All The Young Dudes w/BTS Video!

I’m a sucker for amazing clothes. I’m also a sucker for hot boys. So when fashion stylist Katharine Polk pitched this story to me, I of course jumped on it! I love shooting male models. And male musicians. And I adore the blending of the two looks. In other words I like models who look like they could be in a rock band. And this story fits the bill, to a Tee.

Jimon Magazine #4 - "The Killers" from Melissa Rodwell on Vimeo.

Casting wasn’t hard. Ha! Casting gorgeous male models, you call that a job? I found them easily, too, here in NYC. They are a-plenty out here and if I had any problem at all it was narrowing the list down to 4. In fact, initially Katharine and I thought of using only 3 models but we couldn’t decide who to clip from our list so we just kept it at 4 and she pulled more clothes.

I had been in communication with JImon Aframian from Jimon Magazine, who had asked me to shoot for his last issue but because I was in the middle of moving out of our home in LA I wasn’t able to. But I knew he would have an issue coming out in Summer 2011 so I sent him a mood board, told him the concept and he approved it! He sent us a pull letter and Voila! We were ready to go!.

I shot this in a small studio in Brooklyn, with a few lights and a white seamless. I intended to have the story in Black and White so I shot it in Black and White. That way I could see the tones and contrast while I was shooting. Lighting was simple: a beauty dish and an octabank with a reflector hand held by one of my assistants at times. We had black V Flats on one side of the set, and a white wall on the other. This helped kick in some contrast. Shot with my Nikon and using the 24mm, the 85mm and the 105mm lenses for this shoot. Profoto was my lighting gear.

My models were DIVNE: Paul Boche and Randy Lebeau from Fusion Models were our first choices during the casting and they both sort of set the tone for the shoot. Randy was hilarious, such a GREAT personality. And Paul, well, he’s just so damn amazing looking I was in heaven having him in front of my lens. Jakob Dekat from Ford was recently featured as New Yorks Top 10 Emerging Models in The Ones 2 Watch blog (So was Paul Boche!!). And I can see why. Also a talented photographer and magazine editor, he’s destined for greatness. And Viggo Jonasson from DNA Models was all sexy and swagger in his Robert Plant-esque wonder!! The boys had a dynamic energy between them, dancing, flowing, running, jumping and head banging to the music and the vibe of the clothes. We had a lot of laughs that day, which at the end of the day, always makes for a more successful shoot.

Katharine pulled some great clothes. Labels like John Varvatos, Lost Art, Helen Yarmak Furs…….the list goes on! Katharine also has a great blog for all you who are interested in getting into styling: http://katharinepolk.blogspot.com/ You’ll definitely be hearing more from me about Katharine as we fit together very nicely when it comes to mutual vision and strong work ethics. I love working with her and will continue to do so for a long time. We also share an agent, Jackie Baes. I always have liked the idea of “keeping it in the family”.