Inter­view cour­tesy of Patrick Hazelwood:

Richard Gerst is an up-​​and-​​comer that is mak­ing SERIOUS waves both in the States as well as in Europe. He seam­lessly moves from high-​​fashion to com­mer­cial work and is get­ting cov­ers left and right now. He is the dar­ling of the model agen­cies being begged to shoot all their “new” and “big” faces alike. For a rel­a­tive new­bie, he is already encroach­ing on the ter­ri­tory of such names as Bruce Weber, Hud­son Wright, Rick Day, Stephen Klein, and some such. EC had the oppor­tu­nity to talk with the ever so busy Mr. Gerst and get a lit­tle insight into his world of fash­ion photography.

Q: When and where did you get your start in pho­tog­ra­phy? Give us a peek into the back­ground of Mr. Gerst.

A: When I was in my 20’s I remixed and com­posed dance music. After mov­ing to NYC in 1995 I did some inde­pen­dent label remixes that were pressed to vinyl, but I real­ized imme­di­ately that I really couldn’t enjoy other peo­ple lis­ten­ing, because even though I love to go out, I tend to be asleep by 10 pm.

So in 2005 I began think­ing more visually…

I bought my first dig­i­tal Canon in ’05 and shot maybe 10 test shoots from some agency guys from 2006–2009 just for fun.

They were all pretty aver­age except ONE. The dif­fer­ence being — the model and I .The agency was like “Wow! VERY nice images!”

Around Feb of 2008 I saw an edi­to­r­ial spread in Pref mag­a­zine out of Paris with images by Rick Day, and it was like being struck by lightning.

I con­tacted Steve Benisty, Rick’s rep, and insisted on meet­ing Mr. Day,

One of the most impor­tant things Rick told me, and I will never for­get it:

“Richard: Stop shoot­ing what you think oth­ers want. Shoot what Richard wants. It will come through in the images.”

Q: No mat­ter what the indus­try, there is always that inspi­ra­tion or role model. For me, it was a com­bi­na­tion of Mar­cus Schenken­berg (who has since become a friend) and Tyson Beck­ford. Markus, because he was the 1^st male model I knew by name and to earn over 1 mil­lion dol­lars as a model when I was FIRST get­ting approached to be in this busi­ness which I knew noth­ing about, and Tyson because he weak­ened the color bar­rier and paved the way for black guys like me to go to places like Italy, Aus­tralia, Paris, etc and be taken seri­ously as a model. Who was you’re the first pho­tog­ra­pher whose work really “spoke” to you?  What was the first photo that cap­tured your atten­tion? In mod­el­ing for me, there was the iconic shot of Tyson and Naomi Camp­bell for Polo Ralph Lauren.

A: This is a tough question.

Obvi­ously Day– and I specif­i­cally emu­lated him in this first year of shoot­ing edi­to­r­ial work.

Weber, Testino, and Ritts as well.

Q: Your pic­tures are always so beau­ti­fully exe­cuted and you are so easy to work with. These pho­tos taken for this EMERALD CHIC fea­ture, are some of my favorite shots and you seemed to have a clear idea of how you wanted to present me.  When I arrived at your stu­dio, you had already prepped sets, had props, and were ready to shoot the 1^st look within min­utes of my arrival with­out  hav­ing met me.  The expe­ri­ence was great

A: The set up for a shoot com­pletely depends on the lead-​​in. If an agency calls and needs a nice head­shot plus a lit­tle of my magic then I have an expec­ta­tion of start­ing with strobes and a spe­cific set­ting and look.  Then I dis­cuss other options with the tal­ent often based  on pre­vi­ous work and the per­son I think I see through their images or book. Some­times I ask about their hob­bies or goals or work or char­i­ties. I like con­fi­dent mas­culin­ity and sex­ual energy, so to send me a guy and not expect that I will try to obtain a  shot that is visu­ally excit­ing on a sen­sual level is quite frankly … stupid.

And I don’t really care how they have been pre­vi­ously portrayed.

Q: What “story” did you have in mind for the beau­ti­ful shots that accom­pany this article?

A: Hav­ing known about you, your work and your fash­ion con­nec­tions, shoot­ing you was interesting.

You were only the 4^th black model I have ever shot, one of the oth­ers being Nazri Segaro of Project Run­way (who’s por­trait hangs in my pri­vate col­lec­tion, with the other print in a famous actress’ apt in Manhattan …).

… I want the viewer to feel like they see a glimpse of that person’s soul.

When I met you I got a sense of your enthu­si­asm, your will­ing­ness to work hard, a cer­tain sex­i­ness …I sensed a slight antic­i­pa­tion… that you really wanted a suc­cess­ful shoot.

There­fore, I wanted to show a cou­ple of shots that might sug­gest some­thing softer about you, some­thing a bit more vul­ner­a­ble and approach­able, some­thing real, and a glimpse of an inti­mate moment that only your clos­est friends might experience…the sim­ple basis for your story.

Q: I was hon­ored to have been added to your ros­ter of mod­els. Please tell our EMERALD CHIC audi­ence how you go about select­ing subjects?

A: The inter­net and dig­i­tal pub­lish­ing have com­pletely rewrit­ten the book on how emerg­ing pho­tog­ra­phers find tal­ent.  The truth is, I sim­ply can­not accom­mo­date all of the requests I receive.  As I move into more celebri­ties and PR firms, via LA and NYC, I con­tact any­one I am inter­ested in.  I think what I am most inter­ested in is not only a strong phys­i­cal pres­ence and good face, but some­thing play­ful.  I am drawn to light … both the phys­i­cal medium and from within.

Q: Along the same line, I have been mod­el­ing for years and have noted that, much like our female coun­ter­parts, male mod­els too have been shrink­ing in size. One need just look at the cur­rent Prada and Burberry cam­paigns to see this. There were times in Paris, where I was “too big”. The design­ers were speak­ing in French, and had no idea I was flu­ent in it. It is refresh­ing to see a pho­tog­ra­pher that shoots fit men with a fash­ion­able edge. What is your take on this? Do you get a lot of pres­sure to select skin­nier models?

No. For cam­paigns, I don’t choose.  For edi­to­r­ial work, it depends on the book and I tar­get accord­ingly. I am also a nat­u­ral­ist, and I appre­ci­ate lean and not overly muscular.

Q: EMERALD CHIC read­ers saw your recent cover for DNA magazine…spectacular! What is on the hori­zon for Mr. Gerst? What upcom­ing projects can we look for­ward to? There are rumors of sev­eral edi­to­ri­als and a book??? Do tell.

A: Thanks for that!

My first book “Defen­sio” being pub­lished by Out­next Media for the iPad is await­ing approval from Apple, Inc. as we speak. Prob­a­bly by the hol­i­days it will be out. A very lim­ited edi­tion hard­bound ver­sion, signed and num­bered, will ship about  mid Jan 2011. Prob­a­bly only 20–30 copies for at about $300 apiece (more than half already spo­ken for). I

” I am always work­ing on new edi­to­r­ial work, includ­ing shoot­ing for 2 print Euro­pean mag­a­zines, a USA mag­a­zine, and a pos­si­ble story in an Inter­na­tional Fash­ion mag­a­zine with a female actress that I am very excited about.

Q: As EMERALD CHIC is a fash­ion spot, what trends do you see in the fore­front when it comes to fash­ion pho­tog­ra­phy (and fash­ion in general)?

A: For men, I see a move back to more sen­su­al­ity and body work with lean, nat­ural mus­cu­lar­ity. I think straight Amer­i­can men are finally get­ting com­fort­able see­ing a guy that is in awe­some shape with­out much cloth­ing on.… While gay men or women may find the image sen­sual, straight men are more on the level of “Wow, that guy works hard.” I have also noticed that younger men have stopped defin­ing them­selves by their sex­u­al­ity and I find that inter­est­ing, and a state­ment about dif­fer­ences in gen­er­a­tions (mine vs. theirs).

www​.richardgerst​.com

(+1) 561.NYC.FOTO

SO THERE I WAS WATCHING A FRIEND of mine pack for a job abroad and saw him unfold­ing what looked to be a clas­sic pashmina.

 “J, what’s the deal with the pash­mina? Can’t say I have seen many guys sport­ing those.”

“Patrick, first of all, when you fold it like this (he quickly wrapped it into a clas­sic “scarf knot”) no one has any idea it is as large as it is, it looks like a nor­mal scarf, and sec­ondly, you know how cold those trans-​​Atlantic flights can be and have you seen what they have found on those sup­pos­edly clean, vac­uum packed blan­kets on the planes?!?!”

 He had me with that!!!! I had read the arti­cles and was sold! It was then that I too started trav­el­ing with a pash­mina as a scarf; in fact, there is one I leave in my carry-​​on.

Well, this month’s “PATRICK’S FAVORITE THINGS” includes the ulti­mate in over-​​sized wraps, from PORTOLANO the lux­ury cash­mere and leather goods com­pany. Estab­lished in Italy in 1895, this com­pany not only pro­duces under the fam­ily name, but is also the sup­plier to such labels as Moschino, Alberta Fer­retti, and Armani, to name but a few, and is a favorite amongst many a celebrity. The “hand” of the wrap USD$90.00 defies descrip­tion, but I can say it is a bit smaller than the clas­sic pash­mina, but is a gor­geous alter­na­tive. It is a super thick, light grey-​​ribbed cash­mere that is so incred­i­bly soft to the touch. I have a flight to the Caribbean soon and know this will dou­ble as the per­fect super lux­u­ri­ous in-​​flight blan­ket. It has replaced my $10 sidewalk-​​special ver­sion as my must have for travel.

While check­ing out the wraps, I couldn’t resist a few more of this ven­er­a­ble house’s offerings.

The deer­skin gloves USD$55.00 pic­tured are beau­ti­fully hand-​​stitched and lined in the warmest rab­bit fur. The color is not quite black, not quite brown, so it goes with almost every coat and they are incred­i­bly warm. The leather is noth­ing short of sump­tu­ous and, with time, they become “like but­ter”! They are a replace­ment for a beloved pair from the com­pany that had worn in per­fectly. Unfor­tu­nately, some­one at The Rose Bar liked them more than I, and made off with them…yes, I AM still a bit bitter!!!!

The two other items were pure indul­gences. The striped sweater USD$150.00 is a beau­ti­ful light­weight cash­mere which would be wear­able for at least 8 months out of the year. And those gloves…those gloves, deer­skin palms with cro­chet back­ing USD$30.00 beau­ti­ful. And…SOOOO UNIQUE… 

PORTOLANO mer­chan­dise is avail­able at select bou­tiques, Bergdorf Good­man, Neiman Mar­cus, Saks, Lord and Tay­lor, and Bloomingdale’s, and on line at www. por​tolano​.com.

Pho­tos cour­tesy of Thomas Beaudoin!