Johan Paulik (born 14 March 1975) is the stage name of a Slovak former gay pornographic model. In 2000, he was inducted into the GayVN Hall of Fame with Lukas Ridgeston and George Duroy, owner of Bel Ami, the studio Paulik worked for his entire career. In 2002, Paulik became general manager for Bel Ami in Europe.
Choi Yong Ho・ Victor Choi・ 최용호・Korean Fitness Model
Advertising has turned from a reliance on western faces and bodies to sell luxury. South Korea's fashion and lifestyle magazines feature Koreans. Japan's are Japanese. Chinese models, both men and women, are increasingly and beautifully on show. The look of the 21st-century will be Asian - more precisely, Eurasian. In serious photography, the male icon, such as captured by the late American artist Robert Mapplethorpe, is often confused with gay erotica, so confronting is the image is the naked male to some people. That will probably be an obstacle these two Hong Kong photographers will need to overcome if they're to reach a wider audience, so rarely has the distinct beauty of the Chinese male form been presented. Yip is very much the contemplative artist, all careful poses and precise lighting in black-and white, colour and sepia.
Details of camera, lens and film used for each shot are given in an index, along with notes about what the photographer was dying to capture of the model through the lens. His use of film rather than digital would seem to reflect a growing consensus among serious photographers that pixels lack the subtlety and flexibility of emulsion sharp but ultimately unforgiving and lacking in depth. Yip's models are Chinese from Hong Kong. Singapore, Taiwan. the mainland and the US, as well as a Thai-Chinese, Japanese and Korean. He says in the introduction that he wanted his models to show themselves, to let the camera shoot beyond the facade or skin and muscle torso and chest. The best images in The Asian Male, the ones that stretch beyond the private portrait, have an air of gentleness and innocence about them, but also a sense of confidence and independence that illustrate the emergence of new type of man. --Tim Cribb, South China Morning Post.
The 2010 Asian Pacific Male Calendar, with photography by Jeff Sheng, features Survivor-winner Yul Kwon, actor/filmmaker Edward Gunawan, and actors Thomas Livezey, Ji Han and Daniel Ichikawa. 100% of the production profits from the sale of the calendar go to the Asian Pacific Health Care Venture - a non-profit community health center that provides low cost medicine to the working poor and uninsured in over ten languages. Other models appearing in the calendar: Darren Domingo, Rob Palomo, Anthony Nguyen, Tim Fong, Sam Serei, Scott Kang, Christopher Kim & Trung Pham. The calendar is produced by Jason Peers, Jeff Sheng and Nareth Chuon. Creative direction is by Nareth Chuon. The photographer is Asian American artist Jeff Sheng, lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who teaches Photography and Asian American Studies. He is a graduate of Harvard and UC Irvine, and his work has been seen in the New York Times Magazine, the LA Times, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The calendar was shot on location in and around Los Angeles and San Diego County and at Jeff Sheng Studios in Culver City.
