Photographers - Part 36

 Douglas Simonson

Douglas Simonson is an artist and photographer.  He frequently takes photos of his models and then makes a painting from one of the photos.  Two years ago, I showed his artwork.  Today, we see him as a photographer.

Simonson was born and raised in western Nebraska.  He studied art at the University of Nebraska for two years before escaping to Hawaii, where he lived from 1971 to 2012.  Above is Simonson at age 28 in Hawaii.  The following year he finally got the courage to focus on drawing and painting the subject he loved: the male nude.

Simonson photographed many nude models in Hawaii.  Yesterday we saw some of his photos of model Shawn on Polo Beach.  Today we're going to focus on one of his favorite models, Kaimana.  Kaimana is what Hawaiians jokingly refer to as "chop suey": a mixture of races.  In his case, he's a beautiful mixture of native Hawaiian, Chinese, and Filipino.

Here's Kaimana carrying his surfboard down to the beach.

Dipping the surfboard into the water.

Paddling out.

Sitting on the surfboard waiting for a wave.

Back on shore after surfing.  There were no photos of him riding a wave.  Maybe the surf wasn't up.

Laying down a towel, in a photo called Kaimana's Beach Day.

Wading.

Our final photo of Kaimana is called Water Baby.

In 2012, Simonson moved away from Hawaii, ending up in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Along the way he has photographed and painted men in Brazil and many other countries.  But I'm biased – I live in Hawaii – so I like his Hawaiian photos best.