A question has recently arisen about getting to the essence of who we are as artists. I have recently been reading a book about a man, in love with photography from age 10, who went to a photography workshop with the photographer Minor White in the 60’s. He was posed with the question of photographing his essence, not to photograph his personality, but to go deeper into the core of his being, to “Photograph who you really are.” He couldn’t grasp the concept of finding himself or even recognizing himself but then has an epiphany that clearly defines his vision and changes the course of his life. The book is called “The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life” written by John Daido Loori and it is a completely different approach to discovering who we are as creative souls.
In a sense this year of exploration has become my own epiphany and I feel more in touch with myself then ever. I began to think about myself and examine my own creative process. Do I really photograph who I am? I think so. Though I use others as my subjects the true essence of what I feel is expressed through the overall feel of my images. Mr. Loori, a skeptic at the time, talks about going into the forest, questioning the nonsensical meaning of White’s idealism, and discovers a place where he releases that doubt and comes into touch, through a trance like state, with the subject. The subject then does not become the object of the image, but his feeling to the connection to the subject, becoming the vision of the image. I began to realize this is the state I often enter when I begin to work with my naked male subjects. All inhibitions evaporate, I have set the stage and defined the parameters, communicated to get to core of my subjects perceptions of themselves so that the moment is ripe to just touch the essence of what I feel in that moment. The shoot then becomes a history of every experience I have ever had and how it relates to this person in this moment, to really explore who we are in this moment. So many people comment on my images as having a quality they cannot describe or put their finger on to define. It’s not really something that can be copied or emulated, but organically comes out of what unfolds before me. I do not have a formula for lighting and it is not consistently the same from shoot to shoot. It is tailored to the specific subject and the vision of how I see them when we first meet. Yet everyone says my style is highly recognizable so there must be some consistency to it. Even when some models posted images we had shot, to their social networking profiles without my name associated with the images, others began to recognize the images as ones I had taken. I do remember when I first began photography questioning what makes an image recognizable to a certain artist and how I could for would define my own unique style. I realize now after years of photographing and looking back that it just naturally evolved without me really having to work at or affect the outcome. It is the essence of who I have become.
Most of my life has been defined by my sensual/sexual nature, seduction, being seduced and of course my love and fascination of the male figure, both clothed and exposed. Much of my life was very sexual, but as I have grown older, the sexual allure that once motivated me seems to have vanished. I am no longer concerned with the physical side of my sexuality but am most intrigued with the spiritual essence of what remains. I don’t see my images as sexual at all. I had a young photographer just out of journalism school approach me the other day wanting to intern with a studio photographer. I sent him a link the new site and told him what I was doing. His response was a scoff at the idea of working with nude people as means to learning studio technique as he rejected what I take for granted as natural.
I have the first featured painter and visual artist on The Naked Man Project website today. The artist is my friend Tom Acevedo in Boston, whose paintings I have admired for such a long time, who also happens to be a very sexy hot man. Just wish I could afford one of his images for my studio. We have created a profile for him in the featured guests section and you will be able to link to a gallery of his work and see his comments on the images. Now, along with Alison, on the literary end and excerpts from her writings, the project seems to be growing and is heading in the direction I had envisioned from the beginning. Now that you can see how it’s going to function, I am still looking for other creative souls to contribute. Contact me if you are interested. The site is currently registering about 50 to 100 people an hour, so there seems to be a lot of traffic glancing at it. We are now a little over two weeks since the initial launch so it all feels great right now. We are still suffering from an occasional broken link and not sure sometimes how they happen, but I am beginning to realize it is part of the process of growing and learning it’s functionality so please bare with us as we work it out.
It feels remarkable to finally have some time to focus on things that most interest me now. I just need to process this wedding and then the remainder of the year will be working full force on The Naked Man Project website. It feels like we are finally beginning to tame the beast of understanding how the project functions internally. New artists have been submitting works and I have been building galleries for them. The first one should be up in the next couple of days and I have to say for the first time in months, I am quite excited by the prospects of potentially where this project can go. There are so dang many talented people out there that have been hidden or that very few people know. I feel like I have finally found my place and am creating a place of expression for artist wanting to deal with identity and the nude male. This vision that I have been dreaming of all year now becomes a reality. There are still people commenting on the old Blogger blog and I would encourage everyone to now move or begin posting in the new blog. I cannot transfer your comments and I would love all that you are saying to become a part of the permanent record of what this project is becoming. I have always seen myself as a collective artist and strongly believe in art as collaboration. This includes feedback from both artist and non-artist. If it stirs a feeling or emotion and it is worth documenting or expressing your opinion. I know this sometimes takes a lot of time to log in and do, but it becomes worthwhile and meaningful to others. It is our goal to have everything cleaned up and the site fully functional, with most of the bugs worked out and formally release the site, on December 1st. My goal then for the month of December is the begin opening up all the galleries, and get the featured artist section completely functional. I then want to close out this year by getting back into the studio and shooting new works. I began shooting some new stuff last week and it has a fascinating new edge to it. Then in January, I want to begin working on reviving the old Man Art with its original creators to build a social network, that was the original source that inspired me to ultimately begin this project in the first place, and build a home for fearless creative expression. This is only the first phase in something remarkable about to emerge.
As much as I tried yesterday I could not find a half hour of time to even get on my computer. It was Montana State vs Montana Grizzlies, Brawl Of The Wild Game at Montana State in Bozeman. The biggest game of the season, the Grizzles being the underdog ranked #7 in the nation against the #1 FCS team. Needless to say it was an upset and the Griz beat the Bobcats 36-10. Since the game was in Bozeman, Glenn planned a party in the studio to watch it on television. So my day began with a breakdown of all my lighting equipment and hauling to the basement.
Made a huge leap with the website yesterday and last night. We have finally been able to connect it to RSS to create feeds and social links. We have also linked to Google Analytics so we can see how people are using the site. These were the last major missing pieces to this labyrinth of a project. Now I can begin to focus my energy more on the content and less on the structure, and I can openly release the site and begin promoting it.
