WHERE SOME PHOTOGRAPHERS PREFER TO CREATE GLAM PICTURES, OTHERS LIKE TO CAPTURE STREET URCHINS IN ALL THEIR UNCHISELED BEAUTY. FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER MARC BESSANGE CLEARLY BELONGS TO THE LATTER. NO THEATRICAL COMPOSITIONS HERE, BUT PORTRAITS OF BOYS MARC MEETS ON THE STREET, WHERE HE SHOOTS THEIR PICTURES IN THEIR EVERYDAY WEAR AND ON LOCATIONS OF THEIR OWN CHOICE. BEAUTIFUL SPOKE TO MARC BESSANGE.
Marc, can you give us a short summary of how you started your career?
Marc: I came to Paris when I was 18 years old, to study journalism. Eventually I didn’t like it, changed to photo-journalism and went to a photography school at 20. At the end of that school year, I made a photo report of the Paris GayPride. That was in 1995. The pictures were pretty good and I’ve shown them to the director of the French gay magazine IDOL who published them. This magazine proposed also nude portfolios and I started to make portraits and male nude photos. Finally I made more and more nudes, found more and more magazines willing to publish them and so on… At the end I gave up photo journalism because I don’t like to be seen as an intruder or a disturber when I make photos I prefer the soft & close relationship with a model.
You find your models on the street. How do you approach them?
Marc: Generally, the first thing I notice is the face or the eyes. When I see an interesting guy, I follow him for a while. It’s very important to know more about him before talking to him. I care of the way he walks, the way he passes by people, how he smokes, how he speaks to salesmen… When I’m convinced, I speak to him and explain that I’m a photographer interested in working with him. I give him my card and wait for him to give me a call.
Tell us more about this. What makes you decide to go after a guy? What does it take for you to think he is a good subject for your work?
Marc: It’s not an easy thing to explain. It’s not just a matter of a pretty face and big muscles. The only question is “is this guy hot or not?” I’m always attracted by small details, like the way he wears his jeans, the way he walks, nice fore-arms, how he holds a cigarette. The beauty is important, but I always need something more. Someone too perfect is not what I’m looking for. The fashion victim, too smooth and clean, shaved, tanned, with a perfect hair-cut guy has little to no chance to become my model. To sum up, I prefer natural sexy guys, who even ignore they are so hot. To caricatures, I’d say I prefer to work with straight models. Besides the fact that they are rougher, sexier, more natural, and not “cloned”, I’m turned on by the challenge. Nothing is easier than getting a gay model undressed. It’s more difficult to make a nude series of a straight guy you just picked up on the street.
Did you ever have a negative experience doing this?
Marc: Never when I approach someone. As I’m very patient, careful and an observer, I can filter and get good guys only. Generally they all take my card. Up to date nobody every rejected my offer. However, the deception comes often later. When I meet a new model, I always consider it’s the best one I ever met, and I will make great photos with him. And when the guy I met doesn’t call me back, I can feel really bad… I suppose some of them Google me and when they visit my website, they get afraid. Or their girlfriend tells them I must be a dangerous pervert! Ha ha ha. Anyway i’m always extremely disappointed when someone I found doesn’t call back. -B-
Part 2 of the Beautiful | Marc Bessange Interview will be published on Monday December 11th.
MARC BESSANGE | BEAUTIFUL
Beautiful you do have beautiful things to look at. They are hot these boys you show us now you can tell us where to find them.
DonPato
San Jose
Posted by: DonPato | December 11, 2006 at 03:13 AM
I would like to stick their beautiful cocks in my mouth.
These guys are hunky and hard.
Posted by: Ryon | December 11, 2006 at 04:05 AM