Paul’s Photos || DIEGO

A friend of Trevor’s.  Diego is a 21 years old, who works for a non-profit that assists disabled adults.

He’s a native of San Francisco.  He’s gay, loves sex but prefers to get to know a man before he goes to bed with him.  He’s drawn to blond, Nordic men who are larger than him and who fuck hard.

When he drinks, he loves shots of whiskey.

I become obsessed with absurd ways of getting poses–I’ve learned that you learn the most by either leaving men to their own devices or by giving them odd things to do.

Lately I’ve been having them begin by forming letters.  This began as an effort to make an “f”.  In a couple of moments it became clear that an aspect of Diego’s personality was expressing itself.

I said “Hold yourself lightly” and he did this.  I’ll admit that when the man is this beautiful, the camera almost moves by itself, finding views it loves.

I stopped the shoot for a while because one of my assistants was too distracted by Diego’s physicality.  I left, got another assistant, and when I returned, Diego was sitting demurely, waiting patiently.

Now Clay and Trevor were helping me with lights.  Almost immediately I began to have the same problem: Clay was distracted, not paying attention to how I wanted the lights.  The problem is always the same: here’s the flame and we are mesmerized moths.

I finally started over by tearing down all the lights they’d set up and having my assistants work with two small handheld lights.

Men live with a constant need and desire to merge with each other.  Sex is the most eloquent method for accomplishing this.  I can say this for certain: the three of us–Trevor, Clay and myself–were all deeply engaged in sex with Diego as we worked with him.  Looking is connecting if you do it deeply and well.

I took dozens of full-face shots of Diego, but I’m including this one to illustrate the extraordinary degree of his allure. Three times I told Clay to move back, that he was in the shot. He never heard me. And I’m not an easy voice to ignore.

The perfect balance of Appolonian and Dionysian energy, Diego’s presence was simultaneously contained and overwhelming.

After the shoot I didn’t bother to chastise Clay. I knew exactly how and what he had been feeling.

Until Next Time – Paul Morris