Desert Kisses

Desert Fashion

I had an amazing modeling job yesterday in the middle of the desert.  It was for Frontier's Magazine's 2nd annual weddings book which is described on their site as "Your all-encompassing guide to same-sex weddings in Southern California."  Frontiers was founded in 1982 and is a free, bi-monthly magazine all about gay culture in Southern California.  I had the pleasure of being their cover model about 6 years ago.

     For this shoot we all had a call time of 3am (yes, you read that right!) and we were driven by old-school, prom-style limo equipped with indoor neon lights and a bar out to the desert.  We arrived at El Mirage Dry Lake around 4:45am just as the sun was beginning to rise.  If you've never seen the sun rise in the desert I highly recommend it.  The desert already looks and feels like a lunar landscape and as the sun is rising there is a hint of blue on the horizon while the rest of the world is still under the cover of the blackest night.  Eventually, the blue and the black meet in the middle and then the day has begun.  Magical.  Once the sun is high in the sky there's a crazy mirage (hence the name) of water at the edge of the dry lake.  Seeing as it once really was a lake it's as if the ghost of the water is still surrounding and beckoning you.  When you look toward the horizon it sparkles and ripples as if you were still looking at an active lake.  Nature is incredible.

     Last year's Frontiers Weddings was a huge hit and the theme was very traditional.  It was shot on and near the beach and had a sophisticated, classic feel.  This year they wanted to go in the complete opposite direction and have it be edgy and cool.  The amazing photographer Ryan Forbes referenced Mad Max and said he wanted it to be like high fashion set in the future in a post-apocolyptic world.  Perfect.  There were 6 male models, 2 of whom were my age including Super Model Tosh Yanez, and 3 female models including Laura Ellen James  who was a winner on America's Next Top Model.  Crazy as it sounds none of the younger models had a clue what Mad Max was and I tried my best to explain it's cultural relevance - even went as far as singing a few verses from Tina Turner's  "We Don't Need Another Hero."

     It was a really awesome cast and crew and even though it was freezing cold and windy as hell up in that desert we all managed to have a great time.  The clothes were modern and cool and my talented friend Dax Savage supplied all the jewelry and accessories as well as modeling himself.  If it wasn't for the way we were dressed we would've felt as if we were filming a lost episode of Breaking Bad - the hair/makeup/wardrobe was even in a Winnebago!  But that's the desert for you, no matter where you stand you get the feeling that something crazy happened there at some point.

     The magazine will be out in Sept and if you live in Cali it's available all over for free.  If you don't you can go the Frontiers Magazine website and download a PDF file of it and check it out.  They may publish a few teaser pics in the Gay Pride issue of Frontiers as well.  I saw a lot of the photos on the monitor as the shoot was happening and they look amazing.  Everything is so real in the desert that it looks fake.  Every pic has the sky from the opening credits of The Simpsons in it and it all looks so cool in pictures.  There's one shot of me walking and Ryan managed to snap the pic while I was in mid-air - neither foot is on the ground and it appears that I am floating over a dry riverbed.  Somehow there's a twisted Jesus reference in there but I'll let that one go.