Aussielicious

When I opened my Freedom exhibition in February, I also launched my book, Aussielicious Men. I’d always wanted to work towards a book and I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Yesterday I finally put together a video trailer to promote it using snippets of footage from different shoots over the years. Sadly I didn’t start shooting footage on photo shoots for a long time and I didn’t have any footage from any of the “Shrouded” exhibition shoots. I think this trailer gives a pretty good impression of the book.

You can order the book in both Hardcover and e-book versions. To order the hardback click here and to order the e-book click here. Enjoy the trailer!

Aussielicious Men Trailer from Brenton Parry on Vimeo.

I’ve decided that once a month I will offer one of my limited edition, signed prints from one of my exhibitions for sale at a discount. The unframed prints usually sell for $300 but for one week only, I am offering “Matteo 2″ (pictured) for $200. This was one of the very popular images from my Shrouded exhibition in February 2011. There are only a few available so if you want to buy one, you’d better get in fast. They are each hand numbered and signed.

Archival Pigment Print on 310 gsm Bartya Photographique Paper. A3 in size: 297mm wide x 420mm high, 11.69″ x 16.53″ high. If you want to buy a copy of Matteo 2 on sale this week click here or any of my other images from my website, click here. If an image of mine that you’ve seen isn’t featured on the shop page of my site, feel free to email me and enquire.

My post on re-evaluating my photography direction had some interesting and pretty spot on comments. More planning and more thought are definitely needed. There were a couple of comments that said I shouldn’t be hiding the penis and “what makes him a man” or that the penis in art shouldn’t be taboo.

I have never thought that the penis was taboo in art at all. When it’s done well, full frontal nudity in art can be both beautiful or intentionally confronting in the way that art should be, as demonstrated by the beautiful images above.

For me personally, I prefer not to include full frontal and there are a couple of reasons why. Firstly unless it’s done well it can be very distracting. As a gay man whose primary audience is probably gay men, the audience is inclined when presented with a photo of a nude full frontal male, to immediately focus on the cock and forget about the art in the rest of the photo. Is it a big one? Is it a little one? For me I find it easier and more satisfying, sometimes even sexier, to leave a little to the imagination.

Secondly, I have found that it’s very hard to find models in Sydney or generally that are willing to pose full frontal even for art photos. I’ve written about this before in my attempts to find models to shoot for The Male Form. Thankfully I have photographed two different guys full frontal to submit to The Male Form in the past two weeks which was quite different to my usual shooting style. Because of the nature of The Male Form, the cock had to be clearly visible in most of the shots, not subtly shown or slightly hidden. The shots look great and the first set will be on the site in August.

Thirdly, I just haven’t got my head around doing it well. I don’t want to show a cock just for the sake of it. I also find that if I can’t hide the cock in a way that doesn’t look too awkward or contrived then I won’t hide it, if the model is ok with that.

I know some people, from comments made on yesterday’s post and a previous video of a guy kite surfing nude, don’t consider it truly nude unless full frontal is display but I disagree. We don’t really have to see every detail of something to know it to be true, so do we really need graphic display of genitals to know someone is nude? Not in my opinion.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of photography lately but I have to be honest and say the photos I’ve done for myself, trying out things for possible new series’ just aren’t quite gelling for me. I think I need to figure out what is behind the ideas I’ve had a bit more before they will start to truly come together. I’m not hating the shots I’ve done by any stretch, but I’m not loving them either.

The relative failure, in terms of sales, of the Freedom exhibition has thrown me a little and I don’t want to do another exhibition whenever that happens, that lacks a strong visual theme. I liked all the images in Freedom but I’m the first to admit it wasn’t wildly creative. It was very much what I was feeling and thinking at the time and I guess as a creative person or artist, that’s important.

Back to the drawing board I guess.

When you hear that a porn star is going to be in your apartment being photographed by your flatmate it’s natural that you get a bit excited, after all it’s not every day that someone with a ridiculously good body who you’ve seen having sex is going to be getting that body out in your living room.

Last night Aussie newcomer to the porn scene Rogan Richards was over at my place being photographed for his new website. I’d been introduced to Rogan a couple of years earlier and when he dropped by last week to talk about the shoot I was very surprised that he remembered who I was. Obviously with a porn star there is their day to day real life persona and then there is the character they take on for porn. Rogan’s real life persona is not all that different from the on-screen Rogan, but more down to earth, quite sweet and very easy to chat to. There is still that cheeky smile and cockiness that has made Rogan popular but toned down to a day-to-day level.

There is always a danger when you see porn being made or meet a porn star that the reality will kill the fantasy. Having worked doing photography on a porn shoot several years ago, that is a very real danger, but having Rogan walking around our apartment getting changed and standing there naked completely at ease with his nudity, wasn’t exactly hard to take.

These are a few of the shots that my flatmate and his business partner have done with Rogan in the past for their business Bad Behaviour Boys.

I recently posted about a shoot I was getting organised for with a gay model, Brendan from last week’s shoot, and his straight mate who was happy to do a nude couple sensual shoot. Well yesterday was the day. A friend and fellow photographer had responded to the call for a light filled bedroom for the shoot so we all met over at his place. The two models were both a bit nervous as they’d never seen each other naked before and they were going to be tangled up in fairly intimate poses and body parts might be touching. Brendan is very easy and professional to work with and takes direction really well. Stevan his straight mate was fantastic. Considering it was his first ever real photo shoot and he was naked in a bed with a mate recreating that lazy Sunday morning with your lover vibe he was surprisingly relaxed. As you can see in the middle shot, there was no escaping that they were two nude men touching.

Brendan’s thoughts behind the shoot was trying to show the world that gay people have normal romantic moments in bed with their partners too and it’s not all about clubbing, drugs and casual sex. I was just trying to make sure I captured the right vibe and made beautiful images. The room was quite small so some of the shots I had thought about had to be scrapped but improvising is essential on just about every shoot so this was no different. I’m looking forward to working with both models again, separately. Brendan and I need to try again for the shoot that I messed up last week and Stevan wants to do more shoots and get more relaxed in front of the camera. He’s got such a striking look and beefcake body I’m sure he’ll have no drama finding willing photographers.

On Saturday I did the first shoot for what may or may not become an exhibition down the track. The shots for that part of the shoot were, in my eyes, an unmitigated disaster. I wasn’t thinking properly. I didn’t, well I just didn’t get it right. Brendan the model was fantastic to work with and we will be reshooting the idea that I have for the series and I’m determined to make it work. Brendan is the model that I’ll be shooting this weekend for a sensual couple shoot along with one of his gorgeous straight friends who is happy to get nude and tangled up with him in a very gay looking shoot without any concerns. We love these liberated guys that want to show off their body and don’t care if people think they are gay.

The image above is one of the images we got on Saturday but wasn’t part of my next series. We thought we may as well take advantage of an empty beach and a hot nude model.

Mikel Marton’s photography has featured on the pages of this blog several times over the years. I’m always impressed by the creativity in his work and the edgy looks of his models. This guy’s name is Ostara from what I can make out and to me, he looks an exotic serving of Eastern European deliciousness with an amazing body. I often wonder if having an amazing body and a rather impressive cock contributes to the willingness of a model to pose full frontal like this. Lot’s of Mikel’s models are seemingly blessed in those departments. I guess the enthusiasm and metabolism of youth helps with the body portion and others are just blessed in the cock department.

I’m planning a few shoots with a model that sounds like he’s going to be great fun to work with and one of the shoots that he has asked for is a couple themed sensual shoot with another guy. We are both on the same page as to what we are trying to achieve. We want that lazy sleep in Sunday morning with someone you feel very comfortable with. They’ll be tangled up nude on a bed trying to capture that pre/post sleepy sex vibe. We were looking through profiles of models online but it was hard to find someone suitable so he thought he’d ask a gorgeous mate of his.

The mate said yes, so in a few weeks the two of them will be curled up nude together trying to show that intimacy that we are after. The surprising part is that the mate is straight. He’s completely prepared to do a nude gay shoot. He only has one stipulation that there is no kissing. We can make it look like they’ve just kissed or are about to kiss but this gorgeous straight man has absolutely no issue with being cuddled up nude with his gay mate. Please tell me this kind of attitude is becoming more and more prevalent in guys as the younger generations come through?

It’s going to be a funny shoot no doubt filled with awkward laughter and jokes about touching cock.

Dear unknown photographer,

I’m writing to you as a fellow photographer with concerns. Concerns that you have totally wasted an opportunity that if it were given to me, would have resulted in something very different.

Someone came up with an idea to do a book full of nude photography of performers such as pole dancers, both male and female, topless waiters and lots of other performers and asked you to photograph them. The photos are pleasant, some are beautiful, some are even creative.

Why am I concerned? You have taken a man that is so exquisitely beautiful, that I know socially and have photographed (sadly fully clothed) myself and you have taken such a lazy photo that I want to print it just so that I can rip it up, shortly followed by a phone call to the model apologising for being captured in such a mediocre fashion.

I understand that it’s challenging coming up with ideas for so many nude photo shoots, but seriously? When a god amongst men is handed to you nude, upon a platter to photograph, you do NOT, I repeat NOT just wing it and say “let’s just try having you sit there”. I couldn’t decide whether to fall asleep with boredom over the photo or cry at the wasted opportunity.

Now, would you mind calling me and describing in detail every millimetre of the model, please?

Yours sincerely,
Bitterly Jealous.

One of the hardest parts of doing lots of outdoor photo shoots with specific ideas in mind is finding the right place to shoot them. I have two shoots planned that I need to find locations for. One is indoor but I’ll need lots of natural light. The other is an outdoor shoot and it’s probably going to be at least an hour or two from Sydney. It’s been done before a million times but I have a model that I’ve been chatting to and we both want to do a shoot with him nude on or with a horse. Living in a city, horses and areas to shoot them with beautiful scenery aren’t exactly handy. The model is chasing up a couple of leads that he has and I’m doing what I can too.

I’m officially putting it out there on this blog, even though I know most of my readers are international or city dwellers, but I’m hoping that there might be someone within a couple of hours drive of Sydney who might have a property with nice scenery and a couple of horses that they might not mind a gorgeous nude man draping himself on for me to photograph. I know this is one of my more random requests but if you don’t ask you don’t get. So even if you know someone who has a property, please float the idea to them. It’ll be much appreciated!

Saturday morning saw a return to getting up early for a photo shoot. One of the guys who was kind enough to serve drinks at my exhibition opening had been talking to me about doing a shoot together for a while. When I got out of bed at 6.30 it was really cloudy and I thought it was all for nothing but the sun broke it’s way through and we had a good shoot. I’m experimenting with some images using face paint trying to invoke a tribal sort of look. This was the first try so I know there is room for improvement.

Shane, the model, was very easy to work with and relaxed even though he’d never done a nude shoot before. He was wandering around the rocks and the sand at the nude beach as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Of course, I think it is. I’m not sure where this series of tribal inspired images will lead me but I’ve got some ideas about shots and styles that I want to try. It’s fun to be shooting again. Shane really wants to break into modelling but his 5’9″ height is proving a stumbling blog. I’ll happily shoot with him. He’s eager and willing to try outlandish concepts!

I’m giving this another shot. A while ago I posted about trying to find models willing to pose full frontal to submit to Dylan Rosser’s site The Male Form. It seems that even though Sydney is full of very body conscious men who will send a photo of their cock to anyone who wants to suck it, asking them to go full frontal for beautiful artistic photos is a very different thing.
I understand their reluctance but I don’t understand the vast difference geographically in the number of men willing to show it all or not. It seems that Dylan has no drama finding willing men in the UK or in the US but here in Australia, guys seem less willing. Is it because of the number of guys? Sydney, and especially the gay scene, is a pretty small place compared to London or New York, so perhaps it feels more like everyone will find out and use it against them if they do.
I realise that there is a touch of hypocrisy at play here since I won’t post my own full frontals on this blog but they are out there on the internet, it’s just not here.
I did have a few volunteers here in Sydney, but they were not at all the right image to go on The Male Form and I’ve also had a volunteer from the US but he hasn’t made any specific plans to get here yet.
So, if there are any readers in Sydney who are fit and athletic who are willing to pose full frontal or anyone knows any Sydney boys who would do it, please come my way!

Well all the submissions are in for the self portrait challenge, the entries are closed and it’s time to vote. There are 16 different photos for you to choose from in this photography challenge. Before you vote, I’ll remind you of the criteria. The winner of this challenge will win a print of the winning entry from the last challenge and also, their winning entry will be offered as the prize for the next challenge. So keep in mind which image you think will look best as a piece of art.

To view the images click here (NSFW, and make sure you click through to the second page) and then vote in the poll below.

Update: I’ve been accused of favouritism and rigging the voting by putting the photo of Hiram with this post. That’s absurd. But to placate the people that are upset about it I’ve suspended voting on this poll and will start a new post and a new poll with a post featuring all the images as contenders. No offence but sometimes people drive me crazy. This is a lighthearted challenge with no real prize on offer. Hiram was even kind enough to offer to withdraw from the competition as a result of the comments but that’s ridiculous. I will repost the voting later when I get home from work.

Today was the last day of my exhibition and it’s feeling very bittersweet. Firstly the bitter part is purely financial. I’ve only sold one framed and two un-framed prints so far meaning that financially I haven’t broken even on the exhibition. Does that surprise me? Yes and no. Yes because this being my second exhibition I have a little more of a reputation and I felt this exhibition was more accessible in it’s vibe, unlike the dark and relatively moody nature of the previous exhibition. No, because the world’s economy is in the toilet and even though Australia has fared better than most economically in the last few years, when times are tough, no one is buying art especially from a relative unknown.

Over all “Freedom” feels pretty successful because I had a lot of people through the gallery. Today one of the staff at the gallery said that some days they don’t get anyone through. The gallery isn’t on a street where people just wander past. It’s the kind of gallery that is tucked away and people pretty much only come to when they know something is on. The staff member told me that while my exhibition has been on they have had considerably more people through than normal which is a great feeling and all the feedback I’ve had has been positive. While it feels nice to have everyone telling me that they love my photography when they are standing in front of me in the gallery, I take it with a grain of salt because, let’s face it, they aren’t going to tell me it’s shit are they?

Now I am giving myself a couple of years before the next one. It was two years between Shrouded and Freedom but there were delays and setbacks. This time I already have a fairly solid idea germinating in my mind to work on. No, I’m not going to say what it is, but I think it will work well.

Thanks to the 14 different models for trusting me when some of you had never posed for a photographer before, let alone nude with mates. You guys were fantastic.