The Photo Shoot

I finally got the photo shoot for Howard Brown together.

The concept was pretty straight-forward: make attractive, eye-catching and behavior modifying posters promoting safer sex. A lot of the current stuff, is, in my opinion, awful. Case in point: Metromate in the UK. It ranges from tired and incongruous (two men, shirtless, doing the tango, one looking like he is ready to drop the other), to semi-creepy / semi-kitschy (two men playing hide-and-seek in a real cemetery), to one that just leaves me coated in an unpleasant residue. (two men in the back of an ambulance, one hunky, one zombie-esque. Tag: "Both of these men are HIV+, but one of them is in control." eeew.)

I did some research on why people don't use condoms. Interesting stuff, not all of it particularly surprising. The good news is that behavior is modifiable. The key bits I honed in on from this article were "3 environmental variables significantly predicted safer sex: perceived gay/bisexual men's norms toward condom use; availability of HIV prevention messages; and what one's religion says about gay sex. Not significant were family, media, legal, and work/school attitudes to homosexuality." I can do something about #1 and #2.

So I enlisted Jim, who worked on the Truth campaign, on how to present this. [edit out boring discussions on how to visually manifest safer-sex ideas] One of the biggest elements that we wanted to make sure we got across is the people in the photos are having more fun than you are. which is pretty much the foundation of any aspirational advertising. Re-read that statement and then go back and look at those ads from the UK -- no one is having fun.

I got the photographer (from Zoe-Mckenzie Photography) and the stylist lined up a long time ago. But the models, well, that wasn't so easy. My friend L. volunteered early on but getting another guy was not so easy. I had one lined up, but literally 2 hours before, he bailed. Two other guys that were potentials never panned out.

So I volunteered at the last minute.

Yeah. Me. Damn you Halloween! My love handles curse you!

So L. and I undressed, got sprayed down in foundation (hey, skin doesn't look like that without assistance), got oiled up like greco-roman wrestlers and then got spritzed down with water to look sweaty. The photographer was a real pro, setting up the lighting and adjusting us to maximize muscle cuts and minimize flabbage (but I still imagine Photoshop will still be liberally applied to the photographs).

He would direct this hand there, that hand here and then hold that position. Click. We would be in an uncomfortable position, clenching every skeletal muscle to look buff and then the photographer would say, "Ok, Now tighten everything." We would break into laughter because there was nothing left to tighten -- baby, this is as tight as we get.

Both of us got a lot more respect for porn stars and models, 'cause these positions are just not that sexy. They may look hot but let me tell you, there are times when your face can be pressed into the groin of another hot guy and it is just not that erotic.

The photoshoot was pretty fast -- only about an hour and a half of naked wetness. I think we will have good images to use -- Jim should get the disc later today with the photos. Then we are doing to do the rest of the product photography (condoms, lube, handcuffs, etc.) for the ads.

I have been riding a creative high all day because of it. It's addictive, I tell you.