Photography Amber McKee
Words Sophia Razvi
Models Martin Myaka, Jack Dione & Avie Acosta at Photogenics LA, Tyus-Immanuel Berry at Wilhelmina Models and Lucas Machado at Storm LA
Here is an intimate portrait series to mark the hours spent indoors. Kings and their kingdoms. Five boys. Models. Dotted across the sun-bleached streets of LA. Protagonists on loop until the time that photographer Amber McKee came to play.
Time moves slowly when there's no outside. Ceiling's the limit. It's a tale with all-too-familiar beginnings. Shut down, locked up. But there are spaces in between. Moments of parenthesis, life lived minute to minute. It's the stories told behind closed doors that this series now tells. Question marks unlocked to reveal the stars of the show.
First, there's Martin. The softly-spoken fashion designer. Tanazanian-Bulgarian. An introvert with an amazing wardrobe. His prognosis? Most sensitive to bad-mouthers and dirty dishes. Captured amongst chaos, though he lives for the order. All dressed up with no where to go: another of life's bitter-sweet ironies.
Ty. He's the model who grew up a military kid. But that only fuelled his entrepreneurial spirit. Perhaps the only boy here who managed to work his way through the year of lockdown. Nestled in West Hollywood with his boyfriend and Faith, the dog. He found some to hold onto.
Roll up Jack. An Orange County college kid. Likes: Lou Reed. Photography. Film. An old Mercedes and California heat. These are the things that shaped his year of inside, now documented by Amber from his Orange County bedroom.
From Kansas to New York to LA for the sunshine, the shapeshifter that is Avie made his way to the city of dreams. Breaking moulds of type-cast career paths, clad in the leopard prints pants of his grandmother. Until he can see her again.
Then there's Lucas. The fashion-forward one. No sweatpants allowed! Even on Groundhog Day, when every day is today. Exciting projects underway but timing is everything in an industry that can't stand still...
Finding solace in pressing 'pause', it's funny how one can shape and be shaped by their surroundings. But there will be a new day when the sky is the limit. And these characters will have a new part to play.
