The story of narcissus is part of the Greek mythology and as always it’s telling us the strength and weaknesses of the gods, and a whole bunch of half-gods, Nymphs and other creatures, as a moralistic example for us mortals. Narcissus was counted among the most handsome young man, even the God Apollo has fallen in love with him.
Those early Greeks had a crush for the male on male thing, not sure though if it was as ‘normal’ within the early Greek society as some gay people like to think, but in their mythological stories its quite often described. Anyway, one day Narcissus discovered his own image reflection in a pool and he immediately fell in love with himself. He was so much fascinated with his own beauty he could not lift his eyes from his own image. He remained by the pool looking at himself until he died, or as other resources say, transformed into the flower, still wearing his name until today.
I’ll never miss an opportunity to tell one of these great ancient stories, but the artist Pierre Yves Monnerville is to blame this time, by calling one of his images Narcissus. The Narcissus image is part of of a new direction this photographer is heading. In the past he worked primarily as a fashion and male modeling photographer, but he is now building up a collection of free work, with the male nude as his subject.
His first series are indeed promising, small visual stories, with lots of naked men and muscles involved, like the narcissus one, but basic nudes as well. The relation between his fashion work and free photography is still obvious, not that I have a problem with that, but personally I think the experiment I see in the stories will have a stronger potential in the long run.
But for now I know for sure I’m doing a lot of our visitors a favor by featuring some well build naked men in this gallery. Some visitors were complaining about the lack of updates in the male nudes section, you see I listen ;-)
More stories & naked men by Pierre Yves Monnerville
