The story behind Willi...
Added 2025-02-06 08:49:58 +0000 UTCContinuing to tell the story behind some shoots in the archives that haven't become downloads, this is the story behind my shoot with Willi.
I can't remember how Willi and I started chatting but it might have been through my now-dead blog. Willi is a lovely guy who is based in San Francisco and I think messaged me telling me he was coming to town and was interested in doing a shoot. I had held my first exhibition earlier the same year, 2011 and was already itching to explore new ideas for a second show.
In stark contrast to the first show which was all studio, black and white and about my insecurities, the second show was an exploration of my new mindset. I had enjoyed a successful exhibition, been in a relationship for a large chunk of the year and had had an incredible time at Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. So what better theme to explore than Freedom. Willi very much embodies that ethos of freedom as a bisexual American man of Filipino origins and with very much a hippy vibe and an open mind, he was perfect.
The poor guy didn't know what he was in for though. I had in my head an image looking up at a nude figure flying over the camera against the blue sky. I had poor Willi jumping off a rock, over me lying in the sand about a million times. As well as that image which became the poster for the image, we did some beautiful portraits and other shots of Willi enjoying an early morning relaxing nude in the water and lying on the sand.
I wonder how he's going these days? I wonder if I can find him.
