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Leo by Shax Carter
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Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Ball Gowns & Bare Boys
Earlier this year, I did a piece on the mash-up of sequin and skin, genitals and glitter, and the lengthy connection between the nude male form and drag queens. (HERE:) I followed that up with a piece with a post spotlighting how drag queens often also host amateur nights at male strip clubs. (HERE:)
I love the cmnm aspect of drag queens with strippers, and saved more from this series, to feature later. I believe these are from a few years ago from a male strip club in London, but wasn't able to find much more. I wish I knew the club, and if their amateur nights were a regular occurrences, as there might be more great shots to discover and share.
Horror Hunks: Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter
'A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.'
I've always loved horror movies, even when they scared the shit of out me as a kid. Lately however, some of my favorites have been classics. Although horror flicks from the 70's tend to be my favorites, I love the dark and gothic feel, regardless of the decade, a great scare is timeless. Over the last few years, I've loved watching Mario Cantone and Ben Mankiewicz and their creepy cinema series on TCM.
Last year, I caught part of 1955's The Night of the Hunter, and made a point to find and watch the full movie. It's interesting to me how many classic films I love feature the same actors. The Night of the Hunter includes two actors, Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters, who seem to appear in many of my favorite older films. I really didn't know much about Mitchum, but crushed hard after seeing him on TCM in th Christmas film, A Holiday Affair. (which I featured HERE:) Shelley Winters has popped up in many films, some with scenes of male skin, that I've featured on FH. (HERE:)
Mitchum, much like he was in Cape Fear, is pure evil in this flick. Terrorizing and murdering widows for whatever cash they might have hidden in their cookie jars. Shelley Winters doesn't have any cash, but her kids do. Their father gave them money to hide after a robbery, and Mitchum's Harry Powell know it. He finds the family, marries his way in, then stalks and terrorizes them looking for the cash.
Mitchum is sinisterly sexy, and the entire cast is great. Child actor Billy Chapin, who plays young John Harper, is especially good. Although I'd heard of Lillian Gish, from her silent screen days, I'd never seen her in a film before. She is a stand out as Rachel Cooper, the woman who comes to the children's rescue, never backing down from Mitchum's Harry, regardless of how far he's willing to go.
There are no scenes of male skin in the film, but I still recommend you watch. It's more of a thriller than horror, but there is some incredibly haunting imagery and the cinematography is outstanding. It also inspired me to look for a little Mitchum skin, and although he never had a nude scene, he does have that classic chiseled chest, with an emphases on upper chest more than today's focus on the abs.
Although Robert Mitchum didn't do any nudity, his actor son Christopher supposedly did a nude scene in 1973's Once. Unfortunately, despite my attempts, I haven't been able to find the movie anywhere. If anyone has an idea where it can be found, let me kow.
El Dorado (1966)
North to the Future: Leo by Shax Carter
'I'm looking forward to finally broadening my horizons and telling a story... and I've got some good ones.'
FH readers know how important 'story' is with the composition of the site. I strive to share not just great images, but the story and process of their creation. Each time I spotlight the work of photographer, filmmaker and storyteller Shax Carter, the story is told through a series of shoots, creating a multidimensional portrait of the model in focus. As I've expressed in my previous posts featuring his work, (HERE:) Shax uses almost a documentary style approach, focusing on one model over a extended period of time.
For this series of the stories, the model is Leo, someone Shax has known and worked with since the summer of 2018. Leo didn't start out as a model however, he worked with Shax as an assistant and camera operated for months before finally expressing to Shax his desire to try modeling, and move to the other side of the camera. Throughout the remainder of that year, they traveled around the country shooting and creating a substantial body of photographic work.
It wasn't until months into the process, with dozens and shoots, and thousands of photos, that the idea of a book came up. There was so much material in fact, Shax assembled his work into four separate volumes, (HERE) featuring over 700 images of Leo shot both in studio, and on location. The first volume is an introduction that work, with the subsequent three volumes featuring Leo in different locations, characters and and more intimate and erotic adventures and stories.
This series of images comes from the third volume, shot when the creative pair headed to Alaska. Although each of the books showcases many layers of Leo, this series combines Leo's charm and sensual appeal with panoramic vies of the 49th state. Over the years, I've featured several models from Alaska, and several movies filmed there, I believe this is the first time, I've featured a shoot actually shot there.
Most of us know Alaska from movies, and from what we've read, and seen on television. I think more than any other state, the incredible visuals trigger themes of fire and ice. The state is known as The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun, not to mention the masturbation capital of the world. I'm guessing more so, in those Northernmost cities, that experience complete darkness for about two months a year.
How was Leo's transition from assistant to model?
He was pretty confident until we were about to get started. I could sense some nervousness initially, so the very first thing we did was a shoot in the shower, where he was mostly behind glass. I think that gave him time to boost his momentum, and after that piece of photography he was able to regain his confidence, and he soared through the rest of the day. After the shower photography, we spent the rest of that day shooting against a black backdrop, and it was designed to be an easy shoot for him.
Which shoot focus did you find the most creatively rewarding?
The most creatively rewarding shots were the ones where we added a theme. Finding locations, and placing the character he came up with in those locations was a lot of fun for both of us. Oftentimes we would extend the shoot, because of all the ideas we had.
What inspired the travel? Were you traveling for work anyway?
The different locations are really a big part of the books? Most of the shoots were done locally. It started in a simple studio setting, and gradually broke out further each time. The shoots kept building and eventually when we needed to travel, we would take some time and do a little mini shoot wherever we were. This was the first time I had really done this for fun and not work, so over a full summer we amassed a good deal of photos.
What took you to Alaska?
I wanted to go someplace I had never been, and we decided on Alaska. It was after that was decided, as the date grew closer, that Leo said he wanted to be a cowboy. So we went to a western store and got the whole wardrobe and accessories. The Alaska shoot became the first cowboy shoot I had done.
Having shot the nude male form is so many locations, how does Alaska compare?
I would say Alaska was the easiest, because there was really no one around. It was October, and we weren't in any city, so we were completely free to roam around and discover areas to shoot. Alaska really lent itself to the concept of the cowboy and I don't think it could have worked better.
What were your biggest impressions, and best moments from your time in Alaska?
My biggest impression of Alaska was the beauty of the land. The mountains were glorious. We took a ski lift up to the top on one of the mountains and had dinner one evening. It was amazing.
At one point during the shooting process, did the idea of the book come about?
We were always talking about what to do with the photos when we were done. Leo really wanted to make a book, and craft it by hand, using leather, measured pieces of wood, hinges, the works. It would have been huge, and there would have been only one. Eventually that idea fell by the wayside, and nothing was really done with the photos for a few years.
What section was your favorite to shoot? What was Leo's?
Aside from Alaska, my favorite shoot would have been the Biker shoot, as that was a lot of fun and we had to go and select the leather wardrobe, which was a fun process to get everything to look right. Leo really liked creating the picnic in the park, walking around with, and playing his guitar.
What was your favorite part about working with Leo?
My favorite part of working with Leo had to have been his creativity and always wanting to shoot more and more photos based on his ideas. He was leading the charge, always adding another shoot. Leo really had a vision. What started out as a fun thing to do on a rainy day, turned into a summer of effort, led by Leo and his creativity.
You can preview more images of Shax Carter's work with Leo, and check out each of the four volumes on Blurb HERE:
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