'My personal vision has developed over time. My goal is to create positive, up-beat visuals celebrating sexuality, sensuality, and male beauty.'
Whenever I'm featuring an artist, I'm always curious what initially sparked their passion for capturing the male form. I'm also interested in their approach and the 'rules' or guidelines they apply to their work. Sometimes their answers surprise me. Other time, their response is correlates with both what I see in their images, and what I experience within my interactions with them.
From the very first message I had with Roger from RMark Photo, I experienced an artist dedicated to professionalism. Despite shooting hot naked men, Roger always discusses his work, his shoots and especially his models with appreciation and respect. Roger exhibits this not only in how he discusses his work, but also in the planning, preparation and care he puts into each shoot.
Once a shoot is booked, Roger begins planning, finding themes, and especially poses to best spotlight the man in focus. Not just how to make them 'look hot', but how to best showcase their features, their physicality and their beauty. When it came to shooting Drew, Roger knew he had a model focused on fitness and form. As a personal trainer, Drew's physique is business card, a visual illustration of his discipline and dedication and 'practicing what you preach.'
Some of you might recognize Drew from a previous FH piece. This time last year, I featured Roger's work with Drew in a duo shoot with another model, Matthew. (Spontaneous Combustion) In that piece, Roger sent on not only shots of Drew and Matthew together, but also individual shots of each model. This had me wondering if Roger had other shots of Drew that I could share. Indeed he did.
Roger first shot Drew last year after being introduced to both he and Matthew by Wes from New Manhattan Studios. Roger was visiting New York and shot the duo in Wes' Manhattan studio. When Roger was planning a return to trip to New York, he contacted Drew about a second shoot, this time, a solo spotlight. Not only did Roger enjoy working with Drew as a model, he also felt Drew also valued respect and professionalism within his work.
Drew was keen for another turn in front of Roger's lens. He'd been really focused on his body and was pleased with the results and eager to have them chronicled digitally. Because of his classic physique, Roger researched poses to match the man in focus. Drew was eager and open to trying different poses and on board with Roger's ideas for their time working together.
'The light from the large bank of windows shifts over time. I have used a few different types of auxiliary lighting to work with the natural sunlight to create this series of shots.'
Roger's artistic philosophy is one he's honed and perfected over the years. The first nude models he shot were models he hired and worked with when he was a teacher in a Life Drawing and Life Painting class. Given he was the teacher, he knew the importance or role modeling professionalism, and respect. This was especially crucial with a room full of college students who expressed an assortment of reactions when working with a nude male model for the first time.
In addition to the schools protocols, Roger had his own standards for his students and to ensure the model was relaxed and comfortable. Some of these tenets come from the artists Roger grew up admiring and emulating. One of the most significant influences for Roger was the founder of Colt Studios, photographer Jim French.
'French's photography ranged from dramatic and classical images to more relaxed shots, which are often referred to today as “behind the scenes” These photographs had a wide range of sensibly yet, they were all by one creator . Of course his photographs were also very sensual and sexy.
French's work always felt artistic and very collaborative. His photographs always gave a sense of the individual model, and not just a mere stereotype All of these characteristics of Jim French’s work are characteristics that I aspire to bring to my own work.'
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