Photographer and makeup artist Steven D. Hill knows how to bring the drama

STEVEN LINDSEY  | Contributing Writer
stevencraiglindsey@me.com

When Steven D. Hill decided to showcase his two talents — photography and dynamic makeup artistry — in a local exhibit, he was turned down by every gallery he approached. Rather than accept defeat, he pooled his resources and produced one all on his own.

It’s not his first time making himself over. In college, Hill took courses in fashion design and makeup for the stage, but it wasn’t until after graduation that he discovered his talent for photography. Other than skimming through a photography how-to book, he’s completely self-taught. Hill has already made a name for himself in the local fashion community through his work on both sides of the camera.

“To be honest, my technique and point of view came from trial and error,” he says. “The talent was there, I didn’t know.”

It isn’t all just an ego trip Hill. At 26, he is ready for his art to help give back. On Aug. 18, his Heads with HeARTS exhibit debuts, benefiting Vogel Alcove, an organization dedicated to helping homeless children. (Admission is free, but patrons are asked to bring an in-kind donation such as toys, arts supplies and clothing for children aged six weeks to 5 years.)

Hill takes the principles he learned from design communication and color theory and translates that to what he sees through his camera lens. His specialty is shockingly fashion-forward imagery with splashes of supersaturated color contrasted to moody monochromes.

“I believe the interactive media side of my studies taught me how to better understand composition and how to communicate through design,” he says. “It’s my art. I really enjoy creating art and capturing it through the lens of a camera, using the unique forms of light to create an amazing photograph. Just like a painter, it takes tools to produce a great image.”

Hill says that his photography is his way of expressing his artistic creativity through the power of a digital process. He describes his photographic style as the foundation of fashion, pop culture and media combined — a twist on fashion and photography.

His interest in makeup, however, came years before he ever thought about looking through a lens.

“I watched my mother in the bathroom as she prepared for her day,” he says. “I have always felt the power behind what she was doing.”

That inspiration led him to the path he’s on today.

“I admire the fact how you are able to recreate the appearance of someone. How the smallest amount of color can make the pupil appear different; how lining the eye makes it pop.

“Adding false lashes changes a person 50 percent,” Hill says. “It just shocks me how people feel once I do my job as a makeup artist. It’s lovely to hear people say, ‘You just made my day, only because you made me feel beautiful.’”

His main goal in makeup is to make people feel different and look like something other than their normal selves.

“Transformation!” Hill declares. “While the traditional use of makeup is to enhance beauty, it can be used to create illusion. I do not confine its use to the standards necessary for a typical photo shoot.”

It’s clear he has a flair for the unusual. His style ranges from showcasing models who look like they’re wearing no makeup at all to avant garde uses of color and texture to create an otherworldly, super-glam aesthetic.

A rising star, he continues to evolve and learn new aspects of both his complementary crafts, while continuing to showcase them in tandem. There’s still room for him to grow and though doors have been shut in the past for the young artist, his perseverance will surely find them opening faster than ever. This year, he had the pleasure of working with Grammy -winning recording artist Erykah Badu, but that’s just the beginning of the climb for this artist whose aspirations have him dreaming really big. His ultimate goal, he says, is “to become internationally known, make a name for myself.”

The second part is already falling into place, so he’s definitely off to a great start.

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Carved in stone

If anyone can appreciate rock-hard abs, it’s a gay man. And Scott Gentry knows how to create them in several ways: For himself, through rigorous sit-ups; and for his subjects, a hammer and chisel. And both require a lot of work.
Gentry used to call Dallas home, but he’s been in North Carolina in recent years, working on a degree in nursing while still pursuing his stone sculpture art.

Gentry gets a homecoming or sorts on Saturday, when he returns to Dallas for a showing of some of his latest work (which includes phenomenal male nudes that approximate discoveries in the ruins of Mycenae) with a one-night-only event at The Brick. Best of all, a portion of the proceeds from sales that night will benefit Resource Center Dallas. Just think: You go to a bar and can take home a hunk. And you don’t even have to buy him a drink.
— Arnold Wayne Jones

Scott Gentry: Expressions in Stone, The Brick,
2525 Wycliff Ave., suite 120.
Aug. 13, 7–11 p.m.
ScottGentrySculpture.com

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 12, 2011.

Photographer Bruno Rand descends on Dallas in search of the next fashion pinup boy. Could it be you?

MODEL CITIZENS Bruno Rand got to shoot these men. In person. And he hopes to find the next one in Dallas.

IN THE FLESH
Model contest at JR.’s Bar & Grill, 3911 Cedar Springs Road. Jan. 13. Registration at 9:30 p.m.; contest at 11 p.m. Caven.com

Bruno Rand has a taxing job — long hours, relatively low pay, lots of travel. Then again, there are probably few gay men who wouldn’t jump at the chance to change places with him, even for a day.

A fashion photographer who specializes in sexy underwear and swimsuit shoots, the Arkansas-born Rand spends his days surrounded by hot, muscled models in various degrees of disrobe. And he’s planning to continue that work in Dallas this week. On Wednesday, Rand will be in town for a model contest at JR.’s Bar & Grill, where local men can compete for cash, the chance to appear in one of his sexy calendars and bragging rights for hottest guy in Texas.

And we know Texas is full of hot guys already.

Before his appearance, Rand discussed how he ended up behind the camera and what he’s really looking for when he comes to town. •

Dallas Voice: The most obvious question everyone wants to ask: How did you get your job and where can I apply? Rand: Ha! It’s funny. To [others] it looks like a photographer who shoots sexy guys has the best job in the world — and it is fun at times — but in the end, it’s a job just like anything else. It’s very hard work, especially if you want to be good at it. It takes a tremendous amount of concentration and focus; for those photographers who go into the business just as an excuse to get to see guys naked in front of them, it’s almost guaranteed that that photographer’s work won’t be very good, because they’re not focusing on getting a good shot, they’re focusing on looking at … other things.

But to answer your question, I’ve written a number of plays, screenplays and attempted TV scripts. When I was in L.A. a few years back, I had a great deal of down time so I turned to my camera out of boredom, taking some pics of friends who were actors. Those first photos turned out pretty good. I’m still a writer — in fact, I have a TV show currently in pre-production — but I’ll never put down my camera.

So what are the downsides of sexy fashion photography? And the best parts! The best parts of the job are, first, when you turn out a photo that’s so good, it’s almost like a work of art, and second, the friends that I’ve made with some of the models. But there are definitely downsides. The agencies almost make it their business to try to take advantage of photographers. Shooting with models who are in the business for the wrong reasons or who have an unrealistic expectation of the modeling businessare particularly difficult to work with. Oh, and despite what some people think, there is very little pay in photography, and it’s almost impossible to make a living from it.

What makes for a good model: Ripped abs, nice face, symmetry, good proportions? You said it: It all has to be there. Sad to say, but even the smallest amount of fat shows up on camera. But as I keep saying, personality goes a long, long way. When casting agents in New York see 100 guys in a day for a big shoot, they’ll remember the guy who made them laugh or smile, not necessarily the guy with the best face or body. I’m a sucker for a great personality and sense of fun.

What physique would you consider ideal? The big bodies don’t do it for me; the huge bodybuilders often can’t even hit certain poses because of their physical size. The ideal models’ bodies are those that are toned and beautifully proportioned but lithe enough to be fluid. A great model has to hit poses like a ballet dancer. But for raw sexual appeal, I think we’d have to look a long time to find a sexier body than Jakub Stefano. And there’s a new model who also has it in all the right places named David Costa. Google them; you’ll see what I mean.

What current underexposed celeb would you most like to shoot? You hit on an interesting nerve there. A lot of photographers don’t want to shoot someone after he’s "overexposed" or been shot by too many other photographers. Just like any good, self-respecting vampire, we all like to find our own "virgins!" But come on, who doesn’t want to shoot Taylor Lautner? Good god! I would have loved to have shot Simon Baker and Benjamin Bratt when they were younger and less famous, but not now. Maybe Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights — he’s hot, right?

Oh, yeah. So what are you looking for when you come to Dallas? I’m hoping to find some new young models who are great looking, and who have a sense of fun and daring. I shoot for a lot of clothing companies, magazines and underwear lines, so I’m also looking for someone who might be interested in doing some more professional work outside of Dallas. And I have my eye out right now for someone who can appear on television.

Do you ever find people, especially those early in their careers, who do racy shoots later regret it? Wow, did you hit a nerve there! How much time have we got? There is nothing more frustrating than to work with a fantastic looking guy, and the shoot starts to go really well and he gets his courage up, posing nude or in really provocative poses. I know that the second I put them out there, the model is going to be overwhelmed with job offers.

And then it happens: He makes the mistake of showing the pics to the wrong friends, and they tease him unmercifully and of course, someone inhis crowd says he "looks gay" and the model starts to panic. Before I know it, the model is demanding that I don’t show the pics to anyone.

Sadly, there is still a lot of homophobia in our world. Remember when Donald Trump almost hyperventilated when a gay Apprentice contestant put on a male fashion show with the models in tiny square-cuts? Appearing as "too gay" is still a kiss of death in many circles in the entertainment business, and when a man takes pride in being overtly sexual, it’s often interpreted as being gay. It’s fucked up and pathetically sad, but it’s real.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 8, 2010.

Gay photographer Alex Remington uses his painterly images to provoke his audience

PICTURE PERFECT
Remington’s work is featured in two local spaces: The "Ethereality" exhibition is at Cathedral of Hope, 5910 Cedar Springs Road. Through May 31. Free. The "In the Know" benefit and silent auction will be held at Dallas Contemporary, 2801 Swiss Ave. May 8. $25–$35.

Arnold Wayne Jones/Dallas Voice

Although Alex Remington has been an avid photographer for 10 years, it has been less than two that he has been selling, exhibiting and making his living with his work. For most of that time, he didn’t really think of his work as commercial at all.

"I would show them to friends and they’d say, ‘You did this?’ I couldn’t tell if they were any good until people starting offering to buy them," he says.
That’s when he decided to share his work.

"Share" is a word that comes up a lot when Remington talks about his pieces: Sharing his ideas with other people and asking them to share with him. He’s a thoughtful, modest man with model-good-looks — tall, fit, slightly graying at the temples — the kind you might expect to be obsessed with conventional beauty.

But in fact, Remington’s repertoire boasts a few architectural shots, some landscapes and no portraits. His eye looks elsewhere than traditional glamour for its inspiration.

"I want my images to have a surreal quality," he says.

That they have, often with the most ordinary of objects — a tree trunk, branches, water droplets, flowers, even the moon — appearing moody and ethereal… hence the name of his 27-piece exhibit at the Cathedral of Hope through the end of May, "Ethereality."

Remington is also one of the featured artists at "In the Know," a party and silent auction for Mental Health America on May 8 at the Dallas Contemporary. (Ted Kincaid, another gay Dallas artist who works in digital photography, also has a piece at the event.)

Remington classifies his photographs into two general categories: those that are highly manipulated and those that are essentially authentic. But even the authentic ones capture his vision in specific ways.

"One of my goals is to take ordinary objects and give them an artful edge," he says. "Unimportant things I like to emphasize. I like art that’s unexpected."

Many of the works at the Cathedral, for instance, are of trees: often the foreground is a strong, stable oak, with the branches in the background sway in the wind. That gives the picture three-dimensional layers in a two-dimensional space, but also a woozy, dreamlike feeling.

Some of Remington’s effects are created "in the camera" — long "bulb exposures," where the aperture of his camera remains open for up to two minutes. Others are the result of post-shot manipulation, such as bleeding the colors out of a series of orchids, transforming the image from its original vibrant yellows, reds and oranges into a stark, icy silver that looks more like glass sculpture than delicate flower. All of which is part of his greater aesthetic.

"I like it when people question what the subject matter is and see different things when they look at it. All art should provoke thought," he says. He points to a photo-mosaic he created from a single shot of dried roses as one that disorients many viewers. Although the two works weren’t meant to be coupled, Remington found it made more sense to move both prints closer and closer so that the connection would be clearer.

Not that he wants it to be clear all the time. Remington points to a particularly abstract photo which seems to be a horizontal blur. In reality, it’s a close up of the contours of a vase, turner on its side. But even the less abstract pieces have a painterly quality to them, one of the boons of the digital age.

"I like to blur the lines between painting and photography, between one idea and other," he says.

And between that blurriness emerges a precise and disciplined aesthetic.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 8, 2009.

So this is what it used to look like? New foto book compiles Big D’s history pre-Civil War through 1970s

CIRCA 1912: Real estate developers built this park as an inducement to buy lots in the Oak Lawn Addition. Later it was renamed in honor of Robert E. Lee.

For all the bitching about how Dallas doesn’t know the meaning of architectural salvage, you have to admit: Big D certainly has grown. After looking at the first few pages of “Historical Photos of Dallas” ($39.95, Turner), it’s easy to see that Dallas was a depressingly fugly, flat-as-a-pancake landscape back in the 1840s. A real dust town.

But by the 1930s, the skyline was already an impressive image of urban promise surrounded by rural scenes.

In just 200 pages, the book walks us through the centuries: 1840-1970. There’s not much historical text about Dallas just huge black-and-white pictures: a two-page spread of the police force in bowler hats, circa 1908; the ornate Wilson Building looking exactly the same since 1903; heaps of confiscated stills from the Prohibition era; all the old theaters that used to line Elm Street The Washington, The Old Mill, Hippodrome, Queen Moving Pictures, The Majestic

It’s not the best of its kind. “Dallas Rediscovered,” first published in 1978, is by far superior. But a stroll through the olden days is always fascinating.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, June 15, 2007.

Photographer captures Warhol’s funeral; Goss shows the shots

GRAND ENTRANCE: Draped in fur and wearing sunglasses, Raquel Welch works the paparazzi at Warhol’s service.

“Warhol would have loved it because it looked more like a movie premiere,” says Filippo Tattoni-Marcozzi.

The street in front of Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral was lined with limos. The walkway to the church was filled with celebrities. Paparazzi hovered around the velvet rope lined edges. And fashion photographer Christophe von Hohenberg recorded it all. The event? Andy Warhol’s funeral.

Last year, the images were compiled for “Andy Warhol: The Day the Factory Died” (Empire, $45), and Tattoni-Marcozzi has curated a selection of them to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Warhol’s death. It’s a fascinating examination of celebrity. And von Hohenberg couldn’t be happier about the show: “This is really where I want to be, doing my work and sharing it with the world,” he said last week during the gallery’s opening reception.

Goss is filled with the telling photographs of classic celebs, including Bianca Jaggar, Sophia Loren, and Deborah Harry as well copies of letters written by Warhol devotees.

Pieces from Warhol’s “Myths Portfolio” and a series of his pop portraits are also hanging in the show. The man himself would surely approve.

Goss Galley, 2500 Cedar Springs Road. Through May 19. 214-696-0555.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, April 27, 2007.

Dallas Voice reader unearths photo project of Cedar Springs. Part 2 east side, from Throckmorton to Regan

1984: Crossroads Market, Desk, Half Price Books, Records, Magazines, Cleaning Laundry, Dallas Gay Alliance, Union Jack Sportswear

2006: Crossroads Market, TapeLenders Video, An Occasional Place, Union Jack

The June 16 edition of Dallas Voice featured a “then and now” photo-spread of Cedar Springs Road that was shot by longtime Dallas resident Bryan Amann. Amann had recently dug out a box of old photos in his attic. One sleeve contained a “historical record” project about Oak Lawn that was taken on a springtime morning in 1984.

Amann, then a manager at J.R.’s Bar & Grill, photographed all the buildings along Cedar Springs Road from Oak Lawn Avenue to just past Throckmorton Street. Twenty-two years ago, Amann used his trusty Pentax MX 35-mm. For 2006, which was shot thee weeks ago, Amann used a digital Canon Rebel 35-mm.

1984: Round-Up Saloon (with The Mating Game on Monday), TapeLenders Video, Memorabilias, VW Records, Arresta

2006: Round-Up Saloon, Zen Clipz, Buli Cafe, OutLines Menswear Nuvo

The photos conjure up some dusty memories, and one reader spotted an oversight. In the June 16 edition, which featured photos of the west side of Cedar Springs, from Regan to Throckmorton, there was seemingly-looking vacant business the south neighbor of Panda’s Chinese Restaurant and Bar. But the crescent-shaped window on the front door triggered Dallas Voice reader Harriet Shaw’s memory: That space was occupied by the Moon Dreams tavern, a sophisticated lesbian bar that opened in August 1983 and later became Steve’s Bar S and then Big Daddies.

This week we’re publishing the photos of the east side of Cedar Springs Road, from Throckmorton to Regan Streets. We’ll unveil additional photos in upcoming editions.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition, June 30, 2006.