It’s been an insane 4 weeks and I know I’ve neglected my blog. Between, shooting, editing, prepping, eating, trying to sleep, and then still make a living. Well I have some great new stuff, but I just need to make it through the next week and things will be better…I’ll be in the sun. Heading back to DR to shoot my next group of guys. I promise I’ll upload some treats this weekend.

Until then, I’ll leave him here to keep you busy.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I have quite the collection of “private images” of my models…no you can’t see them…so don’t even ask, at least not until I’ve had a few Presidentes…but anyway. I’ve managed to start pulling together a lot of my private (non-x-rated) images and noticed they’re actually pretty interesting.  One of the new groupings I’ve decided to name, “Lee’s Boys”, it is a group of candid images taken at the end of each shoot with various guys wearing the signature LeeStudiosNYC T-shirt.  Take a peak, let me know what you think…PS, if you ever see someone walking around with one of these Tshirts, that means I’ve photographed them, OR…they stole the shirt.

When people who are familiar with my images meet me for the first time they usually have a laundry list of questions. Where did you find that guy? Where do you get all the underwear? How do you decide on who you want to shoot? Where do you find your inspiration?

Over the next couple weeks I’m going to try to answer some of these questions, but let’s start with inspiration.  Everyone that knows me, knows that I’m a visual junkie. I hoard magazines, I’m obsessed with music videos of all sorts, and spend hours looking through books at Barnes and Noble. And of course let’s not forget music…I love music…I always have one of my 4 ipods close by…always.  Funny enough I often feel more inspired by music than actual imagery.  Right now, I’m obsessed with:

I’ve always loved clean strong graphics. Through college and grad school I was in love with Robert Mapplethorpes images. Now while working from home, I sit with videos on mute, while listening to AOL radio, and editing images.  I’m quite incredible at multi-tasking.

On another note, though cold, I’m happy to be back in NYC. Got some GREAT models lined up to shoot. But I often dream of the DR sun.

OK, I know I’ve been a little lazy over the holiday season.  I got wrapped up in the warmth of the Dominican Republic AND trying to complete my year-end work.  However, before leaving NYC for Santo Domingo, I had the opportunity to work with emerging model, RAFAEL LEONIDAS. I had seen pictures of him via other sites and even his own myspace. Oddly enough our paths had never crossed, but obviously he fits my typical prototype quite well.  Several people had recommended I find a way to shoot him.  So let’s just get this all out of the way now, yes his body is ridiculous, absolutely crazy, sculpted perfection…yada yada yada…And shame on you for only caring about what he looks like. It’s not just brawn, he’s a REALLY nice guy, with his eye set on the prize. I had a chance to do a little chatting with him before the stylist arrived. Yes, I put clothes on him…not everyone needs to be in underwear.

GIVE ME A QUICK OVERVIEW OF YOU…figuratively of course,

Well I am 24.  I live between New York and Miami (Currently in New York). I’m currently in College for Physical therapy/ Health and Wellness/ AND Theater.  I’m obviously a health and gym freak. Working out is my passion as well as dancing and writing.

UMMM, HOW DO YOU KEEP THAT BODY LOOKING SO INCREDIBLE,

Lol well thanks for the compliment but I don’t think my body is incredible (all the mirrors in his house are broken), my body is okay there’s still a lot of room for improvements. As I said before  I am a health and workout freak lol. I love working out and also eating healthy foods, that’s how I keep my body looking how it is.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO MODELING,

I started modeling back when I was 18 when I first started college. I was spotted by the fashion show recruit of the school, they liked my look an decided to use me for the school’s fashion show and it started from there.

OUTSIDE OF THE GYM…WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREE TIME,

Well during my free time aside from working out which is something I do on a daily basis. I like to read especially Greek mythology and philosophies as well as watching movies, I love watching movies!

OK ENOUGH ALREADY….HERE’S THE BODY!!!!

There now you have it…

Working with Rafael was great. He was a trooper, we decided to shoot on what was then one of the coldest days in NYC and as you see, he was fairly exposed. Not one complaint. Everyone knows how much I love shooting RUBIN and DAVID, but I think Rafael has worked his way to the top of my list.  I think we did pretty well for our initial test run, but we are already planning on shooting again before the end of January and I PROMISE….this will be incredible. A special thank you to Jamel, this is going to be a GREAT YEAR!

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!” –William Arthur Ward

Thank you to everyone that has supported and inspired me this year.

Cheers!

I know, two posts in less than 7 days. Can you even stand it…LOL

These guys are two of my favorite models. Both are named Ernest. Well one Ernest and the other Ernesto to be exact. Both Dominican, but one living in Santo Domingo and the other in NYC. I’ve shot both several times and the response has always been great. Funny enough, neither speaks English, they have always put my broken Spanish to the test. Either way we’ve always been able to create some good stuff.

Your thoughts?

Kind of crazy to be back in NYC.  Spent a month down in DR, in the process of editing the images, but couldn’t resist sharing this gem.  A couple months ago my friend ANTHONY sent me a video of a young guy he met that he thought I would like. 

 (courtesy MONAGA)

He looked interesting, but I wasn’t super impressed. Oddly enough, the first thing I thought was this guy will be difficult to reign in for me to photograph.  Just from the video he seemed all over the place.  After getting myself settled back into being in DR, Anthony had Justin come down from Bonao to meet me…WOW…what a ball of energy, he was like the Tsmanian Devil from Bugs Bunny. Like I thought, he was ALL OVER THE PLACE.   I had decided at that moment I wasn’t going to photograph him.  He was nice, but I just didn’t feel like I had the energy to pull him in.

I still ended up spending quite a bit of time with him, the more I hung out with him, the more he reminded me of a friend of mine down there, Oswaldo.

They both had this crazy energy, wild hair, and their faces seemed visually similar.   Then a light bulb went off. They had never met each other, but it would be sexy to photograph them together…Let me tell you right now, this posting is NOT about those images, BUT take my word, they are HOT.  I promise, they’ll be up soon, but this post is about Justin.

Once I got him on set in front of the camera he was a completely different person. It was like someone had slipped him a valium.  As I mentioned I shot the two of them together and it was quite beautiful, but it turns out there was something really special about Justin.  All of that insane energy had completely disappeared, he was completely focused. I think we both felt the connection. 

Of the 3 hour shoot, I spent more than a third of it shooting Justin alone.  The end result is some of the most beautiful simple work I’ve done in quite some time.  I’ll be shooting Justin again during January.  I haven’t been this excited in quite some time. More to come.

Sorry for the delay. I’ve actually been spending my time shooting. I managed to spend six weeks in NYC before fleeing back to Santo Domingo this morning.

I love shooting, but I realize how much I hate editing. Seems to take FOREVER. Everyone knows once I’m done shooting if I don’t edit that film within the next 48 hours, it’ll be like 6 months before any of those images see the light of day. So I’m taking the next 3 days to edit all of the NYC film so I can get it up. Until then, here are two new shots I did of Emanuel. Those of you that live in NYC probably know him, those of you that don’t, I’m sure you wish you did. I actually met Emanuel like 2 years ago. He was introduced to me by a mutual friend while standing in front of Mamajuana’s.  Very nice, little on the skinny side, but I made a mental note to find him later.  Fast forward 2 years…hanging out in a club with friends and I see this tall dark skinned guy dancing.  As luck would have it, one my friends knew him. Calls him over and introduces us.  He turns to me and says, “you don’t even remember me do you”?  I didn’t. But two years had made a difference.  He had that NYC swagger that I love so much.  He gave me some grief about wanting to shoot him now that he was all New Yorkafied (I just made that up) opposed to two years ago when our friend was trying to convince me what a nice guy he was. I think that’s the problem, I don’t like nice guys…you know what I mean…I don’t want someone pulling a knife on me and trying to steal my gold chain…but it’s fun to engage with people that have, an edge.  I’m from the midwest, what do you expect, I’ve been walking the straight and narrow my whole life. But anyway, he said he’d think about it and get back to me…You know what that meant…I HAD TO PHOTOGRAPH HIM NOW!

I found out he started asking around about me.  I know there are maybe some folks out there that don’t like me just because, but I’m confident in saying, I know there are very few people with bad things to say about me. Again, I’m a good ole’ midwest boy.  Needless to say, I’m always professional regardless of he circumstance, and it didn’t hurt that of the folks he asked, at least 5 had already been photographed by me.  It took us 3 weeks of this dance, but we finally got it together.  Had a great time. And for the record, he truly is a nice guy.  Not only extremely professional, but also funny and creative. We did a variety of things over 6 hours so you can only image how many images I need to look through.  These two photos were literally taken during our last 10 minutes. We were both tired and being non-productive at this point.  I told him I wanted to do some quick stuff with the Dominican flag and here it is.  To say I’m happy with the outcome is an understatement.  There is definitely more to come.  SOON!

Everyone knows I love shooting David Pacheco, but it’s funny, for as many times I’ve photographed David, I’ve photographed Rubin 3 times more. A mutual friend called and told me he had a perfect guy. Rubin was straight off the bus from Georgia. He didn’t say much, but he agreed to give it all a try.  That was 9 years ago.  For awhile it seemed like I was shooting Rubin every other week. New lighting technique, new location, new underwear designer; he’s been my go to guy for quite a few years now.  I haven’t shot Rubin since shooting his calendar last year in the Dominican Republic, but he seems to know me so well that he’s now become my casting person. He’s responsible for all the new faces soon to come.

I’ve included unseen images from Rubin’s upcoming calendar as well as his new poster.  Here’s a little dark chocolate treat. Enjoy…

It is so easy to get wrapped up in beautiful things and beautiful place and just life in general. Today I’ve learned how quickly all of that can come crashing down. About 6 years ago I received and email from a guy named Hampton Coleman III. He had seen some of my images somewhere and taken the time to find me, and wrote a note about how much he loved my images.  At the end of the note he added, “one day I hope to be in good enough shape to be one of your models.”  I responded to him and oddly enough we launched into an internet friendship that lasted more than a year and a half before we ever met face to face.  He was an aspiring model living in Delware with a 9-5 and “chubby” as he use to put it.  He spent every free minute in the gym working on losing weight, and sculpting his body with the hopes of being signed to a NYC agency.  I’ll never forget when he called me and said, he was ready to be photographed by me.  I was like…OK.  Two weeks later he came up and we spent the first hour just talking about how weird it was that we talked almost every week for over a year, yet we had never met.  When it came time to shoot, he refused to take off his clothes.  We both couldn’t stop laughing. He said he realized, he still didn’t feel ready for the world to see him shirtless.  Honestly, he looked fine, but he just couldn’t do it. So I agreed to shoot him with clothes, very rare for me as most people know.  A week later, I sent him these images and he seemed blown away. I didn’t think it was my best work, but I thought we had a nice beginning. From that day on, we set a date for me to do some body work with him, then he’d change it almost every month. He was never happy enough with his body to let me shoot him.  Regardless, We’ve been friends now for 6 years. He got out of that 9-5, found a new job with an airline to allow him the flexibility to shoot anywhere at anytime. When my first potential publisher told me after 3 years of shooting that they loved my stuff, but wished I shoot more “non-ethnic” models I was CRUSHED.  They didn’t feel there was really a market for beautiful pictures of brown men.  I whined and pouted, and considered just quitting, and it was him that said, “I’m surprised by you.”  When I replied, “this is just too hard?” he quickly replied, “when has it ever been easy.

We’ve been rescheduling his body shots for what seems like forever, but we keep on laughing and just setting another date.  Last year we spoke after being out of touch for a few month, and things weren’t going so well.  All of his constant flying from place to place for work and then for shooting had exhausted him, and landed him in the hospital.  While in the hospital, the doctors discovered that this 24 year old mostly healthy male, had cancer. He was depressed, but knew he would get through it.  We talked less, but he always made a point of sending me inspiring emails, and I sent him photo treats.  Cancer went into remission and life moved on.

During my last trip to DR he was heavy on my mind, I’ve reached out every way possible just to let him know, “I’m thinking about you.”

Today I’ve learned the cancer had become recurrent, and in April of 2009, Hampton Coleman III at the age of 25 lost his battle with cancer.

How could someone I thought I was so close to have been gone for so long, before I ever knew.

Beautiful both inside and out, Hampton I don’t think you have any idea how much you will be missed.  You still owe me a photoshoot! To Hampton With Love-Lee