Beautiful: Mark Henderson

CONSCIOUSLY POSITIONED AND SPECIALLY STYLES WITH PURPOSEFUL PROPS AND A CALCULATED EYE FOR DETAIL. MARK HENDERSON ONCE AGAIN INVITES US AT HIS HOME, JOINING A PARTY OF THE MIST BEAUTIFUL MEN STANDING, KNEELING, LOUNGING OR EXPOSING THEM OTHERWISE PURELY FOR OUR PLEASURE. WHETHER SPLAYED ACROSS DISHEVELLED BEDDING, SPRAWLED ON A CHAIR, CHAISSE OR SOFA, LEANING IN A DOOR JAMB OR PEERING OUT A WINDOW, MARK HENDERSON’S MEN SEEM CASUAL AND NATURAL. DISTRACTED, SELF-ABSORBED OR SEEMINGLY UNAWARE OF BEING OBSERVED, THEY SEDUCE YOU AND DRAW YOU INTO THEIR UNREALISTIC REALITY. WITHOUT SAYING COME CLOSER IF YOU DARE, IT IS ALL YOU WANT TO DO.

At first glance you light think Mark Henderson is a person of habit. True, he found a golden formula inviting the hottest men and staging them against the stunning architectural backdrop of his Texas home. True he has able to fill four books with them before. But it is also true that his concept is a successful one. His previous books Household Idols, Suburban Pleasures and Poolside are all bestsellers, and his forth volume named Luminosity will doubtless follow the same path. There is nothing wrong with that habit. But if you look closely, you will see there is nothing habitual about Mark’s work. Every book is different, each carefully staged portrait unique. The only habit of Mark Henderson is his talent and his vision of male beauty. And frankly, that is a habit we will never get enough off.

Mark, welcome back. Luminosity is your fourth photo book. Compared to Household Idols, Suburban Pleasures, and Poolside, what makes Luminosity different?
Mark: Thank you for the warm welcome! All of my books are intentionally related… naked men, of course, remain my primary subject…but Luminosity is slightly different in that the chosen images utilize light (largely available light) as a unifying formal element in every picture.

What does “luminosity” mean to you?
Mark: For me, “luminosity” refers to the way light enters interior spaces and reflects off various surfaces, giving a lustrous shimmer to objects and textures, especially beautiful bare skin.

As before, you have used your own home in Texas as the background for your book. It must be quite strange to walk through your house and to know so many beautiful hot men have posed there, naked…
Mark: Ha! Not particularly. Naked men at my house is pretty much business as usual! I bought this house primarily because I knew it would serve as a perfect setting for my photography and I shoot almost continuously so I must admit I don’t have much time to ponder how unusual my life is…. but now that you mention it…

After your Edendale Studios website, you recently launched your Mark Henderson site. Can you tell us a bit more about this new venture?
Mark: The original Edendale Studios website was created in 2005 or so and hadn’t been updated much since then. Although Edendale Studios, LLC remains my company name, I now work primarily under my own name. Rather than updating the existing site I created a new website… MarkHendersonPhotography.com. The old Edendale Studios site is defunct, although it’s archived at the new site. At the moment MarkHendersonPhotography.com largely serves as a place where people (specifically potential models) can learn more about me and my work. Eventually the site will provide a way for people to order individual prints, but I haven’t started that aspect of my business yet.

In Luminosity we see some familiar faces (among other things). It looks like you have built quite a good relationship with many of your models. Knowing the men so well, I’m sure some funny things happen during the shoots every now and then. Can you share some good memories with us?
Mark: Oh yes, there are all sorts of stories to tell, most of which are too long to recount here…I’ll save them for my memoir, if I ever write one. Having said that, I do remember one nice story regarding the incredibly masculine and magnificently built model, Cayden Ross. During the shoot I mentioned to him that I’d like to do a set with him wearing a sports coat and a bow tie. The tie unfortunately wasn’t pre-tied. During a break Cayden took it upon himself to go online and learn how to tie the tie. He showed up to the set with the bow tied perfectly. Tying a tie may not seem like much, but making that extra effort really endeared him to me and demonstrated a type of commitment that I don’t see very often. And by the way, the pictures from that set turned out beautifully.

What is the next project for Mark Henderson?
Mark: I have two or three book projects in mind. I just sold my house and studio in Los Angeles and as a very personal project I’m hoping to put together a book, a sort of visual memoir, of some of my favorite images shot there over the years. I have thousands and thousands of images from which to choose, most of which have never been published. It’s been a wonderful experience revisiting those old photo sets and rediscovering good pictures about which I had almost forgotten. –BM-

MARK HENDERSON | BEAUTIFULMAG