Drew
FH viewers know how much I love being able to feature new photographers. Not artists new to photography, but artists new to the site. I've been following Dax, (
The Photosmith) for awhile now, and love the visual elements he blends into his work. In addition to creatively constructed images of the male form, Dax also weaves in elements of design, nostalgia, culture and relationship. Relationship as in connection, to the surrounding space, the fashion and in many cases, the other models in the shoot.
For this shoot, Dax brought together three models starting with Drew and Colby. Many FH viewers I'm sure recognize Colby, who previously appeared on the site. (HERE:& HERE: ) Dax had worked with both Colby and Drew few times before, and describes them as lovely humans who are always great to work with. Colby was visiting Chicago, and Dax used the opportunity to a smutty fitness shoot, a themed he's been wanting to explore for awhile. It was Drew, who brought in Ziyad, a fellow model and friend.
Ziyad
'Once were all together, we all made some jock strap magic.'
The connections explored of course begin with the three models. I find a ternary to be one of the best combinations for unique poses, and Dax captured some fun and erotic scenarios and poses with Drew, Colby and Ziyad. The other connection is between the models, and the viewer with main fashion piece, the jockstrap. Jockstraps have such an interesting history. Invented in the late 1800's, it's original purpose was to provide support and comfort for the genitals for men riding their bicycles on the cities then cobblestoned streets.
Although they've continued to be used in sport for protection and support, they've also become visual symbols for two seemingly different, yet connected cultural communities.. There is nostalgic element to jockstraps given they're connection with athletic masculinity. This was maybe especially so in the 1980's. Even earlier though, going back to the 1950's, jockstraps were adopted by the LGBTQ+ community as a symbol of sexual freedom.
Colby
I love that this powerful piece of fashion that has ties both sports and locker rooms as well as queer culture and fetish. Given it's connections, and it's rich erotic history, it makes perfect sense that Dax would choose the jockstrap as the core fashion piece for his smutty fitness shoot. Since this also the first time I featured the work of
The Photosmith, I of course had a few questions about what led him to focus on the male form, and to share a few stories about his experiences thus far.
What led you to photography and a focus on the male form?
I really got into photography in college, I picked it up as a minor. I spent two years doing film photography, and started by shooting quite banal things around campus. That switched pretty quickly over to street photography. The essence of street photography—focusing on capturing authentic moments—still defines a lot of my work. I’d gotten used to seeing naked people in our figure drawing classes in school, and being young I wanted to experiment and be “edgy,” so of course I started exploring nudity in my own work. It’s been an ever present theme since.
Do you remember your first nude shoot?
I remember my first nude shoot, it was actually with a guy and a girl, two college friends of mine. The shoot was a study on the grieving process for a psych class I was taking. My friend Tyler was with me, and he'd done nude shoots before. I was so nervous asking them to get undressed, so he did it for me: "all right you two, strip!" I've found that for nude shoots, just getting undressed is the hardest part—everything after that just flows naturally
Do you have a philosophy that guides your work?
I take my models' comfort and security very seriously, especially when clothes start coming off. I've done all kinds of nude shoots, from maternity and newborn through boudoir and erotic. I've found that my models are almost always extremely pleasantly surprised by the results. I deal with a lot of nerves, but I also start my shoots by setting some ground rules and putting the control of stopping the shoot squarely in their hands. It makes for a great, safe working dynamic.
Any odd or funny stories you can share?
Oh so many, especially with outdoor shoots. I did a nude shoot at the nude beach in Lake Tahoe. The models were standing on some rocks, and a guy started screaming at us from the next beach—which was over 200 yards away. We yelled back that it was a legal nude beach and he eventually shut up. Something similar happened at a nude beach in Barcelona...the models were visible from another beach, and a couple of mothers got extremely affronted. That one we just laughed off because it's legal to be naked there pretty much anywhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment