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'The models in Karl's images appear unbounded, as if the limits of movement, space and gravity do not exist. Some of the men appeared in mid air, others grounded, but lightly so as if floating near, but planted on the ground.'
I pulled the quote above from my February story The Chair, which featured the work of London photographer Karl Royce. When constructing the piece, one of the shoots Karl had sent on featured 23 year old model James Alejandro. I loved the images, but given they didn't as closely fit the theme I was going for, I decided to set Karl's work with James aside to post on their own.
Although there is a bit of a feel of floating in the clouds, for this shoot, Karl planted James gently, but firmly on the bed. What most struck me when viewing this shoot were the visual variants that blended so well together to create erotic and starkly beautiful final images. Although James is six feet tall, the bed was large enough both embrace, and display his form so beautifully. I also loved the contrast between James dark features against the white, with the small color flash of the red from the jock strap jumping out at you. James hair, both on his head, and body especially on his legs took on great importance visually with the white, and the poses Karl chose to capture.
'It was a pleasure to work with Karl! He made it incredibly easy to work with him and I love that he understands the naked form and views it as a thing of beauty!'
'I wanted to work with James initially, for not just his obvious good looks and natural body hair, but for that amazing shaped mouth; he has the most beautiful shaped lips. He's very easy to work with so will be a model I'll definitely be booking again and just focusing on his raw masculinity. I chose to shoot him on the bed was mainly because on the day there was this golden light coming through that particular window and as the concept was meant to be "dreamscape" inspired. It seemed the obvious choice.'
