Eric Jetner Is Frenching The City Tomorrow Night!
New York - A few weeks ago I had a photo shoot with Eric Jetner, a fantastic French singer who's having a concert at the Iridium on Broadway tomorrow night. Given Eric Jetner awesome energy and stamina, we wanted the images for his concert to be full of energy and colors. The answer was paint, of course!
Paint is not the easiest thing to work with in a photo studio. It is definitely one of the most fun ones though. You have to prepare the studio before the shoot and wrap it up in plastic. It looks creepy and Dexter-like, but it works well if you're really thorough. You have to wrap up all the lights, the camera and prepare yourself for the shoot too. Any object that is not wrapped up in plastic it's going to be splashed with paint. Mess!
Days before Eric Jetner and I had the photo shoot, I started looking for non toxic paint. I don't normally like to poison my clients!
As always, after a quick search online, I ended up at Lee Art Shop on 57th Street. No matter what I look for, I seem to always end up there. They have pretty much everything and, now that I think about it, I have been a loyal client since I moved to New York in 2014. I always loved art shops in general, the atmosphere, the people, the things you discover while you search for what you look for. Lees Art Shop is kinda my hang out in town.
Even for my BEARDS OF NEW YORK book, where do you think I got my glitter ammo from? The friendliest man from Lee's Art Shop! (Imagine show up and ask: "hi, I'm going to sprinkle glitter on a few hundreds men. How much do you think I need?)
The shoot with Eric Jetner was even more complicated than the glitter shoots for BEARDS OF NEW YORK. When it comes to paint you don't really have many shots and your model is better be a confident one. Mine totally was.
Eric Jetner is used to be in front of the camera. He has been a performer since early age and he enjoys the process. That part was easy!
We splashed and splashed. Eric had a couple of showers and then we splashed again. Red, white, blue. As French, and American, as it goes.
He sang and danced (cause some things in life, you just can't fake!) and had a good time. I LOVE his powerful voice, so that was a treat for me too. He's such a natural, when it comes to performing, he was able to fee comfortable and keep going for a few hours.
We started very slow, almost timidly, with just a little drop here and there. I never want to push my models too fast. It's easy to push a person too much and make them close down. Even if Eric Jetner is a navigated performer, having paint thrown at you is not easy for anyone!
After a few minutes we warmed up and the energy started building. From that moment we spiralled and in the end it was all colour, awesomeness and fun.
Eric Jetners' body is beautiful and fit. His volumes and shapes, once covered in paint, become even more striking and beautiful. The paint adds a candy like quality. You know I'm not new to candy-like colors and shapes if you know my work or the BEARDS OF NEW YORK. It makes it even more attractive and eye-catching. You almost wish it was edible! A life-size Haribo gummy bear!
Things you should know about Eric
Eric Jetner sings in concerts and performances in New York, like the one last Summer in Times Square, with other awesome French talents, or the his own concert tomorrow night at the Iridium.
Beside modeling (in my BEARDS OF NEW YORK), singing, and being generally awesome, Eric Jetner works and sings at the world famous Ellen's Stardust Diner on Broadway. I love to bring friends there when they come to the city. It's always a good time and it's an iconic New York and Broadway experience. He's voice will surprise you.
Eric played the lead role of Sky in the European tour of Mamma Mia. He was featured in the showcase LIGHT IT UP (Classic Theater of Harlem). And also CABARET (Bobby / Emcee u/s) at the Engeman Theater, NYC.
Native of Normandy, France, Eric Jetner developed an early passion for Music. At age 5, he entered the Music School of Coutances led by Alain Devemy (1990 -2000) and trained in vocal performance and saxophone. At 15, he joined the Performing Arts Center of Paris (2000-2004) studying comedy closely with Ani Hamel.
While in Paris, Eric was featured in many productions such as CABARET (Victor / Emcee u/s) at Folies Bergere, ZORRO (Zorro u/s) and FAME (Nick Piazza / Goody) in the Parisian company as well as the tour. He played Christopher Robin in Disney's Winnie the Pooh. On TV, he was a finalist for season 2 of Artists Entrance, hosted by Pascal Sevran.
I wish the best luck to Eric for tomorrows show (and I really suggest you to get yourself a ticket before they are all gone!)
