Summer

Everybody has to have their needs met. When shit is free it has to add value to both parties.

What I want: a person to have a fun time in the summer like in this Matthew McConaughey and Ashley Judd editorial by Bruce Weber and to throw in inconspicuous Black Power related items to normalize people's relationship to it.

What she wants: to play with horses.

Both needs were met, although I'm sorry to say the shoot didn't center around horses. She just got to pet them a few hundred yards from the location.

Nude Dudes with Big Boobs

I've always liked saying that, even though it has nothing to do with the post because Devi identifies herself as a female.

What I really mean to say is that relationships are everything. I've known Devi for about 3 years and she's been with me through every step of my photographic journey. She's like my model wife. Main chick. Most supportive. And most importantly, she's communicative and punctual. With the bond we have we can just pick up and shoot and not ask questions because we know where we're going. Don't get this confused with physicality though, the photographer and the model should never have physical contact unless there's absolute reason or trust. I still have female models break pose to move hair and straighten wrinkles if there isn't another female on set. 

In this shoot we planned it the morning of right after her partner's photoshoot with another model in this motel room. My dudes and I come in like Wu-Tang, pick out the clothes with her and just shoot. I wish I could do this with complete strangers but that normally works only on the street in spontaneity. To really get creative with lingering thoughts, real relationships founded on more than business are important. We shoot far less than we talk about race, class, and sex and because we connect and grow mentally we boost our value to each other and in turn, after every shoot she refers more models to me like her that are punctual, communicative, and expressive.

*For all of the gear-heads out there. Work with what you have and shoot to the strength of the light, location and model. This was shot at 1/15th of second handheld with an $80 50mm lens at F1.8 on TriX @400. You don't need state of the art to create art.

Control or nah?

Can you create art with control over everything? Most things? 

You know when you get an idea and you go on that warpath and try to execute and when shit doesn't go your way you get tunnel vision and end up creating excrement? 

For me the best art comes with fun and letting go. In order to do that I think I need to accept what I have for what it is and grow from there but there's also picking out things meticulously so when we get there... all I have to do is shoot.

For this series I did both. I met Shawn at the #FRUIT fashion show from one of my earlier posts. Unlike the other dudes he was more scruffy, rough, and gritty even when he'd just showered, shaved, and spruced up. That can be really really beautiful even though narrow beauty standards say he has to be something else. 

I got the idea to shoot him like a stylish alcoholic homeless person off of the cover of Mos Def's 'The New Danger'. It's always been a dope cover to me and I asked Shawn if he had the rags to do it and he said YES! So bam. We got the dude. Location? Somewhere outside of my office in downtown Oakland. The clothes? He's got em. All we need to do is time the sun's direction for lighting and shoot.

He comes on time. He's got what we need. I've got the right film (Kodak TriX @400) and I've got some of my dudes to help hold reflectors and play music. We're there and then what? Shit don't look right. The lighting ain't all that. I'm thinking my 50mm lens is a 35 and it's not so that doesn't work. Tunnel vision time.  No! We keep it moving like Juelz Santana and a Pyrex pot and that's where the balance of control and play comes in.

We crawl under the fence to get into this lot and we just shoot it for lighting patterns and compose pictures with all of the items on the ground (sans the feces and newspaper toilet paper). No matter how you plan it out if you don't learn to problem solve and play by preparing, seeing and doing away with thinking you'll be alright. 

The world is your playground

The filmmaker David Cronenberg said something along the lines that civilization makes rules and restrictions and artists do the opposite. We present the truth about our nature and the consequences we face (good or bad) for our actions as sapiens. In order for us to be effective, we must break rules so people can experience different perspectives.

Here's an abandoned house that overlooks the ocean off of Highway 1. We really wanted to go for a satirical urban sophisticated look, like imitate high end classy fashion magazines with urban don't-give-a-fuckery. We might've failed on that note but we still had fun scaling hills, going through cobwebs, trespassing, chilling with humming birds and going places we shouldn't go just to make a statement that when something is ruined, it can still be beautiful too. That goes for architecture, whiteness, and matching clothes. 

Javion wears the other model's clothes. Gotta make due with whacha got.

In reality, he feels more like the holographic angel on your shoulder all beauty dish lit with reflective dust particles floating around him.

Dream plays the role of the dominant, dehumanizing, dream boy hunk that makes nice guys question the world with all of the girls he gets. In reality he's pretty sweet and compassionate.

Javion channels Candy Man. 

I am not your hero.

Expired Slide Film

One of my favorite places EVER is Glass Key Photo in San Francisco. They sell expired slide film for $6 a roll in 120mm. Here are some negatives from a few rolls. The first shot has a warming filter on it and the final few had to have their color temperatures adjusted to extreme green and extreme orange. 

Model Party

Easy To Do and Equally Worthless:

- Get in an endless feedback loop from Hell of self criticism while trying to arrive at a destination. However, unbeknownst is that the destination is not concrete and can't be controlled
- Try to please people

What should be done:

- Cut lose
- Have fun
- Don't mind technicality and just shoot

The following stills come from one of my friend's Fine Art Model parties. She herself is one of the best in the Bay and it's always an honor to come over and have some fun in a world where your imagination is free.

#FRUIT

The correct choice is the right person for the right job. What if your creativity and background is a match but your sexuality isn't? 

Sometimes I like to look at gay men's fashion magazines or just gay men's magazines in general to get an idea of how they look at each other. The things women see in men are totally different than the things straight men see in each other. I'm like... God damn those are some biceps or that's a really angular chin and then I go and create some army character in my head that dances around sprinkler systems yelling out inaudible words personified by testosterone with their pant legs tucked into their boots. But how can the hair below his naval be sexy? The cut below his belly? The wrinkles in his hand and the coarse texture of his skin? The slight tint of red in his eye? How can being overpowered by another man be a fantasy?

My friend just got his MA in Fine Arts and he was like yo Josh, come and shoot my thesis. Totally agreed. He wanted to have an auction block style fashion show with his friends being his models and he used coarse fabrics enslaved people would've worn and then he made them the Kings they once were and still are. When I got there I was like God damn again. Every single one of these men are different and fulfill someone's fantasy. In between backstage shots of energy, the clothes, conversation and documentation I wanted to isolate the sexuality of each of these men as it might relate to another man's taste.