became popular. At the same time, this site had more viewers this past year than in the last few years combined. So many sites, most notably tumblr, sites where images of nude bodies can be uploaded in mass, have come and gone quickly during the time since FH began.
I've explored the theme of reveal many times before on the site. It was again however, brought front and center, when Jim from Studio1x shared his goals going into his shoot with Dex, Jim shot Dex in several different looks, each starting with distinctive shirt or sweater. In the thousands of images that Jim sent on, over half were Dex fully clothed. The remainder of the images consisted of shot of Dex disrobing with the final shots being the full nudes.
When I was choosing images, I found it easy it pick my favorite nudes. My struggles with choice, were with the images of a dressed Dex. I like to organize most model features to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning is of course the clothed and portrait shots of the models. This makes them the introduction to the model and to the shoot. It is the impact of that beginning, that motivates the viewer to want to scroll down to the middle and to the reveal.
Since I often post the final reveal on 'the next page', the beginning is crucial in ensuring as many people as possible want to get to the end. I know from the stats for the site, not everyone who views the first part of a post, clicks on that link to see the second part on the next page. It's mainly about the model and the images of course, but I think for some, it's also about story. Did the introduction, the clothed shots, tempt them to want so see and read more.
I know, that when I saw an image of Dex on Jim's Instagram page, I wanted to see and learn more. Dex has a great body for sure, but it wasn't just his hot body that seduced me in. I was drawn to Dex's face and especially his eyes. There was something about his look, his gaze, that had me wanting to see and learn more.
I'm not sure if the first images I saw of Dex would have had the same impact. I'm not sure I would have spent as much time looking at his face, looking into his eyes and having my curiosity peaked.... I also loved Dex's choice of sweaters, especially the black one, which I've been looking for on-line. I course also wanted to see Dex rip that sweater off, and see what was underneath. If you had a similar reaction, by now you know the drill. Check out more of Jim's work with Dex on the NEXT PAGE HERE:
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