Before & After - Tate
Added 2020-11-12 08:59:18 +0000 UTCThis shoot was in the middle of 2018 and not the first time I'd worked with Tate. We'd discussed concepts for the shoot and he jumped right on board to the point that he dyed his hair hot pink without me even asking. The shoot was for an online art magazine and the theme was stereotypes. I decided to both play up to them and subvert them. The first part? Gay men are all camp and effeminate. Tate is not but with pink hair and flowers everywhere he looked camp. Subverting the stereotype was done using Tate's popularity as a former adult model skewering the gay community's obsession with straight acting guys.
When it comes to retouching on images, I don't generally go too hard. Certainly nowhere near "Hollywood" retouching. Tate asked me to do a bit more than I usually do but most of the work here was in the colour. As you can see I put a pink tone over the entire background and warmed up the entire image to play up the "girly" image of the shoot.
Absolutely nothing needed to be done to Tate's body. Some people just look great nude regardless. On his face he asked me to remove the dark circles under his eyes and even out the texture and skin tone. Sometimes this is the balance you have to strike working with people in the public eye. Both of you want to maintain your style and please your supporters. In the end I refused to go any further and I think he looks fantastic anyway.
