Several weeks ago I had an amazing email from a reader of this blog who, despite being straight, identifies with a lot of what I write on this blog. TM is a 30-something year old straight reader from Germany who at the end of an email full of compliments and observations, told me he’d bought me a gift that he knew I would like.
In a bookshop in his home city he’d found all these treasures that he knew I’d love so bought me and sent to me a stunning copy of my much adored “Bear Pond” by the legendary Bruce Weber, Mario Testino’s “Portraits” book and a special edition of Stern, again by Bruce Weber called “Roadside America”.
How do I ever thank someone for that kind of generosity? I write this blog for a little bit of self-therapy, as a way to interact with many different people around the world and because it’s fun. There are some perks here and there, like being invited to various things I wouldn’t have been invited to otherwise and the odd freebie here and there, but being sent beautiful books worth stupid amounts of money is just humbling and flattering. I’ve actually been almost too nervous to truly enjoy Bear Pond. For me it’s almost the holy grail of photography books and a stranger felt compelled to send it to me.
TM, I haven’t stopped thanking you and I don’t know when I will. Thank you!
One day I’ll stop fawning all over Bruce Weber I promise. That will be when he stops making cool imagery. This is a video from an YSL (Yves St Laurent) season promo. I don’t think there’s very many YSL clothes in it but that’s not important. This is the guy that gets all the Abercrombie guys out of the Abercombie clothes.
The way he captures the three guys chilling out nude and diving into the waterhole so un-self consciously is beautiful. Most guys I know, even my nudie friends would be a little self conscious in front of a camera like that.
On Friday night I went over to a friend’s place for a BBQ and to watch the Bruce Weber DVD Box set I gave him. We watched Chop Suey which is a documentary about the making (kinda) of the book of the same name. Bruce Weber had a muse called Peter Johnson that he followed around through wrestling matches, introduced to famous people and staged amazing photoshoots like naked on a beach with an elephant.
So when I came home on Friday night, I jumped online and bought myself Chop Suey, the book. It’s out of print and is kinda collectable so it cost me $185 which my flatmate thinks is ridiculous. But as I pointed out to him, I wouldn’t pay $300 on a lamp at this stage in my life. Now I just have to wait for the damn book to arrive. If any rich lovers of my blog are feeling ridiculously generous, “Bear Pond” is on my wish list too!
Yesterday I picked up a parcel from the post office. It was my Bruce Weber DVD Box Set. A few weeks ago I found out that Bruce was finally releasing his movies on DVD so a few days later I jumped online and ordered the box set. I’ve watched one of the documentaries and a few of the music videos. He collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys a few times and one of my earliest gay memories was of this music video “Se a vida e”.
It was a perfect product of its time. Yes it’s dated a little but the boys Bruce chooses for his work are timeless beauties, even if they aren’t “classic” beauties. Sigh. To anyone that has been photographed or filmed by Mr Weber, savour the memories and the experience.
Years and years ago, before I realised, or more accurately, admitted my sexuality I looked in a bookshop in my home town of Wollongong and picked up Bruce Weber’s “Bear Pond”. At the time I didn’t know quite why I loved it so much, but despite the lusty urges towards the beautiful men in the book, the photography is absolutely stunning. Bruce is probably one of the foremost image makers of our time and his legacy will be here for generations to come.
Sadly Bear Pond is not in my collection of art books, but it will be one day. Maybe one day I’ll get to meet the man too. In great news, the movies that Bruce has made, that initially were never going to be released on DVD, are apparently now destined for my shelves in the form of DVD’s. Why Bruce has decided to release them I do not know, but I’m eternally grateful.
A few weeks ago I had an email from a reader who was cleaning out his cupboards and found a special edition of Stern magazine. It’s a photographic portfolio of Bruce Weber from February 2005 that are either going for a sizeable chunk of cash on Amazon or just plain unavailable. He thought I’d appreciate it more than he would as he hadn’t looked at it in ages.
It arrived yesterday and it’s stunning. It is filled with beautiful images from the iconic image maker, including the stunning series of the Carlson Twins nude, above. I want to say a huge thank you to you Peter, it’s an incredibly generous gift! It’s going to take pride of place in my collection!
