Beautifulmag Cover Story | Jon Richards, Genie in a Bottle

THERE IS NO MYSTERY AS TO HOW JON RICHARDS ENTERED THE WORLD OF MODELING AND PHOTOGRAPHY. AS IT IS THE CASE WITH MANY, HE WAS FIRST INTRODUCED BY A FRIEND WHO HAPPENED TO FOLLOW A PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE AT UNIVERSITY. BUT THIS FIRST EXPERIENCE WAS LIKE RUBBING A MAGIC LAMP. JON’S MODELING PERSONALITY APPEARED LIKE A MAGICAL GENIE AND HAS STAYED WITH HIM EVER SINCE, TURNING EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES IN GOLD.

Only a few years ago, Jon Richards timidly placed himself in front of a friend’s camera to help visualizing a university photography project. Happy with the result of the session, he boldly decided to post the portraits on Model Mayhem hoping to receive at least some good comments.  Which is exactly what happened. And to his surprise it didn’t just ended there. It wasn’t for long that modeling job offers started to roll in.

26 years old Jon Richards lives and works in Manchester, UK. He successfully turned his initial modeling tryout into a professional career and has been published by several magazine websites already. Modeling has given him the courage to explore more directions in this territory and he came to the discovery of a hidden passion for acting. Moving into this direction, Jon can now already look back on some acting roles for both TV and theatre, and some of you might even recognize him from his performance during December 2011 in a stage production of Aladdin in which he played – yes – the Genie. Jon recalls: “I initially I felt overwhelmed and nervous for the first few shows but as I did more performances I became much more comfortable on stage and had a lot of fun.” Jon considers acting a possible career path worth pursuing and we for one wouldn’t mind seeing more of Jon on stage or even the wide screen.

But let’s go back to today. Jon Richards work out regime has resulted in a physical stage that has not gone unnoticed by talent scouts and photographers. Simon ‘Hotsnapz’ Barnes being one of them. Simon has a fine nose when it comes to discovering new hot talent so it was only a matter of time before his path would cross Jon’s. And when it did, the magic happened. “Since our initial contact I have had over 10 photo shoots with Simon alone and really enjoy working with him”, Jon says. “From the first day I met him I felt very comfortable both in front and away from the camera. I feel this relationship with him - or any other photographer for that matters - is important, as I feel more relaxed whilst posing for the camera and in turn produce better images. As a photographer Simon is extremely professional, paying attention to every detail which is shown through the quality of images he produces and I have been very happy with the results so far. I very much hope to keep working with Simon in the future as he is not only an extremely talented photographer but also a good friend.” –BM-

JON RICHARDS | BEAUTIFULMAG
HOTSNAPZ | BEAUTIFULMAG