Men

Luke

Luke 0b

Luke and I have been discussing doing a photo shoot for some time.  It seemed as though our schedules simply never quite lined up.  But as this series of images shows, good things come to those who wait! Luke clearly works very hard on his body, even participating in competitions.  And his hard work has clearly paid off!  Here is an amazing series of (mostly) black and white images shot here at my studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Enjoy! -JM

Read more...

Portfolio – Jeremiah

Jeremiah 4b

I've worked with Jeremiah on a couple of shoots so far.  His calm demeanor makes him very easy to work with, so I was very happy when he came to me to shoot his portfolio.  If I remember correctly, the weather was perfect for a photo shoot.  We captured a few studio shots and then headed out to some great locations around downtown Grand Rapids. The goal, of course, of a portfolio shoot is to create multiple looks.  The studio, the structured cement of the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and the over-grown weeds of an abandoned factory provided our back drops.  That's the easy part about photo...

Read more...

Anthony VonBargen – Sun Soaked

4 Anthony7b

I've worked with Anthony a number of times.  He is a model living in Ohio and we try to work together every time I visit my family living there.  We have a tradition of hunting down a random location, with no planning or forethought.  It has worked extremely well for us in the past, and we've had amazing luck with some phenomenal locations.  Our impromptu photo shoot on this particular day, however, faced a little complication. To begin, we were under a bit of a time crunch, as I was pushing to get back to my Aunt's surprise birthday party, and we just weren't having any luck with a location. ...

Read more...

New Face – Alek

Alek3b

Alek is young... younger than his looks portray. He is slightly reserved, but already exudes a natural force and strength in his presence. Our photo shoot was his first. He was quiet and controlled, both in front of the lens and between set-ups, but was extremely easy to work with because of it. I'm excited to see what is to come from him. As his confidence grows as a model, I believe he will mature into the looks he's already been gifted... and then he will be a force to be reckoned with!

Read more...

New Face – Marcel

Marcel 2b

Here is another great new addition to the Matthew Agency family of models, Marcel.  From what I gathered of him, Marcel is a calm man of few words, but a killer gaze.  My guess, from that devilish glint in his eye, is that he probably has a bit of a mischievous side, but that's only a guess.  He came in with some ideas of specific things he wanted to try, and was definitely not shy in front of the camera.  He knew how to work various angles, and kept the shoot interesting by constantly changing things up.  I love when a model has the confidence to lead himself without relying completely on the photographer...

Read more...

American Boy

It would be my luck that I would come across model "gold" such as Cam, only to have a limited window during which he will be around.  The moment Cam walked in the door at the Matthew Agency, I knew he was destined for a great career as a model, and when he sat down and told me he only had the summer to model for me (as he was expected in NYC this fall to begin modeling full-time) I wasn't surprised. I guess I will just count myself, and the agency lucky enough to have him for the summer! I had been wanting to play around with the idea of commercialized youth for sometime, and Cam was the perfect...

Read more...

Body Scapes 1

The body as landscape.  What started as a simple impromptu shoot, playing with light and shadow, turned into something quite stunning and was published by YVY MAG. Simple and to the point, expect more images added regularly to the "Body Scape" category. The first image below best exemplifies what I plan to show in future Body Scape series.  I plan to experiment more with the idea of the body as landscape, including some pretty interesting ideas I can't wait to capture.  I look forward to sharing these with you!  Enjoy! -JM This post contains images some viewers may find inappropriate.

Read more...

New Face – Derek

Derek is not shy.  And with a body like his, why would he be?  Clothes seemed almost to be an inconvenience to him as we began our shoot.  Comfortable and confident in front of the camera, even for the very first time, Derek stared down the lens with no fear. He has a certain...smolder... in his eyes, for lack of a better term, and his rugged good looks don't hurt either. I decided to play around with light and color for this photo shoot.  I wanted a dark, sexy contrast in color.  The final product is vaguely reminiscent of a trip into the Red Light District in Amsterdam, with the same...

Read more...

New Face – Andrew

Ok, it has been an extraordinary time since my last blog post!  Needless to say, things have been busy busy around the studio.  Hopefully updates will be coming regularly again, with many projects coming down the pipeline.  Here is Andrew, a model I shot recently... a newbie in front of a camera, but a tall, skinny joy to shoot!  With his wit, bright blue eyes, and heart-melting smile, this guy is a perfect new addition to the fresh faces at the Matthew Agency! Enjoy! -JM

Read more...

Travis for OhlalaMag.com

The best way to describe my pride in the success of these images is to explain a little something about my post-production process.  When I do a series of images, generally speaking I will edit six to eight images to compose a final collection.  With model Travis, I edited 15! Matthew Agency model Travis had, up until this point, always maintained a very boy-next-door image.  We decided it was time to strip him down, oil him up, and make him the  sexy-abercrombie-boy-next-door instead.  Until our shoot, he had not even taken his shirt off for a camera (other than candids with friends on the beach). ...

Read more...