Lost and Found

I had thought the negatives to this shoot with Derek Russo from almost ten years ago were permanently lost. I noticed they were missing a half dozen years ago, and even though I turned my office upside down many times over the years looking for them, they never turned up.  I am very organized with my negatives, and this was the only set in over a decade that I ever misplaced. 

Derek is an extremely talented model, besides being a favorite of many, many afficiendos of male nudes. He has a natural talent in front of the camera and an artistic style of posing that belies his rough appearance.

This shoot was the second time I shot Derek and the black and white negatives I misplaced were of some of my all time best work, thanks to Derek, who managed to give me gold even though I was relatively inexperienced.

I like this particular image even though on close examination you will probably notice the focusing is a little peculiar. It is Derek's wet arm in the foreground that is in focus, and since this was shot indoors with natural light and a very wide aperture his face is slightly out of focus. The effect leads one's eye to one small part of his body just like one's eye might have been drawn to it momentarily. 

The negatives resurfaced in a most peculiar, magical manner, too. A few weeks ago I had been organizing my office and put a stack of notes into the bottom drawer of an already full desk drawer. This morning as I was searching for something else in that drawer, a few of the papers on the top slid down behind the drawer. As I opened and closed the drawer to dislodge the papers, a manila envelope containing the negatives slid out from under the drawer! Had the envelope not been marked with Derek's name I wouldn't even have opened it.

Over the next few days and weeks I will post more of the images from this shoot, especially ones I have never before posted to my website.