West Phillips

North Carolina: Alex

Added 2025-05-16 13:00:06 +0000 UTC

Eighteen year old Alex and I met just before I moved away from Miami. It was April and he was there for college and gymnastics. He found me on Grindr and sent me a bunch of pictures to pique my interest in shooting, which worked, obviously. Since I was leaving in a few days and filling up my last days there with photoshoots, the schedule was tight, but I knew I needed to make it happen with him.

Our first shoot was a great success and we stayed in touch. I went traveling for a couple months and then at the end of summer I settled into Charlotte, North Carolina for a bit. Alex just happened to be from Charlotte, so 5 months after our first shoot, we had our second and it was even better than the first.

We spent the day together, going around, hanging out and shooting, etc. Most of our photoshoot was at the abandoned old boys school, which this series is from. In fact, Alex was my very first shoot at that school and remains one of my favorites - mostly just because it's him I guess. Eighteen with those fresh, charming and cute good looks - a fun personality and a willingness to try new things (regarding doing photos in sketchy locations) - he was a real gem. We stayed in touch a little after the photoshoot, but haven't been in touch for some time now.

This seems like a good time to let it be known that YES when meeting and photographing guys of a certain age or certain look, I always check the I.D.s and keep a picture of it for my records. I started getting into the habit of it more and more, even if they're in their 20s and 30s. Safety first :)

Concord, Sept 2019