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Brian, a Nine-Year Photographic Diary
Reed Massengill
FotoFactory Press
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Bruce Weber's recent Chop Suey follows his years of fascination with the youth he'd spotted at a wrestling match. The images follow him as he matured from mid-teens to manhood. In his I, Will McBride, the eponymous photographer depicts his artistic relationship with Uli, a boy of 14 in 1978 whom he continues to shoot and make bronze castings of to this day.

Many great photographers and artists have had similar favorites, born of attraction akin to obsession, that inspired art and satisfied deep longing in both portraitist and model, often without any direct sexual component.

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In a new book by Reed Massengill, Brian, a Nine-Year Photographic Diary (FotoFactory Press, 91 pages, cloth) the photographer follows the relationship he began in 1992 in which, as he says, "two very different people... have made room for each other." It charts the physical changes, the hair styles, the tattoos, and that fascination that Massengill admits to "by the man he has become." Weber and McBride would probably understand the sentiment of their colleague when he says: "I will still want to photograph him even when he's 38 or 42 or 56."