Portraits of Dancer Jessie by Roger Nguyen for Hunter Magazine

There are two kinds of challenges I find especially rewarding as a professional portrait photographer. The first is to share with the world how you perceive a subject through image capture. The second is to share with the world the transformational potential of your subject through image creation. I aspire to create a unique photoshoot that is inspired by each model. When I first met Jessie, I was so inspired by his unique representation of male beauty and strength, I knew it would challenge my technical skills to capture the elusive qualities that are non-traditional and unfamiliar to me.

Jessie has a very powerful presence because of his unique physical make-up, meeting for the first time can be a visually jarring experience for some. In order to focus attention on the familiar, I began the portrait series with an extreme close-up of his beautifully structured face and his astonishingly blue eyes generously adorned by thick dark lashes.

In addition to high cheekbones, Jessie's prominent chin and well-defined jaw line are the hallmark features of masculine appeal. His face in profile resembles a classical Greek statue of a handsome hero carved in marbke,Jessie was perfectly attuned to every aspect of his body that he knew the exact angle at which to showcase his facial features, while fully extending the elegant lines of his exaggerated swanlike neck so that the skin is perfectly smooth from under his chin all the way down to his collar bone.

Despite the abundance of masculine features on his face and head, Jessie's neck is part of his one in a hundred million signature attribute. Its proportions are almost twice as long as the average person, yet his physical frame is half the size of a male of his height. From shoulder to shoulder and chest to back, his body is long and slender, with well developed lean musculature that unmistakably belong to a world class dancer.

If anyone should doubt thee explosive power his lithe frame is capable of producing, they need only study the separation of eaach muscle group on his torso, shoulders and arms while in a supposedly resting pose leaning against the railing of my fire escape balcony.

This image of Jessie seeming to meld with the brick wall was due to how truly shallow he is able to make his body so that it seems almost two dimensional. In the last image, I was able to capture the lenght of his torso, neck and well chiseled face. Now that the viewer has had time to process his unique masculine beuaty and the long lean elegant shape of his form. Every aspect of his body and face contains some enviable element of power or beauty that is undeniabe,