When a motion sensors detects movement, a light goes on. That is exactly how I would describe the work of Wadley Photography. I have seen Wadley's work before, we all have, even if we didn't connect it to the artist. Wadley's images have appeared in hundreds of magazines and ad campagins, including shooting those amazing images of Alan Ritchson for N2N Bodywear. I first connected artist with image in July when I linked to Wadley's work with Colby Keller. (My Apartment)
What amazed me so much about Wadley's images of Keller, were the unique moments of movement he so beautifully captures. After spending time on Wadley's tumblr, there are pages and pages of color, sexy and dynamic images of men on the move. What I loved so much wasn't just the unique captures of motion captured, but Wadley also how authentically Wadley's images are. Often shots of models moving about appear staged or overly constructed, but the men Wadley captures appear to be shot in their element, not set up or posed for the lens.
One of the reasons for this authenticity may be that many of the men Wadley shoots are athletes or men who have made fitness an passions within their lives. That is certainly the case with Alex. A swimmer, as well as co-founder of BoS Fit NYC aka Balls of Steel Fitness, movement is a philosophy and important part of how Alex lives his life.
Wadley seamlessly and gracefully blends man, motion and location, no clearer example than his images of Alex and the brick wall. The wall is not background, but a part of the images, both as a location and a prop. Alex poses in front of, on and as a part of that wall, not an easy task given that hard brick, and soft skin are not a great mix. We have all experienced, especially when we were kids, scratching or ripping a piece of our body when our skin collided roughly with the abrasiveness of brick.
Alex however, seems at home on brick. I can only imagine, there are not many surfaces he hasn't climbed, mounted and hung off. That is the nature of athletes. They ways to use, pretty much everything and anything as an apparatus for movement, and it is the nature of great artists, to capture them doing so.
