Tbilis: Zharas

Zharas was one of the last photoshoots I did in Georgia. We connected through another model I had shot just days before. In fact, I had stalked the other model's Instagram prior to my shoot with him to see what kind of friends he had (always looking for potentials!) and saw Zharas. I liked his look and image, so I then contacted him through Instagram as well, but never got a response. After the other guy and I finished our shoot and were sitting at a cafe warming up and going over signing my release form, he messaged Zharas to tell him he should shoot with me, unbeknownst to me. Boom. A couple days later we did.

Oh it was a cold, cold day. Too damn cold. In fact, I tried to reschedule or cancel, but he was determined and it was the only time both our schedules matched before I left, unfortunately. I had hoped to get some drone footage of him as well, but nope - too, too windy. The cold, gray sky was spitting out some snow here and there, so you may notice little white specks in some of the shots.

About Zharas - he's a 20-something originally from Kazakhstan, but has been in Georgia for a few months. His English is limited, but we managed nonetheless. He's a professional dancer, specifically he does Pop and Lock. Aside from being a talented dancer, he's pretty comical and has some great facial expressions. He has a cute and goofy boyish look about him, with this sort of urban/hipster-ish style. He's a smaller guy with a lean build and you'd be hard pressed to find shirtless shots of him on his social media. He's a straight guy and probably not so confident in his body, but also probably doesn't really give a ___. The night before our shoot I had a last minute realization and thought that maybe he didn't know we'd be shooting mostly shirtless and I hadn't even seen any shirtless photos of him (usually I see them well in advance and also need to see updated/current ones before agreeing to shoot), but with him I knew he'd be suitable. I sent him a message and asked him to show me one just in case and to confirm the types of shots we'd be doing. Soon after he sent over a bathroom video selfie and put any doubts at ease.

So, here's a series from our cold, wintry shoot! If you're hoping to see nudes, I'm sorry to disappoint and let you down, but there aren't any. There will of course be much more shirtless ones if you're keen. Hope you enjoy!

Georgia, January 2022