The trick to shooting great male portraiture of the mostly naked variety is to find the essential sexiness in the subject. And then go from there to see where it takes you. The men Austin Wondolowski shoots seem to be having a moment of being terribly happy to be in their bodies and in front of the camera.
Wondolowski is a photographer, graphic designer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although born in Billings, Mont., at the age of three his family moved to San Francisco and has considered the Bay Area “home” ever since. Austin’s passion for photography started in high school when he was fortunate enough to have daily courses in black and white photography. Once the photography bug caught hold, it never really let go. After studying photography briefly at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, life shifted him in a different direction, in which he ended up graduating from the Art Institute of Seattle while studying graphic design. For years Austin worked in graphic design and computer related fields until moving into art consulting and national administration for a fine art photographer based in Las Vegas. Working so closely with photography on a daily basis rekindled his desire to work in the one medium he had always adored. For Christmas in 2006, Austin’s then partner bought him a new Canon digital SLR, just to see if the leap from film to digital would take. Sure enough, it spread like wildfire. After leaving Las Vegas, Austin spent a year living in New York City, where he photographed his first “dudeoir” style sessions, before coming back to the west coast and living in Los Angeles for three years. It was in Los Angeles that he truly found his footing in the photography world. After photographing countless landscape, cityscape, nature, portrait sessions, editorial spreads, nightlife events and, most enjoyably, “dudeoir” sessions, he decided to move back to the Bay Area in 2013. Austin continues to photograph models in the San Fransisco Bay Area, where he also works full-time in the technology field.
Find out more about Austin and his work at his web site, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. He is also a raucous event photographer. Check out his event photos here on Facebook.
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