project: iM2 - INVISIBLE MEN

pierre woods @ ny models, lawrence annunziata @ identities, brian peters @ ford

zeric @ red nyc, darrell walden @ request, omar kennedy @ next miami

Invisible men is a project i was working that celebrates the black male image in the fashion industry. Each guy was to have a strong portrait that glorified their diverse and their unique features. I never anticipated how difficult it would be for for me to be able to get these men and their representation to support a project like this.
One model tried to make me pay to include him in this project, another guy told me that it was a nice project for those guys who needed it,- he didn't, and many, many others just felt they were "too big" to be apart of this. ---SMH

I have never seen an effort in fashion to celebrate black men the same way they have done so with women such as Trace Magazine's Black Girls Rule issue or the Italian Vogue Black issue by Steven Miesel. After doing a video interview with Darrell walden for my blog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiS6r4YdSyo) i was inspired to do this project - IM2 - Invisible Men.

Anytime a black male model books a job, he's usually one of few and they become representation of "black man" to the world and i think many of them don't realize how big that is. Without guys like Tyson Beckford, Will Lemay, Jason Olive ect. being the "black guys" back then ....we would have never thought it possible to be reflected today.

I grew up in the south where respect for the civil rights struggle is still felt. i am starting to really believe that it is impossible to get today's black people to come together to do anything for the common good of all. Are those days over? its really starting to feel that way.

I do want to say thank you to all the Guys and those who shown support through their agencies for a project like this. I might haveta scrap the project for now because it is proving to be too ambitious of an undertaking for me at this time. Hopefully one day the rest of the black male models and their agents and managers  will feel like I am on "that" level enough to believe in doing a project like this with me, because right now i'm an invisible man too.

KILLER LOOKS. KILLER BODY - BRIAN PETERS @ FORD nyc

I first spotted Brian Peters of Ford NYC at Fedex in memphis, TN. Its amazing what mama's cookin' and throwing boxes will do for the body.

ARTEROTICA vol. 04 featuring MODEL/ ARTIST/ FRIEND SIDNEY ETIENNE

I had two events to attend (almost at the same time) on October 15th. This was also the first day of cold weather in NYC topped with winds and rain. The first event I attended was the Arterotica vol. 04. The were featuring work from one of my friends, artist/ model Sidney Etienne.

It was located at this lilttle bar/ lounge in Soho called Madame X. I was got there early so i could really see the art before it venue got too crowded. It was the perfect location for an event like this. Ithe decor and atmospher was so sexy. I was waiting for scantily clad hoes to pop out ready to make the patrons "happy." lol. I made my way in through the place in search of my friend's work.
I was so impressed with his selection of images. I stared at his photographs of nude females on his roof top being sprayed with water. Some of the images looked like they were being pee'd on. LOL, Rkelly woulda especially enjoyed these particular photographs.

other artist featured included:

fashion photographer: Marc Baptiste

model:  Ibrahim Yaqut

painter: Jonathan Herbert

I stayed for about an hour before heading uptown to Harlem for the Harlem Fashion Row Event. I ended roaming the streets of harlem in the cold and rain for an hour lost before i found the venue. I arrived to a packed lobby full of angry black fashionistas because the event was over capacity and they weren't letting anyone in. /the event featured two designers i was really looking forward to seeing, my friend Epperson from Project Runway and the amazing visionary Jose Duran. I mingled a few models and friends and had dinner my friend/ model Rumando Kelley before heading home calling it a night. Arterotic was definitely the high point of my night and I was glad I attended.

THE RETURN OF THE REAL MAN featuring COURTNEY STEELE

I read this article in some magazine ( i can't remember at this moment where) they talked to American Vogue's Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour about the men's shows. Through the article, she brought to my attention that today's men's fashion alienates the grown man who can actually afford these high-end designer duds. Most grown men are not "European Cut." Many of them workout at gyms and have personal trainers so they can look like their ideal version of themselves.  I don't think men look at these young guys stomping down runways  in the latest designer duds feeling like those designers made those clothes with him in mind. I don't think grown men look at fashion advertising and see those young guys and relate to the products or find the fashion relevant to their lifestyle.

Women have always been attracted to older, stable men. 14 year old girls want to be with  slightly older guys because they have cars or access to one, and they can drive. Women in their 20's start looking for security and want to be with men who make them feel safe.... physically, mentally, and financially. The typical male model today looks like their brothers and his slacker friends who sit on the couch, eating snacks, playing video games, and smoking weed all day.

Young boys can't wait to "grow up" to be hairy with facial hair and have a masculine presence with big muscles. I remember drawing on a mustache and beard and putting on my grand-daddy's size 13 shoes and pretending i was a man.

I met actor/model Courtney Steele of 301 Model Mgmt in Miami  when he first arrived to NY this summer. He definitely isn't a 19 year old newbie on the scene. He is a man- educated, sexy, and strong. I have been inspired by the kind of man I grew up wanting to be. He is the embodiment of everything i wanted to look like when i was a little dude in Memphis.

I have also noticed guys with more masculine and mature looks like David Gandy are booking the major campaigns again. I had to venture out on my own to find this type of guy because  the agencies are continuously pushing the young boys in their late teens/ early 20's. Although he worked steadily in Miami, he found it damn near impossible to get agency representation here in New York mostly because he looks too mature.

Courtney Steele @ 301 Model Mgmt. - Miami / Base Model Mgmt. - Capetown

Courtney stopped by yesterday to say goodbye before heading to Capetown, South Africa. The above images are from a quick shoot we did while he was here.  It sucks that he has to go to South Africa because there is a greater demand for the "real man" type over there. Maybe one day the American fashion industry will return to catering to people's fantasies .... time will tell.

THIS IS WHY I LOVE FASHION.....

Just when I thought fashion was about to bore me to death, something amazing happens. Check out Alexander McQueen's 2010 Spring/ Summer collection. The fashion show was amazing. I wish American designers were allowed to create extravaganzas like this one.

CRASH!

One of my hard drives crashed last week and i lost most of the work i shot from january to now. I cannot afford the cost to retrieve  the information lost so I am forced to just start over. My creative mind is in full swing ....I'm ready to start fresh. This might be a good thing.....

R.I.P - IRVING PENN

Irving Penn was an amazing photographer whose legacy will live through his work.

photographer - Richard Avedon (r.i.p)

supermodel Gisele

Text Via NY Times:
Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.



His death was announced by Peter MacGill, his friend and representative.

Mr. Penn’s talent for picturing his subjects with compositional clarity and economy earned him the widespread admiration of readers of Vogue during his long association with the magazine, beginning in 1943. It also brought him recognition in the art world; his photographs have been exhibited in museums and galleries and are prized by collectors.

His long career at Vogue spanned a number of radical transformations in fashion and its depiction, but his style remained remarkably constant. Imbued with calm and decorum, his photographs often seemed intent on defying fashion. His models and portrait subjects were never seen leaping or running or turning themselves into blurs. Even the rough-and-ready members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, photographed in San Francisco in 1967, were transformed within the quieting frame of his studio camera into the graphic equivalent of a Greek frieze.

Instead of spontaneity, Mr. Penn provided the illusion of a seance, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan jalaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer. Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it. Except for a series of close-up portraits that cut his subjects’ heads off at the forehead, and another, stranger suite of overripe nudes, his subjects were usually shown whole, apparently enjoying a splendid isolation from the real world.

He was probably most famous for photographing Parisian fashion models and the world’s great cultural figures, but he seemed equally at home photographing Peruvian peasants or bunion pads. Merry Foresta, co-organizer of a 1990 retrospective of his work at the National Museum of American Art, wrote that his pictures exhibited “the control of an art director fused with the process of an artist.”

A courtly man whose gentle demeanor masked an intense perfectionism, Mr. Penn adopted the pose of a humble craftsman while helping to shape a field known for putting on airs. Although schooled in painting and design, he chose to define himself as a photographer, scraping his early canvases of paint so that they might serve a more useful life as backdrops to his pictures.

He was also a refined conversationalist and a devoted husband and friend. His marriage to Lisa Fonssagrives, a beautiful model, artist and his sometime collaborator, lasted 42 years, ending with her death at the age of 80 in 1992. Mr. Penn’s photographs of Ms. Fonssagrives not only captured a slim woman of lofty sophistication and radiant good health; they also set the esthetic standard for the elegant fashion photography of the 1940s and ’50s.

Ms. Fonssagrives became a sculptor after her modeling career ended. In 1994, Mr. Penn and their son, Tom, a metal designer, arranged the printing of a book that reproduced his wife’s sculpture, prints and drawings. In addition to his son, Mr. Penn is survived by his stepdaughter, Mia Fonssagrives Solow, a sculptor and jewelry designer; his younger brother, Arthur, the well-known director of such films as “Bonnie and Clyde,” and eight grandchildren.

Mr. Penn had the good fortune of working for and collaborating with two of the 20th century’s most inventive and influential magazine art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman. He studied with Mr. Brodovitch in Philadelphia as a young man and came to New York in 1937 as his unpaid design assistant at Harper’s Bazaar, the most provocative fashion magazine of the day. But it was under Mr. Liberman, at Vogue, that Mr. Penn forged his career as a photographer.

I SHOT TAIMAK FOR TVONE'S LIFE AFTER

Taimak was only 19 years old when he appeared in the cult movie Barry Gordy's The Last Dragon. Soon after he was spening time with celebrities like Janet Jackson and destined for stardom. What happened to this young phenom? See how he dealt with the pressures of overnight stardom. I shot the image they used for the promo poster for the show.
Check out air times - www.tvoneonline.com