Male tights photo shoot

by Harisnya

Here we have another contribution from Harisnya, the owner of e-mancipate.net. Through his site and in other ways Harisnya is gaining recognition and acceptance for male legwear. This article tells of one of his efforts in that direction. (The images above are clickable.)

After nine years, exactly to the day that Steve Katz's survey started to circulate on Usenet (link) I was finally able to produce a series of photo sets about men wearing pantyhose as a regular clothing item.

The sets - called 'collection e-MANcipate' - are still being processed, as 'Banzak, the photographer' still has to learn a few things about professional photography :) (Well, I decided some time earlier this year to proceed with photography, and invested in semi-professional studio equipment and a camera. So it's me to blame for the images.) I had an option to use a real, professional photographer, but the additional costs would just delay the whole thing with months.

So yes, that's why I have those ads on e-MANcipate - in almost one year I was able to finance about 70% of the photo shooting from them. Nice thing!

And back to the photos. I knew for years that we should show the general public, show what it looks like - pantyhose on men. That it can be worn as a regular clothing item; that it looks fine; that it can be even fashionable. So, many years ago now, I was meeting with a fellow ph-wearer and we went for a drink to an open-air place. And we've seen a girl wearing a suspicious kind of top - it seemed like if it was made of fishnets. So we started a chat with her. She insisted that she bought it in a shop, but we were experts and couldn't be cheated. It was made of fishnet pantyhose, as she told us finally. She was a stylist - a person who keeps fashion models, actors, shows in one style, according the needs of the director or other creative persons.

I asked for her phone number, and about a year later called her to shoot some TV spots; well, for a local TV station where the owner was a fellow hose wearer... (from '98 till last year aI maintained local community page in Hungary, that's how I met these guys.) In each spot a girl was wearing different pantyhose (see one of them: http://www.youtube.com/v/Vx92MH8FV0I )

So I got a chance to work with the stylist girl, and when I realised how the Google advertisements work last year, I immediately had the secret hope to use it once for publicity.

And this is partly an answer to the question that why I did kind of fashion photos with patterned and colour hose (and fancy clothes) instead of the regular hose and outfit we do wear when we go out to the streets.

These photos are - mainly - not for us. The target audience is the media, the average surfer, the fashion designer, and the hosiery manufacturer. Remember how a theater play, or a movie (or a painting, or a novel) works: it has a message - but to deliver the message - to break through all those layers of 'mental defense', or just, simply, thoughts, they usually show something extraordinary. 'Love is a beautiful thing' is the message of Romeo and Juliet - but you need a dynamic, powerful tragedy to get the message through. So in a way, it should be packaged, dramatised and over-emphasized. This is why the fashion shows are so fancy and kind of alienated from everyday clothing - the maximum is 10, or maybe even less, percent what is going through. But it has to catch somehow the eye of those bored journalists sitting along the runway. So after some hesitation I decided to take the photos this way.

On the other hand, to be honest, there is not much to show about 20 den suntan pantyhose - especially that male hosiery usually lacks any shine or 'glamour' - it looks like a bit tanned skin (just like on the e-MANcipate cover page - if you don't know the model is wearing hose, you might miss it).

So, I knew that I wanted the fashion photos, I had the equipment and the basic knowledge, and saw the finances promising in August 2007. I knew that whatever I did, the first series wouldn't be perfect, so I choose a safe way - indoor studio photography. I called the stylist in August and started to talk about the project I had in my mind. I also consulted with my wife, especially as I use our kids room for photographing. After a few meetings we were able to put together a budget and select the models. We went shopping together, and she also did some on her own. On the day of the shooting I was just very, very busy with all those studio flashes, soft boxes, umbrellas and backgrounds that I barely had time to care about the exact outfits - everything was just coming out from planning.

The male model started to ask about my interest in hosiery, so I told him my personal story. He found the nylon pantyhose so fine that finally he asked to take away a Levee unisex pantyhose - so maybe he has the nylon gene? (I was so stupid that I didn't prepare the Comfilons (with fly opening) and I had to use a Gerbe instead -- will have to correct this next time).

So this is the story of the photos. I have the next series in my mind - outdoor, some sports, some street, nature and urban environment. Opaque and ribbed woollen pantyhose, and some 20 den of course. It will be more regular than fashion.

Based on the Google ads tendency, I will be able to shoot the next spring - but who knows, maybe a big fashion magazine will want an exclusive shot paying enough to bring it earlier.

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tags: photo shoot  hungary  harisnya  emancipate  

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