Favorite Pic of the Day for November 4th

Above:

Nicko by Shax Carter

-See More Below-

Happy Birthday today November 4th

Happy 41st to model and actor Travis Van Winkle!

Check out more of Travis on FH HERE: & More of today's Birthdays HERE:

Travis in You

Eliminated:

I'm really behind on my television watching, but starting to catch up.  This week, I finally got caught up with the Amazing Race, but binging can be heartbreaking.  One by one, I watched some of my favorite teams lose.  First Jocelyn and Victor, then Joe and Ian, and this last week, Phil told the Hykel brothers that they had been eliminated. 

I was sad to see Liam & Yeremi leave, both were tough competitors, and seemed like really decent guys.  They are also both very cute.  Yeremi has done some modeling, but they are both very photogenic.  I still have my Disney Prince to watch and root for, but worried the next time I binge, he'll be one as well.  Maybe it's time to stop binging and just check out the spoilers.  Not as fun, but easier, and less of a roller coaster. 

Yeremi

 

Captain Englehorn

'That's the thing about cockroaches. No matter how many times you flushed them down the toilet, they always crawl back up the bowl.'

Captain Englehorn 

I had planned during my King Kong to feature actors from both the 1933, and the 2005 adaptations from the films.  For the 1933 version, the choice was easy, it was going to be actor Bruce Cabot who played John Driscoll.  For the 2005 version, the choice was harder.  There were a lot of great, and a lot of hot actors in the film.  The male cast included; Jack Black, Jamie Bell, Adrien Brody and Colin Hanks. 

My favorite actor in the film however, wasn't it's John Driscoll, but it's Captain Englehorn, played by German actor Thomas Kretschmann.  I've always found Kretschmann incredibly hot, ever since seeing clips from his early nude scenes posted on various sites and forms.  The actor made Captain Englehorn also one of the films most interesting characters.  The character could easily have blended into the background, but not the hands of the talented  Kretschmann.

Actor and former model Kretschmann has about a half a dozen films on his nude scene resume, most from early in his career.  It was difficult to choose a favorite, but thanks to poster Alberto on DreamCap, the choice was made a little easier. 

I was searching for some of the movies with the scenes, but good quality copies were difficult to find.  Thanks to Alberto post, I discovered his caps from Kretschmann;s turn in the 1995 Italian film, Marciando nel buio. (Marching in Darkness) Thanks also to xyzpdq, who had an old clip of the scene.

Marciando nel buio (1995)

'A young recruit to the Italian army discovers and rejects the seedy world of soldiers who prostitute themselves to supplement their income. But before leaving this world he is raped by a highly-respected senior officer  and must decide whether to risk bringing proceedings against him.'

Unbridled in his Element: Nicko by Shax Carter

When I asked photographer Shax Carter about featuring his work with Nicko, and the book he created, he sent on over 100 shots from the book to choose from.  These shots are some of my favorites, but they're also some of the tamer shots.  If you check out Nicko, then..., you'll see that Shax doesn't hold back, showcasing Nicko and his scene partners, in a visually beautiful and raw portrait of Nicko. Of course, I had some questions, about Nicko, about the shooting process, and about the images.  

What about his look did you first notice that drew you to want to shoot him? 

Nicko is rather tall and has sporty swimmer vibe. He could have easily been plucked from the beaches of southern California. He often had a stern look, but at the same time had a very playful attitude.

Had Nicko had much previous experience shooting nude? 

Nicko was fairly well established as a model by the time I first had the chance to work with him and he was comfortable with nude photography. He and I got along very well and I ended up working with him about eight times. 

Was a book in your mind when you shot, or did that come up after the shoot? 

The book was an afterthought, an attempt to showcase what I consider to be a definitive collection of Nicko's work with me. I just recently did a multi-day photo shoot with another model, which will be the first that was designed with the purpose of a book being the end result. 

Did you have much discussion with Nicko about what you hoped to capture? 

Yes, for each shoot that we did together, there was discussion beforehand about what the hopes for achievement were. One great things about Nicko is that he has the ability and ambition to always deliver great work as a model. 

Did Nicko have any boundaries or themes he voiced not wanting to shoot or go beyond? 

I have always found Nicko to be curious, as well as pretty daring and ambitious, and he was always up for a challenge. 

Was the other model a stranger to Nicko or had they known each other before? 

Nicko has worked both on his own and with other models. As I mentioned earlier, these models all knew each other outside of work and often ran around together. It was quite easy for them to work together as well as separately. 

Any comments or stories from the shoot itself? 

Often when we worked together it was more like a vacation than an actual work environment. The shoots would be during a block of time over multiple days and oftentimes the models and certainly Nicko would just hang out the entire time before and/or after his shoot. 

What was your favorite part about Nicko that you enjoyed working with? 

My favorite thing about Nicko was his positive attitude, outgoing manner, and high level of work ability. He always knew where the camera was and how to maneuver the best pose for it. 

Did you have a favorite shot, or favorite theme that you captured? 

I really love the shot that is on the cover of the book, and that particular photo session, we had the most fun with it.

'These are older works, and the photographic quality changes periodically throughout. Additionally, I experimented with the use of mixed media to a certain degree, to help capture Nicko unbridled in his element.'

'Nicko has now retired as a model.  We have kept in contact over the years, and he has been interested and agreed to do another photo shoot. Despite scheduling it several times, it has always run into a last minute conflict of schedule, and had to be postponed. I do hope that someday it will come together and we can further his body of work. I think he looks even better now, than when we did our original sets of work together!'

Nicko, then... on Blurb