These pictures of Ric Arnett, shot at Vasquez Rocks north of Los Angeles, were originally intended to be displayed as a series called Man At The Bottom Of The Earth as shown below. However, when I began hanging them for a show I was doing in Hollywood I noticed that they somehow all fit together like a landscape even though they were shot at different times and in different locations throughout the day. I liked the landscape effect so I worked with the arrangement a little and renamed the series Manscape. The images were shot on Polaroid, printed on Cibachrome and flush-mounted on wood.
This piece is called Birth of Man and is from a series of images I created with Ric Arnett at Vasquez Rocks north of Los Angeles.
A former ballet dancer turned musician and masseur, Ric has an awareness of his body and a gracefulness to his movements that makes working with him a dream. Even here in this image, completely naked against the sharp rough rocks, Ric's body is lythe, graceful and sensuous.
His arm and hand that wrap around the rock his head is leaning on and his foot that's extended out towards the edge of the image both conform so gracefully to the environment that they've become one with it. And that's one of the things that's always made working with Ric so interesting; wherever he is and no matter what he's doing he fills the spaces he's in by being in harmony with them.
What I like so much about this image is its primal rawness; the earth and sky and naked body all fused into one without a trace of anything civilized. Ric's body is lean and muscular but draws no attention to itself. It's as if the rocks themselves had birthed him and he has yet to stand up and test his legs.
It's difficult to even describe what it is a dancer brings to an image like this - but it's a lot. And in Ric's case it's just about everything. His body, which is one of the most beautiful I've ever photographed, always knows instinctually exactly where it needs to go to look good.
Dancers...
