Dale Bolivar: fab Magazine 2001

fab: february 6, 2008

fab: november 22, 2001

Here is a look at the cover and layout my work received in fab. Click on the images to see full size versions of the photos. The text of the article follows.

Artistic Intentions
Dale Bolivar focuses on creating unique images

by Richard Costello

Toronto photographer Dale Bolivar has been an artist all his life, beginning with what he describes as "agitprop street posters and cut and paste collage." In the last four years, Bolivar has focused on photography – specifically buff boys – which has brought him to the attention of such publications as San Francisco's XY Magazine, Australia's Blue and Germany's Stern magazine. What is it about the male form that so attracts his eye?

"For me, it's definitely art," says Bolivar. "I started with 'cute boy' photos, and I really enjoyed them, but it goes beyond that." He says he shoots without a lot of planning, then digitally transforms the images he has captured. "I sit with [the photos], play with them and collage them. I often come up with only one photo per session for my portfolio."

The pictures of 'Billy' (who is featured on the cover of this issue) illustrates Bolivar's method. "It's poster art of a sexy man, but I love the photo because of the digital manipulation that went into it – textures, colours and contrast." Bolivar has highlighted the torso and downplayed the face in the photo, as he does with much of his work. "There's something about him that looks so much like a small town Ontario hockey player. He's got this amazing body, and he can be so different – a kind of arrogance in one photo, then another where he's all dreamy."

Bolivar frequently uses photographic backgrounds superimposed on the image of the model. "There's a photo I call 'Corn God' which is a ghostly image of a man floating in front of a field of corn – the corn is actually showing through his body." Bolivar says the backgrounds are from his collage days. "I have a whole library of background photographs. The main one I use with Billy is a kind of Spanish wrought iron grillwork. It defines a style for me."

What might be termed Bolivar's most arresting work is in a section on his Web site (www.dbolivar.com) called Photo Collage. In it he has reworked the shots in PhotoShop to achieve an effect well beyond the representational. The juxtaposed images are surreal – peacock feathers with muscular torso in a work entitled Whitey Peacock, vividly hued flowers and leaves with a shaven head (Adam 23) or cherry blossoms with a buff, dark-haired beauty (Gleb 6-3). Bolivar explains that his work is searching for truth. "Not necessarily a truth about the person, but perhaps a truth about the type. A truth about a certain kind of mind. You get different feelings from the same model. When I look at the pictures I think 'Wait a minute, this is five different guys.' I want to define the type, define the model and explore the different aspects of the model."

Although the artist has some formal training – darkroom technique at Ryerson University and print making at the Ontario College of Art and Design – he has picked up all of his computer skills on his own. In "Lost Boys" Bolivar has captured the essence of the streets, with a combination of faces, body parts and overlays. When he began taking pictures, the most readily available models were what Bolivar calls hustlers – "basically I paid these young men to pose for photographs." As he has become better known, most of his subjects are guys who are trying to become models. "We have what are called 'time for prints' relationships. They get a set of prints for their portfolio, and I own the images."

The photographer will be featured in the upcoming issue of a reformatted XY magazine and he's currently working on two series. The first, Glamorous Men, is the title Stern used when they featured his work on its Web site. Fuzzy Nudes is a combination of male and female models, which has not yet been curated. "I love the genre of shooting sexy men, but that's not all I'm trying to do. I'm trying to take it a little bit further. Some of them are purely decorative, but a lot of them have an almost subliminal meaning."

Bolivar is candid about the world he works in. "It's very easy to make a pleasing image with a photograph. There are so many good photographs. The key to art is having something interesting to say." He acknowledges that success brings demands. "You're called upon to verbalize cohesive themes. I work intuitively and when I've tried to be more editorial about it it's not that the photograph isn't successful, but that I haven't enjoyed the process as much."

The artist is still exploring many different styles. and has recently started work on a series of female nudes, in an effort to "break out of just shooting hunks." His series of photos of a black (male) model with a snake have also had an impact on his thinking. "I use technique to explore human emotion and movement" he explains, "I'm interested in the beauty of humans. Because I am a gay man, homo-eroticism is one of my themes."

Photographers James Bidgood (director of the cult classic Pink Narcissus) and Tracy Moffat are Bolivar's heroes. Bidgood is considered the father of gay physique photography, and Moffat's work is also highly artistic. On the commercial side, Bruce Weber, and David Gilleece are among the influences on Bolivar's work. He admires Vogue Homme International and the Abercrombie and Fitch ads, and bemoans the fact that he doesn't have the big budget necessary for such work. His goal is to work in high-end fashion and celebrity photography, while pursuing his artistic dreams. "That's what I aspire to – I want to be the crossover artist-photographer – that's the key, the cornerstone." Bolivar is currently looking for gallery representation to pursue his artistic intentions, but understands that it will be commercial photography that pays the bills.

He uses his Web site as both a venue for feedback from viewers and for selling his work. He also hopes to increase his recognition on the streets of Toronto's gay village. Bolivar says he wants people to stop him. and offer to model. "I ask models to do nudes, but for me the beauty of the torso is just plenty – they don't have to undress."