Beanie Cap Guy

Pieta`

Recently I took my boyfriend Duma and one of my favorite models Andy out to the Great Salt Lake Desert to do some pictures. I had a feeling they would be wonderful together and persisted in making this shoot happen. Here are some of the pictures that reinforce how important it is for me to trust my instincts when it comes to the people I photograph. Duma Sully and Andy Rawlings photographed out on the vast expanses of the Great Salt Lake Desert...

Pieta` featuring Duma Sully (left) and Andy Rawlings

 

 

Sage King...

Sage King 

He was very young when the crown became his. Alone in the desert however he let the sage, the sun and the stones inform his thoughts. He danced upon the earth and let the blue blue sky bathe him in its clarity.

The weather has been cold and rainy here in northern Utah this spring and only now have I begun shooting again on location with any real seriousness. There are some of newer pieces featuring my boyfriend Duma as The Sage King. I fashioned his head piece from dried and living sage that we gathered from the area where we were shooting and bound it to him using copper wire and manila rope.

 

Winged Victory...

 

Diana Dennis photographed in my studio in Hollywood. These were shot with a Zeiss 150 on Plus-X 220 and scanned from the original negatives. Additional texturing added in photoshop.

Storytime - The New Book

 

Storytime
photography by Tom Clark

This will either be the front or the back cover of my new book Storytime which is now in the editing phase of its journey. This is my boyfriend Duma and the other cover, front or back as the case may be, will feature my daughter Aurelia. There are a lot of considerations when choosing images for the covers of my books. This time I started with a simple premise: my daughter and my lover. The images surface from there and most often take on a life of their own. This picture of Duma feels perfect for starters. Now to comb through literally tens of thousands of pictures of my daughter to find just the right one!

I began working on the graphics a few days ago and the choice of fonts fell into place very quickly. It's my good fortune to have been a designer and art director for many years and so my collection of fonts is extensive. The graphics for my covers are as important to me as the images themselves and an extraordinary amount of time is often invested therein. I'm enjoying how quickly this titling came together. Yippee!!

Even though a picture's worth a thousand words, sometimes there's a few more that can be added to my pictures that give them context or reveal some of the fun I've had along the way. Some of the stories are from my fantasies, some of them from other writers like Edgar S. Burroughs and some of them are simply a peek behind the curtains. The images and stories for this collection cover my 30 year career as a pro photographer. The book is in full swing and will likely be finished sometime this summer.

David and Duma...

 

The great love of Michelangelo's life was Tommaso dei Cavalieri (c. 1509–1587) who was 23 years old when Michelangelo met him in 1532 at the age of 57. Cavalieri reciprocated the affection: "I swear to return your love. Never have I loved a man more than I love you, never have I wished for a friendship more than I wish for yours." They remained devoted to each other until Michelangelo's death at 89.

Duma is 22 and I'm 57

The Man I Love...

Duma: Swahili for Cheetah

 

I have a new man in my life. It's been a lot of years waiting for him but he's here now and we're both crazy happy in love. Not surprisingly, Duma does some modeling. Nudes mostly, and that works just perfectly for me! So here from our first shoot together is my precious Duma, high in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu and as naked and happy as he could be.

 

 

 

 

More Duma after the jump...

The Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show

One of my pieces, created in collaboration with Colorado artist Tyler Alpern, has been chosen for inclusion in this year's Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show. Shooting on a sunny fall day near Tyler's home high in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, we played with manila, copper and loam and made it up as we went. I'm grateful to Tyler for his complete openness and playfulness, without which this simply could not have happened. So here it is:

Copper, Manila & Loam...

Pussy Cap Ads...

 
I'm working on a new series of ads for my Pussy Caps - aiming for a subtle continuity from image to image. Here are some of the ads so far...

 

 

 

 

Moving in a slightly different direction but still in the same vein...

Russ & The White Angora Blanket...

 

I photographed Russ on a cold windy day at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Utah. For most of the shoot he was bundled up but the white angora blanket carries the tradition of complete nakedness underneath it. Weaned in the waters of the Pacific in Southern California, Russ is no stranger to the cold; he slipped into the blanket without a hesitation and we crafted these images that I've become so fond of.

There are many thousands of men and women who've come and gone from in front of my cameras over the years. Russ stands out from the crowd, as much for his warm and engaging personality as for his great physical beauty. I love working with him and will be doing it again soon.

The White Angora Blanket continues its journey and will never be washed; it carries the DNA of a lot of beautiful people and will continue to gather more as the years go by. The project is ongoing and will continue until I die, at which time the blanket will become my daughter's along with the collection of images that feature it. Let me know if you'd like to be a part of the journey. The only stipulation that comes with being photographed with the White Angora Blanket is that you be completely naked underneath it. How much of your body you show or don't show is up to you.

 

Chauncey...

Salt Lake City artist Chauncey Secrist came across my radar a few months ago at a bday party for Erica Salti. Took about 15 seconds to figure out that I wanted to work with him.  So here you go, the talented and handsome Chauncey...

 

 

 

American Buffalo...

At the end of a long snowstorm in January I took my grandkids out to Antelope Island on The Great Salt Lake to see the buffalo. This fellow was completely at ease with us, walking directly towards me and my grandaughter Taryn as if curious but without a trace of aggression. He took a good look and then turned to his left and wandered off across the hillside.

 

 

A Return To Blogging...

More and more I will be returning to blogging as it allows me to present my words and images uncensored. Many claim that their children are hanging out on Facebook. They aren't. They use their children as an excuse to mask their own prudery.  I'm not willing to blur out genitals anymore to satisfy those who hate their bodies and therefore hate the bodies of others as a consequence.

The whole concept of "friends" on Facebook and other social forums is an insult to intelligence on a grand scale. The degenerative nature of the word friendship in those venues is unacceptable to me and I need to begin distancing myself from it. For many reasons I'm finding a return to blogging to be my most ideal way of communing with the world in a place of integrity and authenticity.

What kind of an artist am I if I keep editing my work for the prudes?

What's In A Winter's Edit...

I've done very little shooting this winter, opting instead to get caught up on some editing work from last year before my nude season gets into full gear in a few weeks. There isn't much to show without the editing so it's not really been a hiatus, but kind of. Forthwith are some of the new pieces.

 

Adrian West photographed in Salt Lake City

 

 

Trace Sky photographed on Mt Thorodin in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

 

 

 

Kunga and his daughter photographed in City Creek Canyon, Utah

 

Kunga is a Tibetan nomad in exile

The World Has Changed...

Fourteen years ago I stood on the edge of the abyss; widowed, broken and lost. I didn't own a cell phone and I'd never touched a computer. Fourteen years isn't all that long ago and yet my reality at the time is almost incomprehensible to me now. The world has changed.

Note to the the universe: I won't be left behind.  

This week I found myself saying, "This can't be real - it's not happening face to face so there's no way I can trust it." But it is real and something inside of me spoke gently and reminded me that the world has changed and if I don't step up and go with the flow then I'm just another desperado, clinging to what was instead of going with what is. The train is going to leave the station with or without me. I'd rather be on it than standing at the edge of the tracks wondering where everyone went.

I got Lola on the phone because Lola always knows. And as if stepping out of my thoughts she repeated them back to me without prompting: "You go with it or you become an old man." The cyber shift that has upended our planet in less than 20 years is as radical as the harnessing of electricity itself. Maybe more. 

 

Pantheon: The Utah Collection 2...

 

It's finally here!

Pantheon picks up where The Utah Collection left off but by and large has a heart of its own. My great affection for the people I photograph is perhaps more apparent than ever here; the darker and more personal explorations left for other books at other times. This is an unbridled expression of love and fascination for those who are willing to step out in front of my camera and dance. It's a celebration of those who take off their clothes and wade out into the water naked, fearless and free. And maybe more than anything else it's just a way of saying look; look how beautiful we all are when we step back into our bodies and make them our own. Preview the entire book online by clicking below.