Hotsnapz: Peerless Aestheticism

When it comes to the aesthetic depiction of the male form, there are about five photographers who I'd like to call my 'all-time' favorites... I won't bother boring you by listing them all right now (nor giving the order in which I'd place them)... But I would like to introduce you to one in particular of those five whom I hold in highest regards...

By chance you may have already heard of this British photographer hailing from North London by his better known photographic moniker, Hotsnapz. His actual name is Simon Barnes, and as you can tell from some of the photographs he's produced, he is quite easily a craftsman of the highest order.

Simon's photographs tend to focus primarily on the subject of the image with few background distractions, and may at times, include props meant to complement the model's appearance. The outcome is quite a spectacle of creative aestheticism, successfully highlighting what amounts to a casting of the male body as a work of art.

Simon originally took on the apt pseudonym Hotsnapz as a short and 'snappy' way to catch people's attention. Much in keeping with the spirit of his stunningly attention-grabbing work, once you've seen a couple of his photos, and glanced over the signature attached to them, the name tends to sear into your subconscious. These shots not only jump out at you, but they're so unique in their composition they tend to be, by all intents and purposes, unforgettable.

Prior to actually delving into the world of photography, Simon was primarily involved in theater work.... the apparent influence is quite evident in some of his work... He started out first as an actor before moving on to directing. He would later take on a job hand retouching photo prints. Note: this was prior to the 'photoshop' computer-editing driven era we've become so accustomed to... Quite a painstaking line of work (I would imagine ).

Thankfully for us though, Simon eventually decided to move away from the tail-end of photo-editing, and try his hand at creating some memorable shots of his own... The culmination of which being these gems you see before you...

Simon is currently running a blog where he showcases some of his latest work. I highly recommend checking it out and I've gone ahead and added it to both my 'favorite' and 'photographer' linklists.

Simon has also sent me a couple of his newer shots of model Matt Kirkham. In two words, absolutely jaw-dropping (or is that three on account of the hyphen? )... Regardless, looking at these almost gives a feeling equivalent to looking at an artistic masterpiece.

Absolutely unbelievable...