I love the idea of art becoming a collaborative medium and the Internet seems to be the perfect medium to begin to explore and become interactive. Yesterday I talked about coming up with more of an informative profile of the subjects. Chad is the first one we are developing as a model that will become the standard for this format. So here is how it will work and function:

I love the idea of art being a collaborative process and the Internet seems to be the perfect medium to explore this possibility and become interactive. Yesterday I talked about coming up with more of an informative profile of the subjects. Chad’s profile is the first one we are developing. It will become the standard model for all of them.

Here is how it will work and function:

Chad Hansen

Chad #116
Age: 27
Rating system

Chad worked as the cable guy for the local cable company. He had a quiet mystique in his eyes that I was drawn to instantly. I met him out socially with friends and then befriended him on Facebook. I really wanted to create some sort of portrait of him and capture the subtle intense allure he seemed to keep hidden within his quiet personality. He had seen the links to The Naked Man Project on Facebook and asked if I would consider using him for the project. I was actually surprised because I knew he was straight, and felt a bit intimidated to photograph him naked, but he seemed so comfortable that I agreed. He came to the studio with his girlfriend the first time and we began to do some tests. He seemed so natural and comfortable the more he exposed himself. He had always worn bulky clothes so it was fascinating to see what a well-defined body he revealed as he began to strip completely nude. We ended up shooting three different sessions. These are a few selected images from those shoots. He recently moved back to this hometown in Havre on the Montana Highline, but comes back to visit quite often with plans to work on more images in the future.

Model Perspective: How did it feel to become a part of the project? Do you have any insights or revelations?

There will be a section where the image will become available for download or art prints of the image may be purchased.

Another section follows below where viewers can comment on the image or the process.

Post note: We are still developing this format so I am open for any kind of feedback on what you like, don’t like, what you want to know more about from the work?

What’s in a profile and why is it important? I always thought that a website about naked men would most be just images and I assumed that’s all I really needed. A picture is worth a thousand words right? Well not necessarily so. Since I began working on this blog project in January, I am really seeing the power of the word and how it enhances what’s behind the image. Last month when I visited the Louvre in Paris, probably the world’s largest and certainly most famous museum, I found myself wandering through miles of galleries, looking at thousands of pieces of art. I am not completely ignorant when it comes to art and know many of the periods and movements and influences of those movements throughout art history. I am no expert by any means, but art is something I am passionate about. I was wondering through this awesome visual wonderland and I became increasingly disappointed by my lack of understanding of so much of what I was seeing. It would have been nice to have a little pop up come up on the images that I was most interested in that could have given me some insight into what I was seeing, why it was created, history of the artist, or the story behind the image. I am a person who craves to know more and understand the relationship of things and think everything has significance, relevance and meaning. Hence, creating this blog about my relationship to my favorite subject, the naked man, beautiful light and art.

As the new site is coming together I am seeing how import these profiles become to the optimization of the website but also to those interested in my artistry. I am now in what’s becoming an enjoyable part of the process of actually writing about all these subjects and giving them life and exploring their connecting them to me. At first I dreaded the possibility of having to write so much, but then I had to laugh, because at the beginning of the year I also dreaded the idea of writing something new every day, somehow it has all slipped out over the months and in many ways some of the writing has become as powerful if not more important as the images.

The brilliance of the internet is that we can now create these interactive galleries, where others can come and look at and learn from the images, it’s almost like taking the process of creation one step further into the dimension of art. We can now quickly gain a perspective of what the image is about: beginning with the image, then understanding the models relationship within the image, then the artist relationship to the model and the need to create the image, and finally the viewer relationship to all those components and their ability to also comment and contribute to the entire process. This has been the core of my goal from the beginning of creating the blog from the beginning, through the entire process and is now becoming my focus in creating “The Naked Man Project” website.

Once I am able to figure this out and establish the model of it existence for myself it will be easy to develop a network of other artist like myself, who perhaps have also been hidden for reluctant, who may be working on something similar in another remote part of the world. This will become a place where we can all interact and explore our fascination to naked man, sexuality, and life issues. Since I got a little long winded today describing the concept behind the project tomorrow I will put that into practice and you will see how it will all function. I will put my model Chad to the test to see what you think.

Taking a day off from all of the computer work did wonders for my head. I managed to spend most of the day out landscaping my front yard. Wow it was a fantastic day I got a lot accomplished. I found a Blaze Maple Tree that had a great shape for about half price and brought it home and get it planted out in front. Got most of the tulips planted and put the posts in for a new fence to keep the deer out on the south side of the house. Caged everything so the deer won’t destroy it this winter. Suddenly the front corner of the house that has been neglected and looked like hell since the construction began to look pretty good. Of course it’s all planted and put together for next year.

I finished up about 7 and came in for some dinner, when I heard from Julian and he had the evening free and could meet to work through issues I was having on the new website. I was dog tried and wasn’t up for a meeting, but it’s been so difficult to meet up with him that I couldn’t say no. He come over and worked on planned and researched the site for four hours, into the middle of the night. When he left everything was working and I had a great since of direction. My head was spinning and I couldn’t go to sleep so continued to work the site. So my supposed day away from it actually brought me closer too it. I am so jacked and now see what a massive undertaking I have accepted. But then I never seem to do anything small. This morning I am razor sharp focused on the project now. I have made a huge leap and it all makes sense. I can stop banging my head against the wall, and running around in circles. I now know exactly what I am looking for and where to take it. I am feeling the tension release from my body this morning from the frustrations from the past two weeks. I now see how crucial it is to take the breaks, get out and work on another side of my passion, my gardens as I keep repeating in my head, simplify, simplify, simplify.

Etta Jones singing the blues, coffee with a little cream and sugar, the beautiful fall light filling the studio. It was a very warm night last night and I slept with the window open and awoke to the sounds of the creek. I always seem to sleep more deeply when I sleep to these sounds. This is a Sunday morning of perfection. I have senior portrait client coming this morning and the studio is all set up from one I did yesterday. After that the remainder of the day is mine and I have the place to myself and it’s going to be a day just to myself. Yesterday I bought a couple hundred daffodils bulbs, and so this afternoon I am going to just work in the garden, planting and transplanting. Most people don’t think of fall as a good time for planting, when actually it’s the best time of the year to design and plant your garden for next spring, not for annuals of course, but perennials can really begin to establish if you get them in early just about now. This is the best time of year, as things begin to die back to begin to divide and take clumps from the things that were remarkable from the previous season and spread them around a bit. It’s really how my gardens have grown over the years, through the work I have done in the fall. There are lots of stray ferns over next door and I will move some of those into my shade garden on the creek bank. I have learned in all my years of gardening that ferns are something that do not happen overnight, they are a constant evolution. Seeing what works and eliminating what does not. My creek garden was just a little too busy this year, I keep wanting to grow herbs, because I love to cook, but have not quite found the combination of things that work for me, because I have not yet quite figured out the light in the area. It’s a semi shady area that gets blasted with hot afternoon sun, but not enough for things to mature. Then I have so many critters that live in my yard, because we are on the edge of the wilderness that I also contend with, skunks, lots of raccoons and way too many deer. I have a fencing system planned for the deer, but just have not had time enough to install it yet. I always say I am on phase three of a ten year plan for its development. It’s kind of like the web site and photography, you just keep working at it and it evolves. But I guess that’s life in general.

Are you getting tired of hearing about the website yet??? It’s all I can think about anymore and seems to consume my every thought. The process is as frustrating as it is exhilarating. I am not a techno geek and am more of a goal-oriented guy so when I hit a block, become very frustrated. There are so many settings and possibilities for options that I just don’t grasp and I can waste hours on one thing that turns out to be so simple. Julian who helped us set up the system seems to have abandoned us and we are left to flounder as we learn and try to figure it out. On the other side, we are making major leaps every day. We are finally loading the galleries today and I think the overall look and functionality if very impressive.

The fun part is that I have continued shooting through out this web process and had two shoots the other day, both vastly different, which means I had to reconfigure the set up and lighting scheme for the studio. The studio just seems to become a hubbub of activity constantly now. The shooting is becoming more focused as I now have a cleaner vision of what I want and need. I have been mostly working with subjects I have worked with in the past, so it’s easier to jump right in and get going. I am still maintaining and need to keep my focus on the original integrity of where I began this process and have not deviated from that, but the images are improving with each session and subsequent shoot.

Many years ago I only dreamed of being in a place like this and now here I am in the middle of it all and things are coming together. Having the assistants is making a huge difference in how I create. It’s actually allowing me to focus on my process as they work through so much of the detail and I get to jump in and oversee it for maintaining the artistic integrity.

Don’t worry I will be back to some of my interesting stories soon, once we get this thing rolling and I can begin to focus on other things.