los angeles men's fashion and beauty photographer ronald n. tan

Personal Project has been helping me improve direction at eliciting erotic undertones. My mainstream work with agencies on my website, www.ronaldntan.com, is considered tame compared to the images from Personal Project.

I know Personal Project is in its infancy, but I am hoping it would evolve into a photographic anthology recording my progress and comfort levels.

I found Danny on ModelMayhem.com and he agreed to contribute to Personal Project. Teaser pics to follow.

I finally decided to affix and preface my “Personal Project” with an artist statement. Perhaps some of you are thinking, “What’s the big deal with nudity?” If you know me and how I was brought up, perhaps you’ll understand me.

I was born into an academic-centric and conservative family and our Burmese culture has restrictions and taboos on sexuality. As a gay man whom came out Jan 30, 2006, I find East-Indian men beautiful and enamored by their culture, entertainment, and cuisines. I love everything Indian–I considered myself at times “a Desi-at-heart.” Friends and family whom are aware of my fascination joked that if I visit India, I’d never want to leave. The Indian government would have to forcefully evict me from their grounds. I truly feel passionate towards East-Indian men and their greater culture.

The purpose of Personal Project (for now) is taking East-Indian male models whom are socially repressed because of their culture and mutually and regally explore sexuality by modeling for edgy photography that borderlines with our comfort levels. I’ve drawn a clear and unmistakable borderline to never cross and together we’ll help each other build confidence and trust while exploring the genre together.

Between trying to modestly survive in pursuit of my dreams, Personal Project is in its infancy and I hope it would ameliorate itself and grow into fruition. Between editorial shoots and trying to learn the business behind photography, I have faith and hopes in myself and abilities to study Personal Project regally with class. I am honored and felt privileged to receive the help from Freddy, Asher, Hasan, and Sukh.

If you have questions and comments, please feel free to send me an email directly.

Cheers and best in health!

Sukh is pronounced “Sook.”

I am continuing my regal and classy studies of male nudes and my friend Sukh whom I met in July 2008 stopped by today and helped me. I feel that when shooting nudes–TRUST must be established and earned.

I’ve been pushing myself towards the borderline for art’s sake and these images were produced in good taste and class.

Prototype images.

If you’re an ethnic male model with multi-ethnicities and would like to further assist me with the Personal Project, please follow the instructions on my website: http://www.ronaldntan.com/

When Sukh arrived, I had chai ready. Before he left, I made him a Burmese Papaya shake–his first time and he enjoyed it.

First, let’s get something straight. I am NOT in short supply of male models for my commercial and editorial work. With two years under my belt as an auto-didactic photographer, I’ve earned the trust and confidence of nearly all the agencies with strong mens board across, LA, SF, Miami, and NYC. I’ve contributed to the many agencies’ book with my images. Having said that, when it comes to personal projects, I need help!

Recently, I had the courage and the audacity to challenge my personal demons regarding creating images that my culture considers “taboo.” These are regal visages of the elusive beauty of the male form in the class and elegance of the late Mr. Herb Ritts. I had many unpleasant dealing with “so-called” professional models, but this one deserved to be blogged.

This 32-years old male model added me on Facebook and I add everyone that wants to be friends. I wrote him a message because I thought he might be interested in helping me. In my email, I sent him the exact link on my website that explained my prerequisites and submit if interested. He replied that, “he’s interested and would like to help.” He had “seen my incredible works and would love to be apart of it.”

I later received a Facebook IM. I was polite and told him that I would be honored to be the recipient of his help. Our conversation continued and I mentioned nudity. He wrote back, “I don’t do nudity.” At this point, he did not read my Modeling Info: http://ronaldntan.com/docs/ModelingInfo.pdf. I got moderately upset for bringing my hopes up and taking that away! I called him out on his incompetency at reading and he got defensive telling me, “he got all of his jobs by keeping his clothes on.”

OK…you’re the one that initiated contact and I reciprocated by sending you a message hoping you might want to help me. Our conversation was going no-where and I bluntly told him, “We’re professionally incompatible” and un-friended him.

I finally decided to share my exploratory results. I hope you’ll find them in good taste and class. I want to thank all the male models for permitting me to capture them in the complete truth and honesty exuding the elusive beauty of the male form I find truly beautiful.

http://ronaldntan.com/site.html#/nudes

I’ve been enjoying an interesting journey this year in 2009. I entered year 2009 with hope and optimism. It is a year of changes and challenges for me. One of the areas I want to further explore is the male nudes–all in the class and elegance. I made a post about my first nudes experience with Armando.

I now want to introduce Gabriel, my second nude male model. I was very appreciative of Gabriel’s help. The photograph is cropped for blog purposes, but the actual photo to be uploaded to my website soon will not be cropped.

Gabriel was from Brazil and he LOVES cars! His car was in the shop and so he had to borrow his girlfriend’s and stopped by at my place. At first Gabe was a little too self-critical and shy. But as we progressed from head shots and to the actual nudes, he came more and more trusting and confident. He’s an interesting person and I was glad to have met him and explore male nudes with him.

Gabe’s MM profile: http://www.modelmayhem.com/member.php?id=75928.

I am continuing my male nudes this Wednesday. I’ve found a great model. I’ll be properly introducing him then.