Cuba: Rydel
Added 2023-09-09 13:00:02 +0000 UTCI lucked out with Rydel, as he was my last model I shot on my last trip to Cuba. I'd connected with a local model agent/manager after arriving in Havana and he offered me a whole slew of guys to choose from for shoots - Rydel was obviously one of my picks.
This guy is hands down one of the most photogenic and exciting guys I've photographed in the 12+ years I've been doing this. Sure, every guy has his own type of hotness or sex appeal, etc, but there's something about Rydel. Whether it's his adonis-ripped-not-too-big physique or the handsome face or the eyes - it's just the whole package. His physique was on point in nearly every shot and though the sun was blinding him and the heat difficult, he made it work. While he wasn't comfortable doing full nudity, he was more comfortable and willing than the other guys. In fact, Cuba can be a challenging place for such shoots, as I learned on my first trip there in 2015. This last trip, however was much more successful and fruitful and my 2 shoots with Rydel were the icing on the cake.
We did our first shoot at a dilapidated old condo high-rise smack dab on the coast in the suburbs of Havana. For this series he's in an old pool wearing a vintage wrestling singlet that is clearly a size or 2 too big. I realized it wasn't a good fit, but liked the movement and looseness of it as he put it on and took it off. In later shots he's wearing a more fitting one, which I really loved, but the crotch on that singlet wasn't as appealing or favorable ๐
Havana, July 2022
