Eight of my friends helping me celebrate the harvest as per the ancient traditions when women got together and had fun while harvesting the season's bounty. They are Heather, Auri, Alison, Erika, Melissa, Michele, Deb and JJ. Thank you muses, you light my fires...
I've been sharing a lot of pictures of my partner Jed lately. We met 4.5 years ago and have been inseparable since. In that time we've done a lot of work together. He was modeling before we met and we just kicked it up a few notches with images and videos that would thrill me even if we weren't together. I'm playing catch-up here with images that I feel have an important place in my collections. With that said, here's one from last year in the Sierras where we spent a few weeks camping, playing and taking tons of pictures.
Most of my nudes for many years now have tended towards the warmer tones, which lend themselves to our skin tones. As many marketing studies have shown most of us respond more strongly to warmer tones than cooler ones. For awhile now though I've been experimenting with cooler pallets and find that they're working for me in ways I wouldn't have expected. To wit, here are a couple of recent works that illustrate what that's all about. Oh, and the watermark is something I've avoided doing since I started sharing images online but my images are constantly being stolen and re-appropriated by people who don't care about copyright law. Watermarks aren't foolproof but they do slow down the amateurs a little.
I've been taking pictures of nude men and women for about 35 years and even though I've done a lot of different kinds of photography the nudes are at the core of my work. There is nothing to defend - this is what I love and this is what I do. Centuries of artists before me have done the same and most of the time their work feeds me and inspires me. A handful of contemporary photographers and artists do nudes that are thrilling to me and I love that the internet has made it possible to see their work on a daily basis. And then there are the fascinating and beautiful people who have worked nude for me; wow do I have reverence and gratitude for them because there would be no artwork without them. It's a delicious minestrone of bodies, personalities, locations and imagery. I'm a very lucky guy.
John Cottrell photographed at Rozel Point on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Copyrighted Image - All Rights Reserved
Heather and Destiny photographed in a magical forest that I can't disclose because I promised the elves I wouldn't. Hair and makeup by Ashlen Duke. Copyrighted Image - All Rights Reserved
Featuring Rainey and Aaron photographed by Tom Clark in Utah's San Rafael Swell
Copyrighted Images - All Rights Reserved
Anna
Trista
Robin
In the summer of 2014 I organized a group of photographers to photograph three of my favorite models in Utah's San Rafael Swell. Specifically it was in the area of the infamous Hidden Splendor Uranium Mine at the opening of the Chute of Muddy Creek. It's one of my favorite places in Utah and I've been there many times to take pictures and to revel in the astonishingly epic surroundings. Sharing this place with photographer friends was a lot of fun and all of us came home with some amazing pictures. Here are a few of mine, some of which have been posted before.
Jed
John and Jed
Aaron and Jed
More pictures after the break...
Pacific Ocean
Sawtooth Mountains
The bust of Michelangelo in the background was purchased by my parents in Rome in the early sixties. A sculptor, whose name I do not know, was in Rome studying and he created this bust first in clay and then in gesso and then finally in bronze. This is the gesso version and it's the original. It's been in my life since I was a child and somewhere along the way I moved it from my folk's home to mine. It's one of my most prized possessions because Michelangelo is both my greatest inspiration and my favorite artist. And because the last lover in Michelangelo's life, Tommaso deCavallieri, was thirty years younger than him.
I didn't plan this picture of Jed to have Michelangelo in the background, but there it is; the serendipitous nature of an artist's life.
