Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mane Man: AJ by Marlen Boro



One of the many reasons I love working with Marlen Boro is the trust he has placed in me. When beginning to profile a shoot, Marlen often sends on the entire gallery of unedited images (often numbering in the hundreds) and puts his faith me in narrow down my image choice. Marlen enjoys finding out what images I choose and I love the task. With often five or six hundred images to choose from however, it can be time consuming is not as easy as it seems. Picking out 10 or 15 photos to sum up a model, Marlen's work and hours of shooting is a something I take very seriously, the wrong mix of shots can often determine the reaction the feature garners from FH viewers.



Marlen has been hard at work the past few months on many projects, just one being a major redesign of his site Male Boudoir. The redesign had a few bumps along the way but is mostly up for everyone to enjoy. There are still a few things coming, like Marlen's new newsletter to keep viewers up to date on all his new work, but I would certainly head right on over to the updated site and check out all of the changes and updates.



The first dozen or so shots in most of the shoots of Marlen's I have viewed are generally portraits. When viewing Marlen's recent shoots this past April and May with AJ you could not help but first be struck with his amazing head of hair. I choose mostly shots in which his hair is pulled back as this is FH... and once the clothes began to fall off, the hair was pulled back. AJ has beautiful eyes, and a great nose and chin and I love the frame of his face with his hair pulled back. But...whether pulled back or down around his face, his hair is thick, long with incredible curls.



When I have written in the past about men with long hair (even my own), I have discussed it in terms of acting a concealer, a shield, a way to hide. With AJ, it's purpose is clearly the opposite. With AJ, it is more an attention grabber, a source or symbol of pride, a crown adorning AJ's strong face and amazing body. Like the mane of a lion, it can also represent sexual maturity and testosterone production. It is also thought that the darker and fuller the mane, the healthier the beast. Female lions are thought to seek out and favor sexual partners with the thickest, darkest mane. Mane length is also thought to be connected to success with male on male relationships, with the lion with the longer, healthier mane being the victor in rigorous and physical fighting matches.



If there is indeed a connection between hair and sexual prowess, AJ would be a leader within the pride. Check out FH next week for the second, (meaning more skin) part of Marlen's work with AJ and check out Marlen's site as he will be adding a new slide show featuring his work with AJ in the next couple of weeks!


1 comment:

Daniel O'Brien said...

I love Marlen's work! We're inundated every day with beautiful gym-sculpted bodies and faces that would make greek gods jealous. His subjects, though, are "real men" to me. They could be that guy across the bar flirting with you or the neighbor in the elevator who you catch checking you out...and it's incredibly hot! I don't know if his guys are professional models or not, but if they aren't, he does an AMAZING job in getting them relaxed and posed confidently for his shots. I have a great deal of respect for the man and like to think of him as an inspiration for my own work.

Can't wait for the continuation of this shoot on the blog!