Shaun Hughes

D

Sean Maloney

Ideally I wanted to travel outside of Manchester, possible up to the peak to photograph Sean. What I wanted was a dense woodland, not bothered by mans nurturing. A location that was busily overwhelming, being able to engulf the sitter. 
The fact I don't have a vehicle to help me travel to this places stopped that idea in its tracks, the plan for it would have to be perfect, being able to find the right day with the right weather conditions.

I just happened to know a great area in the south of Manchester that hosted such landscapes I wanted. A place called Houldsworth, just shy of Reddish, Manchester.

Here are some other images from the film.

William Sharp

The idea of the execution was to make sure both elements of landscape and portraiture was being hit. A difficult feat when you have to take into consideration weather circumstances and the patience of the sitter. 
I was very concerned in how I was going to reach what I wanted without the images to be categorised as 'fashion portraiture'. Ideas to have simple plain drab clothing, black or white ran through my mind in the early development stages, but the chances of that looking cheap and ineffective was too high, and so, the other option was the models to be come almost nude and as far as nude.


And it was with that I begun to find the motive for my exploration, why would I not want them clothed? What statement am I trying to get across if not?
(I think a simple answer is to say I wanted them as plain or as naked as the landscape would be, there would be no secret agenda. They would reveal themselves to their landscape as their landscape would be revealed to them).


William Sharp, my first official model for this exploration was keen on helping me achieve whatever it was I was trying to achieve, and in doing so was happy enough to cycle with me approximately 8miles to our chosen location. A few country fields close to Manchester Airport, and a small village called Styal. 

Will a 6'4 something caucasian ginger male, chosen by my own eye because of tall slim frame. Already knowing that beneath his pattern shirts was a definitive collar bone, defining, shoulder blades, a furry torso, and a revealing spinal cord.


In the end we went down to the location twice. The first time the weather was difficult and I was still working and playing with exposure times, flash, tripod. Here are some of the earlier images that came from this.

Gender and Landscape

So from about February this year I've been refining the ideas of working with Gender and Landscape, in particular the Male Gender. I had ideas of combining the tools of Landscape and Portraiture together to create a portrait of this person that connected with the physical landscape.
I want the images to hold ephemeral feelings, I want them to focus on physical shape, differences in body characteristics, angles, stillness. These are just some of the things running through my mind through every shoot.
Each model carried this idea that they had their own landscape that represented there body at that moment in time. Ephemeral, meaning, something that doesn't last for very (only lasting a day) , gives each model and their landscape the meaning that they at that given time will not last for very long. People and landscapes change with seasons.