'Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.'
George R.R. Martin
Although individual artists have their own specific goals when shooting, I believe there are a few things, most photographers of male form have in common. Most artists use their skills to capture something they find visually stimulating and beautiful. The goal, to trigger a reaction, hopefully something both enjoyable and unique from the viewer.
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the best artists, know better. They know, with the right image, almost any eye can be tempted and drawn towards the beauty they capture. How often have you seen an image of a model, and although at first glance they don't fit your usual definition of beauty. But there is just something about the image, the model, the emotion captured, that his you redefining and expanding your spectrum of beauty.
I hesitate to use the word diversity, as it's far more complicated. Diversity has become a series of words, corrupted by politicians, the racist in the White House the main offender, but he isn't alone. Diversity to me is simply about variety, and if you're truly living a full life, you know variety is key.
Unfortunately, so many artists continue to put limits and barriers on beauty. For some photographers the limits are about age, you know the ones, who rarely shoot anyone under 21 or 22. For some it's about body type, they shoot only skinny guys, only muscled hunks, only tall men. For others it's race, or hair color, hair length, it's about body hair, rock hard abs or penis size. I know in part, these limits are connected to media, and what they feel their audiences want, but to manipulate a line from
Field of Dreams, if you see it, they will come, or cum, if that's a part of your goal.
Tom Rubeck is truly limitless in his personal spectrum of beauty. He's beauty in all men, even when they don't see it themselves. If you've checked out any of my previous pieces featuring Tom's imagery, (
Quaternate) you'll know that in addition to his visuals, it's also the stories. Some see's, then captures the beauty of Wolfgang's body hair, the beauty in Rohan's alter ego, the lyrical flow of Sunel's movements, the muscles on some men, the lack thereof on others.
Working on
FH now for over a decade, it's variety that keeps me working and writing. When Tom sends on a shoot for a feature, I have no idea what's flying into my inbox, there is no past pattern other than whomever Tom shoots, he will key into something beautiful, something erotic, something raw and unique.
When narrowing down favorites to celebrate TR Pic's ten years of shoots, I only managed to wiggle them images down to about sixty.... so there are many more favorites, many more looks, themes and definitions of beauty to come!
