Partners
In one of my classes at Art Center, in 1975, we were given an assignment to shoot male nudes for our final project. In my class of 30, three of which were girls, the guys at first thought it was a joke by our teacher, Jim McCrary, an A&M records music photographer. “No this is not a joke,” he said.
There was a loud groan from the class, with the exception of the girls who laughed.
“You can do photos of yourself or find someone to pose for you. There needs to be a total of 12 photos, in color or black and white.”
“In 2 weeks I would like to see some photos of the start of your project, then one after that for the next three classes.”
By chance I had done photos of a cabaret show for one of my other classes and knew two guys who might help me out.
When I asked Steve and David, they both agreed to help me out.
David was a dancer so I had him do nude exercises at their home in the foothills of Los Angeles. Their bedroom had windows on two sides of the room so the remainder of the photos that day were done in their bed.
I gave them a few ideas and basically said to be intimate as if I were not there.
Over the period of a few visits to their home we shot over 15 rolls of film and we all were pleased with the results.
When I handed in the photos, Jim was impressed. The class was a bit taken back of the two guys in bed together but all in all they were impressed with my work.
Jim asked the director of the photo department if my photos could be exhibited on a gallery wall. As he looked through the photos that Jim showed him....he replied with a firm..."NO."
