Beautiful: BeautifulMag Cover Story

IN A WORLD AND ENVIRONMENT WHERE PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ALREADY HAS BEEN DONE, WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BE ORIGINAL? TO DO SOMETHING THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE REST SOMETIMES ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS TRY. CHALLENGE YOURSELF. ONLY THEN YOU CAN COME TO THE CREATION OF SOMETHING OUTSTANDING. MANY TIMES IT MIGHT END UP WITHOUT THE RESULT YOU WE STRIVING FOR. BUT EVERY NOW AND THEN YOU WILL SUCCEED. NIGE RORBACH DEFINITELY DID.

It is not so surprising that when Nige Rorbach decided to do an underwear shoot with Alfie Stone, he wanted to do it in a different way then the expected. It is true that "the hot guy in underwear shots" or "the hot guy without underwear shots" are pretty much everywhere these days and so Nige set out to use the same theme but give it a different angle. And Alfie Stone was apparently the perfect candidate for the experiment.

"I like to challenge myself to come up with different imagery, new concepts and ideas and new lighting and angles to keep my work fresh," Nige Rorbach explains his recent collaboration with Alfie Stone. "With BeautifulDirtySexy I wanted to tell more of a story, or at least show a much more editorial side of male beauty and physique imagery. When we saw the set, both of us fell in love with how it looked, and in a sense that was what gave us some of the ideas. The decor, bare floorboards, slightly dirty looking mattress, it almost called out to be used as our set." Nige is not entirely inexperienced when it comes to working in areas that look abandoned and in need of some remodelling. Already his much acclaimed project The Age of Man brings the viewer to some of those deserted and bare areas that Nige so skilfully married with his well shaped models. "The Age of Man was a really important part of my work, it always will be. It was my first art book, and the first time that I could really see the project come together in the way I wanted. But that concept, and the ideas behind the project, were more to do with wanting to challenge people's perceptions of masculinity and creating something that would generate a reaction."

BeautifulDirtySexy seems to be a transition project for Nige Rorbach and an introduction to his new project Pin Ups & Icons. It is his way of taking something he considers beautiful, the male form, and putting it in surroundings that aren't necessarily complimentary or expected. It is a form of photography that requires a certain amount of art direction and emotion, that Nige is also planning to use for Pin Ups & Icons. This new projects focuses on male pin ups and iconic imagery inspired by popmusic magazine posters and Playgirl centrefolds. "With Pin Ups & Icons I'm also looking at the more editorial and edgy shots of models, because by definition they are there to be admired, to sell a product, and to look their best." Nige hopes of course that, like The Age of Man, Pin Ups & Icons will result in a high quality photo book. Already he is preparing a chapter which will be dedicated to his own icon Herb Ritts, who was a huge inspiration for Nige throughout his studies.

But before that there is BeautifulDirtySexy, featuring Alfie Stone. Alfie is a model who divides his time between working in Liverpool, his hometown, and London. Alfie is easy to work with and very professional. Besides that, he is also creative and always willing to try new things. Hence he was for Nige Rorbach the perfect candidate of his version of an underwear shoot. In this setting Alfie, who turns 26 today, September 14, seems to be the perfect embodiment of beautiful, dirty and sexy, while equally giving a hint of what Nige Rorbach’s Pin Ups & Icons will look like. –BM-