'When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.'
Franklin D. Roosevelt
In addition to their emotional bond, one of the items Alain used to tie Micah and Jared together was a long strand of Manila rope. Rope is often used to symbolize connection, and although I only used a few of the rope shots, I loved that Alain infused the fetish element.
In some of the images, Jared, the hairier model in blue (above) utilized the rope to dominate and hold on to Micah. It was interesting to me that in almost every image, Jared and Micah were touching, or intertwined in some way. The exception was image I used to close this piece at the bottom. I believe this is the only image where skin did not touch skin and only the rope, was holding Micah and Jared together.
I'm not sure if the image, or the rope, was meant to comment on the connection, but it represented to me, the fluctuation which occurs in every relationship. The connection ebbs and flows, sometimes passionate and intense, sometimes more fragile and distant.
This shoot was also a collaborative effort with Alain and two other artists. All of the images you see were shot by Alain, but two other favorite photographers were shooting along with him at the same time. I've followed the work of both Russell from AlwaysANovice, and Michael from Implicit Ditto for years. Some FH readers might remember my recent post featuring Michael's work from this past summer. (HERE:)
