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“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” ~Aaron Siskind
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Vitruvian Lens Edition 4 Summer 2014 Editor E. Gibbons Art Historian Grady Harp Copy Editor Paul Rybarczyk & Grady Harp Layout, Design, Production E. Gibbons Design Consultant Dana Ranning Publisher Firehouse Publishing ISBN-10: 1940290252 ISBN-13: 978-1-940290-25-6 Information: Vitruvian Lens is a quarterly journal founded in 2013, www.VitruvianLens.com, produced by www.FirehousePublications.com. Availablility: Please visit www.VitruvianLens.com for the most current pricing, store locations, and general information on eBooks once available. For questions, please e-mail LOVSART@gmail.com or call 609-298-3742. Price is subject to change without notification. Submissions: Vitruvian Lens considers submissions of artists and writers. Contact LOVSART@gmail.com, subject “V.L. Submission,” for additional information. Advertising: For advertising rates, wholesale bulk pricing, and other information, LOVSART@gmail.com. Distribution: Online through our website www.VitruvianLens.com. For information e-mail LOVSART@gmail.com. Printing: Published quarterly in spring, summer, autumn, and winter by Firehouse Publishing, headquartered at 8 Walnut Street, Bordentown, NJ 08505. © 2014 by Firehouse Publishing and Firehouse Gallery. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the express consent of Firehouse Publishing, Firehouse Gallery, and its owner, E. Gibbons. Important Disclaimer: No assumptions should be made about the gender or sexuality of any artist included in this book. Though all of the artists dedicate a significant portion of their portfolio to the classical male form, they are equally adept in other subjects as well. If you see something you’d like to purchase, contact the artist directly. Right: Nassoy, Embouteillage, 2005 (cropped) Cover: Bidgood, Blue (Gucci), 2009 Rear Cover: Von Berg Chair, 2006
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Antonio Salazar Bañuelos is from Mexico City, and has his doctorate in fine arts. Since 1980 he has worked as a professor in the postgraduate department of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
V.L.: Have you encountered any issues about having the male figure in your work? A.S.B.: No, because of my artistic approach. Since the beginning of the gay movement and the successes of it, the male nude is now shown as much as the female model. There is less discrimination.
In 1984 he participated in the creation of Taller Documentación Visual (TDV) (Visual Documentation Workshop). Over his fifteen years there, his work was included in eighty-five individual exhibitions and 149 group exhibitions.
V.L.: Are there subjects you are considering for future works you can share? A.S.B.: At this moment I´m working on research about the LGBT movement in México and in the world. Tentatively it will have the title of Querido diario Queer (Dear Queer Diary).
From 1987 to 1993 he was coordinator of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas´magazine, and has published three books: 15 años del Taller Documentación Visual (2004), Ecce Homo (2007), and Álbum de familia, vol I y II (2010). Vitruvian Lens: Many photographers focus exclusively on the female form, why do you include more male figures in your portfolio? Antonio Salazar: As a gay man I choose to focus on the male form. V.L.: What is it about your approach that you feel is most unique to the genre? A.S.B.: I use photomontages from negatives spliced and incorporate a homoerotic theme. This is a unique approach.
Left: Salazar, 78 Ecce Homo, 2003 Right: Salazar, 119 Ecce Homo, 2003
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Salazar, 182 Ecce Homo, 2004
V.L.: Tell me something people might not know about you or your work? A.S.B.: My work it´s not entirely mine—it´s product of the work of many talented young people who support me in the production. I just coordinate the work process. I hate being in the dark room
developing or amplifying my negatives. That´s why I asked Javier Jimenez, professor of the ENAP-UNAM, to help me with this job. My friends told me that the dark room reminded them of the black-rooms in some nightclubs. For me, it's like being locked in a closet.
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Salazar, 197 Ecce Homo, 2002
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Born in 1958 in Metz in Eastern France, Daniel Nassoy, who originally trained as an I.T. consultant, opened his eyes to the artistic world through photography. In 1992, he signed up to a two year training course at EFET (Paris), a professional photography school. By then he already knew that the rigid world of I.T. was not meant to be his future.
Vitruvian Lens: Many figurative photographers focus almost exclusively on the female form, why do you include more male figures n your portfolio? Daniel Nassoy: I do so because...I like men! But I also love flowers and nature, so a big part of my pictures are about flowers and of course about a mix of men and flowers too. V.L.: What is it about your approach that sets your work apart from other photographers of the figure? D.N.: I do artistic work most of the time in black and white and work a lot with the computer to get the results I want. Sometimes I put a little bit of red into my compositions too. I attempt to create specific poetic universes.
In 1997, he abandoned his I.T. career, trained himself in multimedia technologies, and went on perfecting his skills in digital image manipulations of photography. Since 2001, Daniel has been working as a freelance photographer and graphic artist. His first body of work used black and white film photography techniques. He then went on to utilizing scanned images, and digital image manipulation programs like Photoshop. In 2004 Daniel gradually switched from film photography to digital photography, his current focus. He feels digital photography gives him the means to create personal images full of sensations, reflecting his thoughts and feelings as an artist. Daniel also creates colorful images, when the colors are dazzling and striking his fancy. In a-PARIS-tions II, his latest body of work, Daniel uses both real iconic urban settings, or reinvented ones to create a fanstamagorical and poetic representation of the male body, often including dream-like environments.
Left: Nassoy, Sous Pression, 2004 Header: Nassoy, Echappatoire, 2012, (altered) Right: Nassoy, Compression, 2010
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Sample Edition Pages missing, low resolution, and watermarked For full printed edition please visit www.vitruvianlens.com Nassoy, Protège-Moi, 2000
V.L.: Do you feel the male figure is well represented today in photography? D.N.: No, not enough. The female figure is more demanded and in France you have only two or three artists working on male figures. This is because art is driven by art sales, galleries, etc. who keep the market tightly controlled with not too many artists, so as to keep the prices high. Because you don't have a lot of art buyers for nude male figures, sellers are reluctant to open their doors to new artists, keeping the market controlled. The art market is designed for buying and selling art at higher and higher prices.
V.L.: Do you see a change in the acceptance of the male figure as subject? D.N.: It is more accepted but still not enough pieces are purchased as art. This is because the art market for this work is driven by men to sell to men, it's thin. Most of the world market is geared toward men who like nude female figures. I feel most of the time male figurative art is created by artists who are gay, and that may never be mainstream. V.L.: Tell me something people might not know about you or your work? D.N.: I am not gay! Hahahaha...joking
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Eadweard Muybridge was born in England in 1830 and emigrated to the United States, specifically San Francisco, in 1855 as a young man where he served as a publisher’s agent and owned and operated a bookstore quite successfully. In 1860 he set out to return to England to obtain antiquarian books but missed the boat, leaving San Francisco in July 1860 to travel by stagecoach over the southern route to Saint Louis, but in Texas he suffered severe head injuries in a violent runaway stagecoach crash.
EADWEARD JAMES MUYBRIDGE An obsession with motion By Grady Harp "What distinguishes a technological world is that the terms of nature are obscured; one need not live quite in the present or the local." ~Rebecca Solnit th
Eadweard James Muybridge, a 19 century mastermind of photography, surveyed a life from 1830 to 1904 full of strange incidents and unexpected occurrences that, in addition to his ‘discovery’ of the elements that were to develop into the art of cinematography, were in many ways equal to the subject matter of the early birth of Hollywood films. He was a man of contrasts, scientific investigation, creative imagination, and scandal. Though he gained considerable fame in his lifetime, it was his discovery of the study of motion in photography that would continue to influence such men as Étienne-Jules Marey (a pioneer in producing multiple exposure sequential images using a rotary shutter in his so-called "Marey wheel" camera), artists Thomas Eakins, Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, William Dickson (credited as inventor of the motion picture camera), Thomas Edison (who developed and owned patents for motion picture cameras), contemporary filmmakers who used Muybridge’s principles to recreate slow motion photography of speeding objects, and even composers such as Philip Glass who based his opera The Photographer on the bizarre life of Muybridge. But as for his inclusion as an historic reference in Vitruvian Lens, it was his development of a fast camera shutter and other state-of-the-art techniques of his day, to make the first photographs which show sequences of movement.
Above: Portrait of Eadweard Muybridge Header: Image by Eadweard James Muybridge
Left: Muybridge, Athletes Posturing, Plate 1151879, from The Attitudes of Animals in Motion
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Muybridge, Plate #365, Semi Nude Male Underwear Head Spring with Pigeon Interfering
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Muybridge, Untitled
He was transported to Arkansas for treatment for his double vision, confused thinking, impaired sense of taste and smell–all of which according to extant medical records indicate he suffered orbitofrontal cortex injuries, which may have led to some of the emotional, eccentric behavior reported by friends in later years, as well as freeing his creativity from conventional social inhibitions. After further medical attention in New York, he briefly returned to England, but on returning to America he took up the new field of professional photography sometime between 1861 and 1866: apparently he had changed his vocation at the suggestion of his physician. He learned the wet-plate collodion process in England, and may have been influenced by some of the great English photographers of those years.
photography, notably for his 1868 large photographs of Yosemite Valley, California and focused on landscape and architectural subjects. He converted a light carriage vehicle into a portable darkroom to carry out his work. His stereographs, the popular format of the time, were sold by various galleries and photographic entrepreneurs. In 1872, Muybridge married Flora Shallcross Stone, a divorcee 21 years old, and half his age. In 1874, Muybridge discovered that his young wife Flora's friend, a drama critic known as Major Harry Larkyns, might have fathered their seven-month-old son Florado, and followed him to Calistoga where he shot him point-blank. Larkyns died that night, and Muybridge was arrested without protest. He was tried for murder, but his defense attorney, hired by Muybridge’s friend–the former governor of California Leland Stanford–pleaded insanity due to the severe head injury which Muybridge had suffered in the 1860 stagecoach accident.
Muybridge had left San Francisco in 1860 as a merchant, but returned in 1867 as a professional photographer, with highly proficient technical skills and an artist's eye. He rapidly became successful in
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Eric Shultis is originally from southern Michigan, now residing in Alton, Illinois. He has a Master of Fine Art degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. His work has been exhibited nationally in galleries in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Albuquerque, and Santa Fe to name a few. His work was seen internationally at the Museum Of Pocket Art, and locally in St. Louis at Gallery 210, The Sheldon Art Galleries, The Foundry Art Centre, Philip Slein Gallery, and The Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis. He was included in the 2004 Illinois State Museum exhibition Think Small curated by Robert Sill. Shultis’ photo work began in graduate school studying with Bea Nettles.
about my own feelings and ideas. I have strong opinions and reactions to how mainstream culture defines what male is. I see the expression of men in the world as much more rich and complicated than what is offered up by media and culture. I think that owning one’s own sexuality/sensuality is much more powerful in reality than projecting this on the opposite sex, or putting things out there to control others.
Vitruvian Lens: Many figurative photographers focus exclusively on the female form, why do you focus on male figures in your portfolio? Eric Shultis: My photography solely represents the male body first and foremost because I have a male body. I had/have no intention of projecting my thoughts and feelings onto the female form. As is, I still am projecting on an “other,” but the gender is constant. Most of my work then is very much self-portrait focused. V.L.: What is it about your approach that makes your work unique? E.S.: My images are very personal, and are often Left: Shultis, With Love's Greetings, 2009 RightL Shultis, Peace Forever, 2009
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Above: Shultis, Passion, 2007
Right: Shultis, Mended, 2009
V.L.: Have you encountered any issues about having the male figure in your work? E.S.: From the onset of my deciding to photograph other men there was a backlash from both men and women. People wanted to decide who I was in relation to these images. Even though my images have always been mostly beautiful and not often provocative– other than the gender of the images–I have, on occasion, had to deal with very hostile reactions from otherwise intelligent and perceptive people. Early on I read Margaret Walter’s The Nude Male and her ideas were very important to me. I was able to reference her book for many of the arguments I would pose in reaction to the negative responses I would have to field.
be because I live in the Midwest which is still largely conservative excepting the larger metropolitan areas, but I am not seeing a lot of work in exhibitions or in print either. I also note that so much of what we see of the male nude is less than poetic. When I opened a solo show years ago in New Mexico–usually a very progressive place as a whole–someone who knew I was the father of a young son said to me, “Well, you will probably quit this subject now that you have a son.” I told them that it was completely the opposite. I would make more images, because my son needs to have positive images, whole images, of what it is to be a man in this world.
V.L.: Do you see a change in the acceptance of the male figure as subject? E.S.: I don’t see much change as far as acceptance of the male figure in art. This could
V.L.: Do you have a humorous experience you can share related to your work, studio, model, or client? E.S.: Doing the kind of work I do, working with people, there are going to be moments where it
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Henning von Berg is from Germany. Every summer, he works in Europe for six months– Berlin, Vienna, London, Prague, Amsterdam. Every winter season, he photographs in the United States for six months in sunny Florida and California.
Vitruvian Lens: Many figurative photographers focus almost exclusively on the female form, why do you include more male figures in your portfolio? H.v.B.: My photography subjects are females and males, aristocrats and prostitutes, disabled people and athletes, seniors and babies, common folks, and celebrities. I often work with amateurs. My oldest model so far is a 108 year old lady. About 60% of my portfolio is a male nude because I especially adore the masculine human form in all its variations.
Henning von Berg is one of world's mostpublished German photographers of artistic nudes–female and male models. Originally he studied architecture in Germany and made a promising career as a civil engineer. After working thirteen years for a major energy corporation, he was tired of sitting in executive offices, so in 1998 he switched professions and started traveling the globe as a freelance figure photographer. His favorite themes are "Character Portraits" and "Nude Studies." Henning von Berg is the last male descendent of a noble family that traces back 503 years. Despite, or because of his traditional background, the 6’5” tall activist prefers to question conservative conventions and likes to intentionally break the rules to create new perspectives. This self-taught photographer has more than 510 publications. These include forty-eight coffee table books and four monographs. Additionally his images have been presented in forty-six exhibitions at galleries and museums internationally.
Left: Von Berg Kickboxer, 2006 Right: Henning von Berg by John Aigner
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Above: Von Berg, Teamwork, 2006
Right: Von Berg, Up Side Down, 2010
V.L.: What is it about your approach that sets your work apart from other photographers of the figure? H.v.B.: Many of my iconic photos are feature very unique locations and unusual settings. My specialty is to show female/male nudes in wide panoramic landscapes and in huge buildings. No studio backdrops, no artificial light, nearly no Photoshop. A traditional ‘final frame’ photo, produced with a modern digital camera.
been produced. First they were sold under the table. Since the 1970s, in the Western world, nude people in photographs have been accepted widely as an art form beside the nudes in painting and sculptures.
V.L.: Have you encountered any issues about having the male figure in your work? H.v.B.: No. Photography has existed for more than 160 years. From the very beginning, nudes have
V.L.: Do you have a humorous experience you can share related to your work, studio, model, or client? H.v.B.: I gained attention by producing unusual group shoots. In 1999, I organized the world’s first and only male nude photo shoot within a parliament building: six men stripped in Germany’s historical Reichstag. In 2005, the Australian police chased me and my group of five nude women in Downtown Sydney. The fun snapshots were published all over the globe.
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Vitruvian Lens: James, you're a bit of a legend as creator of Pink Narcissus. Many readers may only know you via that work. When did you want to become a photographer/artist? James Bidgood: I don't know when or if I ever made a conscious decision to be anything. I think I began having opinions in the late nineteen thirties or early nineteen forties. I recall spending hours getting lost in the iridescent rainbow swirls oil made in gutters or looking deep into the hollow of one of those faceted glass Christmas ornaments. God knows my surroundings were bleak at the time. My parents were very poor until after the war–that would be World, Number Two. But there were small escapes. Did you know milk bottles used to have colored metal foil tops? Don't ask.
V.L.: Before we get ahead of ourselves, please tell us a bit about your background, your development as it were. J.B.: I was born in 1933 in Madison, Wisconsin which I did not realize until many years later was a very progressive and liberal place to be raised. My parents were the janitors of the Masonic Temple. We lived in a tiny apartment at the back of the building. My grim little bedroom had unpainted homasote walls. That's poor– but the gray fiber wall board made it possible for me to pin up my Ziegfeld Girl paper dolls and beyond those few rooms was the temple proper, which was my back yard, my playground, and there was a ballroom with a mirror ball and a large auditorium and a stage with pink and blue footlights and dressing rooms that reeked of grease paint and orange powders and these are intoxicating aromas– very dangerous if inhaled too deeply.
And I saw two movies that are probably why my life has since gone so downhill. There was the Janet Gaynor 'A Star is Born,' and then there was that 'A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody' production number in the film 'Ziegfeld Girl,' which I think fucked me up more than anything else ever in my life. If you have seen it you will need no further explanation. If you haven't then you must keep in mind there were no hydraulics involved and no Photoshop. The number originally appeared in an earlier film 'The Great Ziegfeld,' but it was so extraordinary and expensive to produce I figure MGM thought they should get a tad more use out of it–the only difference being the cherry on top. Well, that is if either Virginia Bruce or Judy Garland were still able to boast of such an accomplishment.
Whatever glamorous life such stimuli caused me to dream of having one day having was sadly only the stuff of dreams and only for those humans touched by the gods but for sure not for the likes of a grungy little sissy boy that peed himself at night and worried he stank of piss all day. Little Jimmy Bidgood would have to be content with only imaginings and fantasies. And so it began. When I first came to the big city, whilst appearing in an off, off, off, off Broadway passthe-hat at intermission musical entertainment called 'Dakota,' I somehow discovered drag and soon was performing in an evening gown at the infamous Club Eighty Two. I eventually also became the costume and set designer for these shows which were quite lavish, with a cast of more than thirty and an eight member band.
Left: Bidgood, Cove at Dawn, 2009
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There was a short career after leaving the club– dressing windows at an Oppenheim and Collins on 34th street. I mention this because it was only years later I realized the Empire State Building had been standing at the other end of the block all those window nights. Unlike Deborah Kerr–rhymes with star (that's how she was introduced to the American public)–I wasn't looking up!
I think complete insanity is very much a part of whatever causes humans to go so astray. Consider The Watts Towers or Mount Rushmore. To anyone else it was only a lot of broken glass and pottery–except to one ne'erdo-well Italian construction worker who saw towers. To most people it was just a big piece of ugly rock, including those early American Indians high on peyote! Who else but a Gutzon Borglum would think to carve faces into the side of such a cliff? Ok, so it was some art historian's idea. It plays better my way. With a name like Gutzon Borglum, I figure you would have to think outside the box.
There were three years at Parson School Of Fashion Design and then a few more costume designing and that after about ten minutes on Seventh Avenue and somewhere in all the yards of glittering organza and mountains of ostrich plume I decided to become a photographer. Hello! Not just a photographer, a photographer that would, like Ziegfeld, glorify, in this case, the American male!
Using inherited parts of costumes I had designed for the New York Junior League Balls, I made big sets and rather teensy costumes. The cyclorama in the underwater scenes is made from a huge silk cape for one such costume. I asked around about cameras and film and the Rollei and the two and a quarter format came highly recommended. This was before credit cards and, yes, there was a time before credit cards. Anyway I came across an advertisement to buy a thirty five millimeter camera, a slide projector and a mess of other equipment and pay for it as much as two years later. I sent in the coupon and when the merchandise arrived I pawned it all in exchange for a second hand Rolleicord. Actually the rest was only common sense. I created a stage set, so to speak, in the front room, and then recorded it from the adjoining dinning nook. I could paint and do lighting–I realized I was really only painting with color light fixtures.
I remember being appalled that Playboy Magazine and the like did such fabulous photos, light and styled to a fare-thee-well, of near angelic looking lovely girls who, once you unfolded the page were spread wide with their happiness completely exposed and I swear if one glanced backward the young lady had started chewing gum! "Appalled" because their gay equivalent was what seemed like page after page of the same boy in the same tacky two inches of worn stretch satin pouch held in place with two cents worth of elastic leaning against what appeared to be the very same fireplace mantle. Heterosexual men, it would appear, thought their erotic representations of women to be worth more investment than homosexuals recording the objects of their sexual fantasies. I was not only appalled–I was astonished!
There were no venues at the time to place the results except in physique magazines and Weider Publications were happy to use my work and quite often on the cover of their Young Physique magazines. These were closet case homosexually targeted magazines only passing for dumb bell periodicals. Thar whar a heap 'a sneakin' 'roun' in them thar days.
I thought to begin with a series of underwater Esther Williams type photographs, never for a moment considering I knew nothing about cameras or film and had only a walk up railroad apartment to film in. I was not then, nor have I ever been, a well woman.
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Bidgood, Pink Flowers, early 1960s
All this lead to the making of an eight and 16 millimeter unfinished symphony called Pink Narcissus, a film that took seven years to almost complete. Regardless of what is written about its impact at the time–there was none. No one thought very much of my efforts and I
completely agreed with their assessment then and pretty much do still. It was many years later that Frameline's artistic director, Michael Lumpkin, pulled its negative from a trash bin and purchased all the rights to 31
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Vitruvian Lens: Please tell our readers a bit about yourself and your work. Michael Bilotta: I was always drawing or sketching as a child, since I can remember. When Star Wars and Close Encounters came out in the theaters, I wanted to be a filmmaker of some kind. I didn’t want to be in front of the camera, but I wanted to work on the magical visual effects I was seeing. At the same time I was an avid reader of fiction and horror fiction, and the visual parts of the printed novel was always the lure–what made me want to read the book was the cover art usually. Being a filmmaker in the pre-digital era of the late 70s and early 80s was impossible though, financially and technically. By my teens, the music bug hit and I pursued that path–into music college, and began writing songs. By 2000, I was tired of trying to make music work for me, and I bought my first point and shoot digital camera. I also got my hands on Photoshop for the first time. It was like coming back to an artistic medium I left behind at sixteen, and it’s been my main form of expression since then.
I noticed a definite bias against the male as an art form, and I really object to that. Men can be expressive and tell stories too, and I have seen enough Ophelia-esque images to last a lifetime! I rail against any preconceived notions that beauty is only feminine, and women are the goto for fine art photography. I do not have any objections to working with female models–I have, but using the male gives me some distinction in this small genre, hopefully!
V.L.: Many photographers focus almost exclusively on the female form, why do you include more male figures in your portfolio? M.B.: The question in this case is the answer! Why would I want to focus on the female form– it’s been done, it’s still being done, and as I strive to add a lot of personal stuff into my work, it’s natural for me to use male models to “represent” me in the work. As I started diving into conceptual/surreal/fine art photography,
Left: Bilotta, An Angel Stepped Down (Cropped) 2013
V.L.: What is it about your approach that sets your work apart from other photographers? M.B.: It’s hard to know if I am unique in my approach–most artists and photographers work in the bubble, isolated in the process, but I like to think my approach is somewhat unique. I ask my models for a lot of improvisation–I never go into a shoot with an idea of what I want. I sometimes have some wardrobe for them, sometimes props, most shoots also have a nude segment to then, and I ask the models to give me emotions, movement, reactions to things both there and not there. I treat them like an actor, and from the raw material of the shoot, I see what might be built around the shots. V.L.: Have you encountered any issues about having the male figure in your work? M.B.: There have been a few issues, yes. Mostly, it’s when there is some nudity in the work. There have been a few sites that sent me warnings of suspension for not marking it “adult.” This is when there is NOTHING showing–no penis, no buttocks, this is sidenudity usually, or cropped at the lower part of the pelvis. I would get explanations like “if the model is clearly nude, even if nothing is showing, it must be marked “adult.”
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Bilotta, Monday Bleeding, 2013
Bilotta, Pawns in the Game, 2013
I find this ridiculous, and given that my work to date is not in the least sexual or erotic, it makes me wonder how at this period in time we are this prudish about the body still.
time, it was more on the awkward side of things. Since I generally work with models comfortable with posing nude, that part of the session is always there, and one of my favorite models to work with, on his first session with me, showed up with his mother! He is young, but legal, 22 I think, but there was his mother at the door! I don’t think she spoke much English, but I think she was there to make sure her baby did not fall into the hands of a predator. So I had to, at some point, say, “well, umm, not sure your mother wants to be here for the second part of the shoot, right?” Fortunately, she left before the nude part started!
V.L.: Do you see a change in the acceptance of the male figure as subject? M.B.: I wish I could say yes to this, but I don’t see things changing at the moment. I think men, especially in the last 30 years or so, have been conditioned to think of their body as ugly or, at most, utilitarian, that it must only convey strength (muscle) and the virility must be toned down (manscaping). I hope my work contrasts with those preconceptions, and certainly with my models, I strive to shoot them as some would shoot a female model. I see no reason to treat the male form differently than the female form. I usually ask that my models do not overly groom–no body shaving, I even like some stubble. Men are all about texture, and with my process, those touches really show through. V.L.: Do you have a humorous experience you can share related to your work, studio, model, or client? M.B.: Actually, one that comes to mind–it is kind of funny to me in hindsight but at the
V.L.: Where do you hope to see your work going in 10 or 20 years? M.B.: I really want my work to progress to gallery showings. That is the goal, but also I do very much want to produce work that can be seen as artwork for film, television, books and publications. I have already sold one as a cover for a novel, and that was great. I hope I can straddle both worlds–the fine art and the commercial/conceptual art. In terms of personal goals with the work itself, I am hitting a stride right now, a process I have developed that I am comfortable with, and that is always a 34
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Sample Edition Pages missing, low resolution, and watermarked For full printed edition please visit www.vitruvianlens.com
Bilotta, The Prometheus Primer, 2013
good time to throw the process away and try to change things up! V.L.: How has your style developed? M.B.: If we accept the fact that nothing is
original, then my style, while perhaps unique in procedure, perhaps not, was learned by gathering tips and techniques from a variety of sources. I spent many years learning and producing video clips, and green screen
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DIRECTORY: Artists Interviewed, This Edition Antonio Salazar www.eccehomo.mx www.tinyurl.com/kz4cuua Daniel Nassoy http://danielnassoy.com http://jeveuxmonportrait.com http://myportraitinparis.com http://menofmydreams.com Eric Shultis www.eshultis.com Henning von Berg www.Henning-von-Berg.com blurb.com/b/1777508-men-pure James Bidgood ClampArt www.clampart.com Michael Bilotta www.michaelbilotta.com Flickr.com/photos/shibbopics www.tinyurl.com/kbuqrkm
Artists from Edition 2
Recommended Galleries
Jim Ferringer www.modelmayhem.com/1404482 www.redbubble.com/people/jimm150
Lyman-Eyer Gallery Provincetown, MA www. lymaneyerart.com
J.D. Dragan www.jddragan.com
Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, Manhattan, NY www.leslielohman.org
Gregg Friedberg gefriedberg@gmail.com gfriedberg.deviantart.com Adi Nes Jack Shainman Gallery, NYC www.jackshainman.com Adam Collier Noel www.adamcolliernoel.com www.lymaneyerart.com Aernout Overbeeke www.aernoutoverbeeke.com Heitor Magno www.flickr.com/heitorm
PHD Gallery St. Louis, MO www.phdstl.com Lizardi/Harp Gallery Pasadena CA 626-791-8123 Galerie Mooi-Man Groningen, Netherlands www.mooi-man.NL Recommended Websites FirehousePublications.com TheArtOfMan.net
Michel Guillaume www.michelguillaume.fr www.shootingmode.com.
PowerfullyBeautiful.com 100ArtistsBook.com
Artists from Edition 3
Artists from Edition 1
100ArtistsBook.tumblr.com
Collin McAdoo www.tinyurl.com/KNQW942
Nectario Karolos Papazacharias www.nectariopapazacharias.com
www.sachetmixte.com
David Vance www.davidvanceprints.com www.davidvance.com
Ed Freeman www.edfreeman.com
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DDiArte http://1x.com/artist/63782 www.olhares.com/ddiarte facebook.com/ddiarte Enzo Truppo http://tinyurl.com/Ln7hmsu http://tinyurl.com/mt88yqm Frank Aron Gårdsø http://500px.com/frankenstyle www.wix.com/fr3575/studiotrolliord Michel Gelin www.michelgelin.com
David Jarrett www.davidjarrett-photography.com
www.BigKugels.com Other Books We Publish Powerfully Beautiful www.createspace.com/3382894
Ren Hang www.renhang.org Max Woltman www.maxwoltman.com E. Gibbons www.firehousegallery.com/info.htm www.lymaneyerart.com Dianora Niccolini www.dianoraniccolini.com
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365 Art Quotes www.createspace.com/3904538 100 Artists of the Male Figure www.100ArtistsBook.com The Art Of Man www.TheArtOfMan.net
Explore The Art of Man: Fine art of the male figure in traditional media. www.TheArtOfMan.net
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The classical male figure in art history, available in soft cover, and online at www.TheArtOfMan.net
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Vitruvian Lens strives to discover and showcase photographers with a fine art approach to the male figure. We offer a non-erotic option to those who love figurative art with an international point of view with interviews that explore their thought processes, choices, and struggles in a way no book does. www.VitruvianLens.com
Richard Stabbert is a self-taught painter. He documents the people in his life, both past and present, referencing them, the objects around him, and his love of the beach. All of his images are tied together by a sensuality of brushstroke. He limits his palette to evoke spare, almost graphic forms, as color in itself and line that have a resonance and symbolism for Stabbert. Picasso once said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.� Stabbert is one who embraces the simplicity of his style and approaches his work with passion and enthusiasm. We see his words and works through the eyes of adolescent self-discovery and passion. Richard describes young love, from first flirt to first love, and everything inbetween, most often centered here, in the artist colony of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Newest collection from the publishers of The Art of Man.
www.createspace.com/4504319
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