Beautiful: BeautifulMag Cover Story | Eric Crawley, Going Native

“ALMOST TWO YEARS HAS PASSES AND I DECIDED TO FINALLY WORK WITH MR. BROCKINGTON AGAIN. AND THIS TIME WE WOULD CREATE SOMETHING MORE BREATHTAKING THAN OUR FIRST COLLABORATION TOGETHER. NOT ONLY ARE WE BOTH PERFECTIONISTS, BUT WE DEFINITELY PUSH EACH OTHER, LEARNING MORE AND MORE ABOUT TAKING THE MOMENT AND CAPTURING IT EFFECTIVELY IN A FRAME. WE DISCUSSED ABOUT HOW BOTH OF US HAVE GROWN AND OBSTACLES WE CAME ACROSS SINCE THE LAST WE MET, AND IT ONLY FUELLED THE PHOTO SHOOT TAKING US FAR BEYOND WHAT WE PLANNED. I SUGGESTED THE INDIAN CONCEPT BECAUSE I WANTED TO EMBRACE MY PHYSICAL BEING. I CHANNELLED MY INNER CHIEF AND WANTED TO THESE SETS OF PHOTOS TO CONVEY THAT THIS IS MY SKIN, MY CHOICE, MY POWER, MY ART, MY WORLD, THIS IS ME…ERIC CRAWLEY.”

Eric Crawley is a model and emerging R&B music artist whom we featured first on BeautifulMag back in August 2010. Eric is driven and determined to make it in the entertainment industry. Growing up he was a beautiful kid and he got scouted as a child model at very young age already. After a few years he gave it a rest though, until two years ago, when he decided to give in to the longing he felt to step back in front of the camera. “I knew that being in front of the camera was another passion of mine. I soon looked up local photographers and came across Calvin Brockington who took amazing photos really capturing the essence of his models.” Eric grew up to be a fully developed man with an impressive physique and personality and he knows how to put that to use. His first cooperation with Calvin Brockington was his jump back into the swing of things. “He [Calvin] taught me a few rules to live by that I could take with me for future shoots. I also learned for myself what I would and wouldn't do in the long run, but things soon changed with time. From that first photo shoot many local and national photographers began to notice something new heating up in Dallas, Texas and curiosity formed more and more about me.”

Picking up his modelling career Eric Crawley soon fell back in the routine he had learned at young age. Except this time he learned he possessed a sex appeal and he knew that was something he could work with. His popularity grew fast and it wasn’t for long before Eric became a name in the industry. And with his fame came a side of exposure he was less charmed with. “I stumbled upon some pretty shocking things,” Eric explains. “I started to see some personal nude photos of myself in the mix of my professional ones being posted everywhere. It scared me right away and I couldn't fathom the thought of people who knew me best to come across it.” Now Eric is not exactly unblessed in the sexual department and he came to notice how people commented positively on those unwelcome publications, which eventually triggered him to think that maybe nude wasn’t so bad after all. As an experiment he snapped some candid shots of himself with a camera phone and posted them out there just to see what response he would get. Captured by the excitement Eric realised he was getting besides himself, losing himself in the process and slowly began to spiral more and more as time went on. Working hard on pursuing a career in music, he came to realize his name was being known more of my anatomy and less of my music. In a way he did appreciate it until people started to associate him with porn.

Professionally and candidly Eric Crawley’s photos are moments he captures. “People will take that moment and create their own idea and make something of it. My pictures maybe of me nude and "hanging" but that's pretty much what they are to someone who doesn't look at it as a whole. I know people will lust over my photos and or appreciate the energy it gives them among seeing it. I also experienced the discussions whether it would hurt my in my dreams of becoming a recording superstar.” At first this realization struck a huge cord in Eric’s heart. The last thing he wanted is his first love of music to be taken from him because of the photos I took. Though for Eric his music and his photos are two different things, he noticed not everyone could see it that way. But it was that single-mindedness that confused him most. “My music is overall about love and inspiration while my photos are more so in the fast world of sex appeal and edge. I don't want to confuse my fans and or audience and have them leave me because of my choices, but then again I am human and feel that it’s ok to have other outlets to express myself.”

For Eric Crawley art is art. And art is what he is about. His voice, his body, his face, his smile. And yes, even his sex. For Eric it is all a canvas. And so he made the bold decision to go back to what he believes expresses that most: photography that shows him at his most vulnerable while adding an element that he is in complete charge of himself. He contacted Calvin Brockington, shook of the limitations laid upon him by society and went native, back to square one. Eric knows that this choice will have consequences. He knows that once again people will contact him, asking and urging him to take it a step further. “I have already received a lot of emails and notices offering me to do porn because of my dick size and how it appeals to the masses throughout the Internet. One thing they fail to realize is that although my photos give that energy, I don't agree with doing porn.” Eric has been offered great amounts of money but porn is not a world he aspires to get into. Eric Crawley is a human being who is not perfect but willing to take chances in life. His photos and his music are his way to express that. –BM-

Photography by Calvin Brockington.
To learn more about Eric Crawley’s music, visit his YouTube Music channel.

ERIC CRAWLEY | BEAUTIFULMAG
CALVIN BROCKINGTON | BEAUTIFULMAG