Category Archives: Male Nudity

Our homebound circumstances showing no signs of letting up, here is the start of a limited filler-series spotlighting former projects. First up is ‘StoneLight‘ from 2007, which feels like a lifetime ago. Who is that naked guy coaxed into a stillness as solid as stone, touched only by the light, and the shadows? C’est moi!  It formed the naked-ass impetus for my very first gallery show ‘The Eye of the Ego’ the following year. More moving to me was the dawn of the realization that I was documenting what would one day be no more – youth and innocence and abs – in the ongoing quest for an identity I sought to both embrace and destroy. ‘StoneLight’ was an effort to still time, to capture and freeze a moment, to bend and twist the cruel ticking of the clock. A futile effort like it always would be, it partially succeeds because the images are still here, even though thirteen years have passed.

Crumbling gravestones will not mark the dead forever. I do not have the faith in humanity to believe this earth will spin on in perpetuity. Look around – we inch closer to its destruction at an increasingly alarming rate. But for this moment, for this corner of the internet, perhaps I have slowed or given pause in the rush of living and dying. When light and shadow work together, the beauty of their marriage creates a magic that lasts a little longer than it should by traditional measures and means.

See the rest of ‘StoneLight’ here.

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Alone in the bedroom, on a day when the sky is blanketed and buffeted by a cover of clouds, I stand before a window illuminated by the sort of bright gray that could denote the first light of the morning, or the last light of the day. In this case it is the latter, and I wonder if loneliness is more pronounced first thing in the morning or in the early reaches of night. Each holds its ghostly splendor, each holds its haunted dreams.

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ~ Michel de Montaigne

Somewhere along the line society got it in its warped head that solitude was bad. We have since, particularly in the last decade or so, made it so that we are never alone. Within our hands is a device that can connect us to millions of other people with a tap and a swipe. We have the capability of reaching out to the rest of the world, and they in turn have a way of reaching us. Even when we’re alone, we’re never really alone – there’s always somewhere nearby to plug in, to reconnect, to dip into the relentless flow of information. Yet all of it is mere distraction. It seems we’ve spent our technological advances just to feel less alone, and less lonely, but it hasn’t really worked out that way. In the way of the most sinister fables and legends, we’ve only ended up growing further apart. And so I return to solitude, in an attempt to find out how to be alone again.

“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.” ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

There is peace here. And a sense of quiet that doesn’t happen all that often these days. I’m told it’s especially elusive when one has children. I’m thankfully unburdened by such a lifestyle damper, but even I have difficulty locating the silence in this world. There’s always a neighbor, an alarm, a machine, a phone, a message, an alert – and the notion of an extended period of unadulterated quiet is a rare luxury indeed. Still, if you work at it, you can find such places. Sometimes you have to work very hard, and occasionally you have to force the issue and create the atmosphere through planning and preparation. Then, you might have a chance of slipping into the silence…

The noise of the softest coat against cool, naked skin.

The clamor of a feather drifting down from a bed pillow.

The screaming of a candle flame shifting in the air.

“Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine.” ~ Honore de Balzac

It appears I’ve reached the limit of how much time and effort I intend to invest in my social media platforms. On the request of friends, I opened a SnapChat account recently, but quickly lost interest after posting just one or two ‘chats’. I’m better at the Big Three: FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram. They are more than enough to waste time and (ideally) direct traffic to this website. For the uninitiated (and I happen to know a few), here are a few brief bullet-points of what I like and, more importantly, don’t like about each.

• FaceBook

Likes: Your FaceBook page is like a mini-website, with outlets for words, pictures, videos, events, and allowing for a more complete representation of an online persona. For better or worse.

Dislikes: A crazy double-standard when it comes to censoring male nudity, and an impossible-to-reach help system if someone steals your photos and pretends to be you.

• Twitter

Likes: Fast and efficient, even if it goes beyond 140 characters now, it’s the easiest way to see what’s trending in more or less real time.

Dislikes: Trolls and Russian bots. (The use of certain hashtags, #TrumpRussia or #ImpeachTrump for example, is only partially effective in getting them to back off.) It’s best to never engage.

• Instagram

Likes: A picture is worth a thousand words. Especially if you’re buck naked.

Dislikes: You can’t put any links in the captions. (But when in doubt, go to ALANILAGAN.com.)

Calm down.

You know the big ball doesn’t drop until New Year’s Eve…

All good things to those who wait.

If you’re with me, next year will be the perfect year.

As Valentino said, it takes tiles to tango.

Am I losing my mind?

Perhaps.

That time of year.

Keep your eye on the ball.

The really big ball.