Having featured the work of London photographer Karl Royce for a couple of years now, I can usually predict how he may capture a model. Karl is a master at capturing great bodies in striking poses with minimal props and strong, but stark blue, but often black background. Sometimes his models have a chair, bed with a bright white sheet, but usually Karl doesn't include anything to distract from the model he elevating through is images.
I starting asking Karl about featuring Mal a couple of months ago. I loved the 'concept' shoots Karl did with Mal, the first few shots from series entitled 'After A Long Day', and the series of Mal in, and out of his tux, as a nod to 007. There was also something I found incredibly hot about the 26 year old London model.. The first set of images of Mal I saw were not the concept shots, but last two images featured in this piece. Mal was on a chair with the blue background, nude with his hands chained in one person.
I loved how vulnerable Mal was in this set. Mal has a bit of a 'boy next door look', but in Karl's imagery he was clearly enjoying letting another side out. I loved Mal's facial structure, beautiful blue eyes and even his mouth and teeth in the last image. Mal has a look both unique and incredibly sexy.
Problem was Mal was contemplating ending the nude work he had been doing. But... when Karl approached him about FH, Mal not was on board, came back into the studio for another shoot. Sometimes a trusting relationship with a photographer, and positive experiences in front of the camera create a connection that makes the work not only creatively fulfilling, but a lot of fun. Karl thinks it may be their Celtic connotations as both he and Mal are both Welsh, although Karl admits he is only half Welsh, with his other half being Greek.
'This last shoot with Mal was just done in a cheeky style nude which had no pre-planning except for me wanting to include a tux in the images in a sort of bond 007 thing. Mal was happy to go with the flow which sometime just works better!'
The shoot went so well, they are actually doing another in the new year. Karl describes Mal as so easy to work with, to create and direct, that he has more artistic ideas that he wants to explore. Nothing concrete so far, just in the early creative stages, but hopefully I will be able to give you all a sneak peak in January!
Karl Royce on FH:
