Photographing Male Nudes
Howard is a photographer and artist that I have modelled for a number of times over the past 6 years, so when we most recently worked together I discussed with him the idea of me photographing the photographers I model for (as I previously wrote about). Howard interpreted my request for him to be photographed by me as something more than I originally intended, but something I perhaps wouldn't have considered/felt comfortable asking myself. He offered to pose for a series of art-nude shots, with me behind the camera. Up until now all the nude photography I have done has been focused on the female form and I have spent so much time mentally assessing my sexuality and how I fit into my own views of femininity that I hadn't really stopped to contemplate what it would be like to photograph male nudes. Howard was very comfortable in front of the camera and I think it helped a lot that we have known each other and worked together for a number of years - I felt comfortable directing him, even though this was something very new to me. I started with a two light set-up (which is something I picked up from a number of people I worked with over the summer). In order to create this light set up, in my mind I wanted to use either two stripboxes or one strip box to rim-light and one octobox at the front, however the studio I was using didn't have these available so instead I had one softbox in front of the model to the right (of this image) and one small stripbox behind the model (to the left of this image).
At the time, I felt like I couldn't get this to work how I wanted, I couldn't balance the light how I envisioned and the rim-light was overpowering the 'main'/front light. So I moved onto a different set up as I knew time was limited, however upon reflection I really like the rim-light and wish I had spent more time getting this right! Definitely something I want to experiment with a lot more! but I feel it shouldn't over-power the main light.
Next time I think I would also use blackout boards to reduce the amount of light on the background, isolating the subject more.
From here I moved on to using just one light with a reflector in place of the second light (which didn't work at all as well as I had hoped!). One major lesson I have learnt from this is that I need to relax a LOT more! As we only had two hours in which to shoot I was very concerned about getting something I could work with and should have just relaxed and spent more time ensuring the light was right for what I wanted. I often advise photographers (from a modelling perspective) that quality is much better time spent than quantity, and I think in this case I should have taken my own advice!
However, I am still pleased with the outcome of these shots, and think Howard posed wonderfully, really showing his personality in its various forms through the poses he created with his body (click to enlarge/see the full images in the slideshow).
Despite the fact that I intended to shoot nudes, something I found really interesting was the way the harsh lighting worked for portraits. I'm unsure as to whether this is affected by gender or not, but when researching lighting techniques prior to the shoot, I found a lot of interesting male portraits often used one light (this is something I may need to experiment further with for other genders).
I particularly like the first two images (click to enlarge/see the full image). I think the harsh lighting creates a very intense/dramatic portrait, but I also like the way the light highlights the muscle on the arm and balances out the darkness. I personally find that something about the darkness of Howard's eyes draws the viewer into the image, Often they eyes are the focus and given the amount of shadow around the eyes, for me, it adds an extra level of depth and intensity.
Abstract body parts are something that fascinate me, and something I began to work on during the John Hilliard exhibition last year. I personally think that these particular shots worked best in black and white as it emphasised the shapes, shadows and highlights rather than the colour tones of the skin. I like these shots but I think it is again something that definitely needs more time and consideration in regards to light. I worked with an incredibly talented bodyscape photographer named Doug during my travels, who I learnt a lot from that I would like to put into practice at another time.
In order to try different styles, me and Howard moved around the studio, I tried some nudes against a white infinity curve but found them to be lacking depth, however I did capture a few 'mistakes' as I was trying to set up the light which I actually found very interesting when looking through the images afterwards! Although Howard' has dark/hazel eyes, they look very blue in these images and I think it produced a fascinating result! (image below). I also tried using natural light rather than studio flash, and whilst it worked well I don't think the soft, natural light worked as well with Howard as it has done previously when I have used female models, which is definitely something to consider during future shoots (and experiment with more!).
I love how incredibly expressive Howard is as a person and when we moved back to the original set up, he created such a wonderful series of emotive portraits unlike anything I have captured before! They are full of drama and I really enjoyed Howard's enthusiasm with these shots:
Continuing with emotive, storytelling imagery we began to include a 'fetish' element to the shoot, which resulted in very different kind of portraits, but still full of emotion. The first possibly being my favourite image of the day (click to enlarge slideshow and see all images).
Huge thank you to Howard for initiating this shoot, being a wonderful model and for pushing me to try something completely new. I think I was previously very caught up on the female form in relation to myself and my identity, but actually the human form is fascinating in whatever gender, shape, size or orientation it is presented and I am now keen to start capturing a much wider collection of photography works with a whole range of people I find personally interesting rather than just people I am similar to or that I feel are people I can physically associate with.
SR :) x
