Kurt:  I'm very proud of my newest project.  It's my first self-published book, "MAN Vol. 1."  It's a hard-bound, 200-page book with 171 full color and black and white photos.  It has a combination of nudes and semi-nudes, and the common theme of the images is that they're all of men.  Go figure.  LOL.  The images were all taken within the last 4 years.

I selected the images based on what were my favorites, and what I though were a good representation of my work during that time, as well as what images worked well together.  It took me about a month to put the book together, with all of the editing, cropping, rearranging, printing, re-printing, etc.  As far as the process, I started with a book of about 340 pages of images (some span 2 pages), and narrowed it down to 171 so it fit within a 200-page format. 

Since I'm self-publishing the book at this time, I wanted to keep it within 200 pages because anything more would have taken it into a much higher price  bracket, and I wanted the book to be a reasonable price ($59.95).  Currently, the book is only available online on my website (www.KurtRBrown.com) and at this site:  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/119967.  There is a PDF preview of the book on the site, but with 171 images, the preview barely scratches the surface.  I'm including some other images that are in the book as well so you can get a better idea.

Edward:  Tells us about your style.

Kurt:  That's a tough one.  I try not to pigeon-hole myself too much with my images.  There are some photographers who have a very distinct "style" and you can definitely tell that an image is theirs because of this.  That makes sense from a marketing aspect, but it's also very limiting. 

I don't want to be limited that way, and I try to just shoot and edit my images in the way that I like, and sometimes that means having images end up looking like they were taken by different photographers. 

I once had a friend look through my portfolio, and she became somewhat frustrated... she said, "You don't have a style!"  I took it as a compliment, although she didn't mean it that way.  She meant that had she not had all of my photos in one place, she would have thought the images were taken by different people.  I may never become uber-famous for my photography because of this, but all I can do is shoot what I like, and hopefully other people will like it as well.

That said, I think there are definitely some shots that people can tell, "That's a Kurt R. Brown photo" because they are of a particular style for which I'm recognized, but there are also a lot of shots that I love that are out there that people may never guess was taken by me. How's that for a long-winded answer?  LOL.

Edward:  IMAGE worth more than a thousand WORDS?

Kurt:  Ha ha, for ME, as well as the model, this is definitely the case, because each photo has a real story behind it.  I'm often asked by people about the models and locations in my photos, and there's always something to say.  During a shoot, there is an opportunity to get to know the model a bit and there are often funny or interesting things that occur. 

Whether it's telling someone that we had to swim with the camera equipment to get to the location, or that we went cliff-jumping after the shoot, or that we had a run-in with park rangers, or any number of other things, it's always fun to talk about.  For a lot of people, they're just pictures of people they don't know, but for me, each picture brings back memories of the experience of being there.

Edward:  I always like to ask the photographers about some cool/funny/unusual backstages moments lol lol, so, share these moments with us

Kurt:  Well, like I alluded to earlier, there have been quite a few...  A couple of shoots from the book included an hour-long hike through a Hawaiian jungle to reach a remote waterfall.  Then, after the hike, I put all of my photo gear in large plastic garbage bags.  There was no way to get around the waterfall pool to get to the shooting location without swimming there.
 

I swam a third of the way along a rock, grabbed on, while the model passed the bag with my gear to me.  He then swam around me, grabbed on to the rock, and I passed the bag to him.  We repeated this process until we were able to get to the other side and climb above the waterfall to the location where I wanted to shoot. 

I did this with 2 separate models on 2 different days.  As a result, we've got beautiful photos in a location I doubt many others have seen, let alone done a photoshoot.  We then jumped from a cliff about 45 feet from the waterfall pool, just for fun.  We made a day of it.

LOL.  I could take up the whole interview just talking about fun/unusual/memorable experiences during photoshoots, or while hanging out with models (such as almost getting swept out to sea with Julian Fantechi, Playgirl's 2007 Man of the Year, while we were boogie-boarding without flippers in Hawaii).  It's part of what I love about my work.

Edward:  Are you an optimistic person?

Kurt:  I'm generally an optimistic and positive person, but I do have my more jaded moments, lol.  I'm a Cancer, so I'm moody.  LOL.  I think in many ways, our society is better than in the past - I certainly see some of that by working with mostly straight models. 

15 years ago, I think it would have been more of an issue for me as a gay photographer working with straight models who are nude or scantily clad, but most models these days have absolutely no issue with it whatsoever.  It's very encouraging. 

There's a long way to go, especially with middle America, but we've come a long way.  Really, the United States is far behind most of Europe on many social issues.  We're not as advanced as we'd like to think.

Edward:  What would you say is the key to  success?

Kurt:  The key to success?  I'm still trying to figure that out.  LOL.  I think mainly, it's doing what makes you happy.  Hopefully others will enjoy your work as well, but if you are making yourself happy with your work, you are successful.  We all want to be happy, right?

Modeling and photography are both very competitive fields.  I think the photographer's career is much more forgiving, as you can do it for a lot longer than you can model, generally.  There is a lot I could write about the challenges of modeling, and there are whole books and websites devoted to the subject.  Plus, there are a lot of scams out there designed to take advantage of people wanting to be models. 

It's a tricky world, but if you are able to navigate the shark-infested waters, it can be very rewarding.  The same can be true for photographers.  There are a lot of photographers out there who will undercut their competition any way they can, but for the most part, my experience with other photographers has been positive.

Edward:  And thanks again for sharing your story with us KURT. Final message?

Kurt:  Thank YOU, Edward!  I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you again!

To your readers... Please buy a copy of my latest book, "MAN Vol. 1."  It's your chance to support the arts!  :)  And it'll help to keep me doing what I'm doing.  I appreciate all of the positive feedback and support! Future projects will most-likely include another volume of the "MAN" series and possibly more calendars, etc.

Thank you everybody!!!

Be sure to visit http://kurtrbrown.com fora copy of his book!