'I had first caught a glimpse of Heath in a stage play, he walked on stage for his first entrance completely nude.'
That play turned out to be Bent, Martin Sherman's Tony nominated 1979 play. Bent became one of the first times that the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany became part of the story of the Holocaust. When Heath made his naked entrance, photographer Tom Rubeck could tell Heath was proud of his body, and more importantly, had a very 'old school' and very classic look about him. 'He LOOKED like he walked out of the decade of the 1930s.'
I couldn't agree more with Tom's assessment of Health and look. It might be his theatre background, but Heath reminds me of some of the guys I knew when in University Theatre classes. Guys whose face, hair, body and overall presentation allowed them to weave in and out of different looks, different characters as well as different time periods. Heath looks like belongs front and center on stage, comfortable holding a skull performing Hamlet's soliloquy, or singing and dancing as Berger in Hair. I love Heath's look, his beautifully expressive, often intense eyes, and the incredible lines he creates using his entire body.
Tom contacted Health through a mutual friend about a possible shoot. Heath was eager, but had a lot of things going on and asked they wait for things in his life to slow down a little first. Well, flash forward to over a year later and the two connected again. Heath was now ready for a shoot and addition to the incredible body shots, Tom and Heath decided to also shoot some new publicity and head shots for Heath's work as a model and actor.
The shoot ended up being a two-parter, with the first half walking around downtown Dallas taking headshots for Heath's portfolio. 'This was actually a fun time for us, and allowed us to get to know each other better, since we had actually never met in person.' The second part of the shoot, the more 'artistic' piece of their work together, was back at the studio where both the lighting, and the model, were stripped down.
'I love using a model as an object to light; to play around and find good angles and interesting shadows, etc. Heath was perfect for this, as he seemed to have no ego nor agenda and was very eager to give me what I wanted. His posing was lyrical and lovely. I am very proud of the images we shot.'
