Friday, September 19, 2014

Victor @ f32!

Like any photographer I have other photographers that I idolize.  There are two I have gravitated to over the years... The first is Herb Ritz... His images more than any other seem to reflect the people being photographed, weather celebrity or model there does not seem to be artifice that some photographers place on their subjects.  As a gay man his imagery of men seem at the edge of a predictable homo eroticisim with out going over the edge thus allowing his work to be appreciated by all viewers.  The second is French photographer Thierry Le Gouès who's monograph of famous black female fashion models entitled SOUL has served as inspiration of photographing models minus any overt background what so ever allowing the full force of the person shine through in the image.  Ritz's own work in this area with model Dijmon Hounsou have become some of his most iconic.  Tonight and over the next few posts to come I will be exploring this style with my own take in the finished look.  Never before have I thrown so much light or shot above f32 on a subject...  

Tonight I again feature Victor Keita and up and coming model from Toronto... Please go to his Facebook Model Page and give some love to this amazing talent!























































































































Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

Moving Pro Part 2!




Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

Behind 10X10

The 10X10 Project was my first large scale showing in Toronto.  Ten LGBT Photographers with the task of photographing 10 LGBT people in the arts.  I knew from the moment I got the go from James Fowler the curator and man behind 10X10 that I wanted to approach this opportunity from an informal position.  Maybe more guided in spirit by Leibovitz or La Chapelle yet still my own and ultimately guided by the individual being shot.







































DJ BlackCat was something I had in the works for sometime and ripe for this moment.  BlackCat has been a DJ in the village for more than 20 years and as such he carries the cache of being a pioneer. What better metaphor in the 21st century that that of the pioneer astronaut... Always modern, always moving forward into the future.  His life is music therefore his life-support became a boombox reminiscent of earlier times in his career.  The crystal ball topped flag naming this place as his territory....  The Baby on skates was a little bad ass and thrown in as an extra touch of kitch which maybe a dying concept but fit into his story.



























Marcus Ware Co-Curated the 2014 Church Street Mural Project along with James Fowler.  This first mural partially anchors the southern end of Church Street and was one of the first to be completed... Having Marcus elevated in the air came out of the idea of joy and satisfaction at seeing such a large project coming to fruition.   How did he get there?







































Michael Chambers is widely known photographer in the Community, Canada and beyond. As my primary goal was to show the artist with or doing their work his portrait includes one of his more recent works.  Michael also was one of this years 10X10 Photographers.







































Working with Kevin is always fun.  We had had many conversations about how much and in what ways being Gay influenced his work and in many ways I was surprised when he went with this idea.  The flowing flag is not real but emanating from his one hand as if to say this is only one part of who I am... The happy occurrence of the shadow on the ceiling speaks to the duality in all of us.







































Anna Camilleri is a writer as well as the creator of public tile and glass mosaics.  She created the  long path mozaic on the south side of the 519 Community Centre as well as the woman with the red umbrella at church and collage.  Her Mozaic's are long term projects... imagine if I created my photos one pixel at a time....  In this image I went for creating a mozaic using photoshop tools, the background was chosen for its intensity and drama... both can be found in her writing!


























Phil Edward Villeneuve, A DJ, The Arts Editor for Xtra Magazine and all around dance maven as you can see in one of his many video's.  I wanted to capture that abundant energy as well as honor the connection to Church and Wellesley village that he takes on in his everyday in his work.



























Rhoma Spencer is the Artistic Director/General Manager at Theatre Archipelago, Actor, Playwright
who's many themes have included work about the underground railroad.  In this image I wanted an image of her creating via her thoughts, what one of the scenes would look/feel like.































Abdi Osman, a Documentary Film Artist and long time friend.  In this image we chose to use the influence from a Gordon Parks Photograph.



























Sheldon Dixon, Singer/Songwriter...  This is the only non constructed images as I was fortunate to be able to photograph one of his music videos being filmed!





























In Actor Samson Brown's photograph I was able to capture elements of his family back ground as well as capture his current political feelings...


Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.