Wessel O’Connor is very pleased to present The Company of Men, a solo exhibition by photographer Blake Little. This is his first new work for the gallery since his 1997 series of nudes entitled “Dichotomy,” which also became a book with the same title.

Blake explains how the project started: “I wanted to start a new series yet I was bored with photographing nudes, I wanted to take photographs that captured the strength and integrity of each individual, distilling exactly what I find compelling about men into a photograph without showing everything. I also wanted to document a particular type of masculine gay male that I appreciated and related to but that I did not see photographed anywhere else; an alternative to stereotypes or what is usually seen as the physical ideal of a man in the mainstream.

I started photographing my friends and then friends of friends all over the country. I was able to connect with this large network of men who share similar sensibilities. I photographed them using the same process that I have developed over the past 20 years as a celebrity portrait photographer but WITH several important differences . I photographed them completely on my own ,with only natural light , in their own clothes and in their own homes (or near where they live), choosing environments that complemented the subject or told a story. I photographed these guys more instinctively, reacting to the way they made me feel.”

Blake Little works as a photographer based in Los Angeles. He photographs actors, athletes, politicians and celebrities for magazines such as Time, ESPN, Parade and Entertainment Weekly, as well as shooting advertising campaigns for films including “Get Smart”, "Austin Powers" and "Borat."