Lost

The Difference

Digital photography makes double exposure experimentation much quicker and simpler than with film. These two images of Yvan Cournier were easily blended together in Photoshop to create a single image that is somewhat abstract. In this case the two images create the illusion that Yvan is growing taller.

Double Yvan

Spandex

Leather Jacket

In Charge

Yvan Found

Torso Study

Gunslinger Attitude

Sometimes a physique pose comes from a suggestion like a director might give an actor. This one came from a suggestion that Yvan pretend that he was holding a pair of pistols.

Yvan

This is from my first shoot with Yvan several years ago.

Yvan

Yvan Again

One final post from the series of shots taken several years ago of Yvan.

Leather Jacket

For this image I placed the dominate light to the reat and to the side, accentuating the feeling that Yvan is comtemplative, in isolation from the rest of the world.

Additionally I had him play with the leather jacket until it became more like binding than a jacket.

Praise

Sometimes when I work with a model in the studio and want to loosen him up and discourage him from falling into standard bodybuilding poses, I ask him to swing his arms and throw his head back.

This instruction, like all others I give a model, gets different results each time I try it.

In this image Yvan looks like he could be offering a prayer to the heavens.

Yvan

This image of Yvan was created several years ago. I have worked with Yvan twice over the years. In this first photo shoot with him he was larger and more defined.
Several years later when I worked with Yvan again he had purposely lost size to compete with fashion models in the modeling industry. Although is is still handsome and magic in front of a camera, I personally prefer his look in this shoot.
This image was shot on film in black and white with a Mamiya medium format camera in a rented studio with hot lights. At this point in my career I was just beginning studio work and had not yet bought my own equipment and set up my own space.
Oddly the lighting arrangements in this early shoot are very much like the ones I use today. I am using two equally bright lights at about 90 degrees from the camera on either side of the model.

Another Lith Look-a-like

Another "lith look-a-like" image. (See the previous post for an explanation of what that means. It's just too involved to explain twice! :D )

This is from a photo of Yvan Cournoyer taken several years ago.

Ecstatic

This photograph of Yvan is from one of my early studio photo shoots. It was taken at a rented studioo with hot lights before I took the plunge and outfitted a home studio with my own equipment.

It's a from several years ago, which in Yvan time is a couple of generations. In recent years Yvan has changed his physique considerably, shedding some of his muscle mass and purposely losing some of his definition in an effort to look more mainstream.

I hope Yvan won't mind if I relate a story he told me as he was explaining his transformation. He said he was on a photo shoot with a number of other male models who were more typical fashion models and his large physique made him feel out of place. Afterwards he decided to change his appearance.

Of course from my perspective we should all have such problems. I don't think I would have made the same decision.

Leather Pants

Yvan is a very popular model who has worked with many, many photographers. I have worked with him twice myself over the years. He is also an actor and a personal trainer.
When you work with Yvan you only need to give him the germ of an idea and he will give you rolls and rolls of great shots.
This photo is from a series using a pair of leather pants as a prop.
Yvan has a website that follows his activities in text, photos and video. Click on the "Leather Pants" title to see it.