Sheldon is cover calendar boy

“Oasis”, the Trinidad and Tobago men’s calendar 2004 which has been produced by Ourglass Promotions was an idea just waiting to happen.  What took you this long?  was my question to Miguel Ward, director of communications.  After all there have been ‘girlie’ calendars for years now, the next step surely was the male calendar launched yesterday at Gallery 1.2.3.4. in the Normandie. “It was Colin Gumbs’ idea. Photography is his hobby” explained Ward.  For three years, Gumbs, a linesman with the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission, had thought of this calendar. He came up with one model, until Ward suggested “let’s use more than one model. In other words a model for each month. We kept thinking why hasn’t anybody ever done it before, and the only conclusion we could come to was that they were afraid to take the risks. We did feasibility studies, market responses have so far been encouraging, and decided to go full steam ahead...” On the other hand the twosome  never thought it would have entailed this much work and never ever expected it to evolve into such a big event, and what started off catering for a very small amount has now escalated as could be seen at yesterday’s launch where the calendar went on sale at $75 each.  The Ourglass team is made up of Leizelle Ramsoondar (graphic artist), Tracy Hutchings (copywriter), Ryan Lee Pack (marketing manager) and Eden Ballah (public relations.) 

Fourteen male models have been used, one for the cover, the 12 months of 2004, and one for January 2005.  The search for models went on for two years. “Sometimes there was rejection but we eventually found more than 12 willing to be on the pages of the calendar and then we had to choose the best, or as they would say the creme de la creme.” A lot of the models are not professionals. Those with no experience are Sheldon Jardine, Horatous Williams, Jason Chow, Wyatt Gallery, Rajesh Dubal, Saul Govia, Ryan Goindoo, Luke Ribeiro, Francois De Freitas and Kieran Hagley.  Warren Kerry, Dennis Ali, Kevin Lee and Anthony St Bernard have had some involvement. “We drove around the country.  If we saw someone suitable, talked to them, took their names and if they were interested got back to them.”  Most of the shots were done outdoors with natural lighting and no excessive make-up. I was pleasantly surprised at how tastefully “Oasis” has been presented. It has been a lot of hard work for Gumbs and Ward as once the models were available, they made themselves available, but it has been worth all the late nights and early mornings of preparing and planning strategies.  “We have gotten a lot of support” says Ward, who also has a day job in Information Technology.  Gumbs, who got into photography quite by chance in 1999, has produced some excellent work:  He silently thanks the friend who needed a portfolio for a modelling agency: “ We went to the agency, looked at the quality of the work, I was disappointed and thought I could do better work than that, and was eventually able to convince him about doing a photo shoot, or what we thought it should be like.  The results were great.  Every weekend I borrowed a camera and got better and better work, when his portfolio was complete I was asked by the director if I was interested in doing others.”

Gumbs was a little intimidated, so he built his confidence, and six months later was ready to go on a shoot with another model, which was so successful that the work was used in New York for the client.  Gumbs asked himself “do I want to spend my spare time doing this?” He continued, feeling he would like to try to raise the standards of photography in Trinidad.  “I thought a male calendar would be one way to go.  People were hesitant, and came up with the stereotyped  postures but I made my decision in 2000. Companies have shied away because the female calendars were successful they didn’t want to go that way.  It took a while as we had to find a balance, and convince would-be sponsors that it was a legitimate venture and nothing else was behind it. The biggest challenge was choosing models, as I cannot shoot just anybody; the person must spark some creativity in me before I can shoot them, however, once I selected the person, it became very easy.” Sponsorship has been very difficult to come by and there has been just one to date, Millenium Fitness Centre. 

Ourglass has nevertheless decided to give part proceeds to the Rape Crisis Society and Child Welfare League, which were chosen because says Gumbs “we looked for  groups that had no other association except that they had come about because men were responsible for the situations that these women were in.” Gumbs and Ward found that “it was quite easy working with the models because professionals, when tired, would do whatever they want, whereas people who have never done photo shoots before are willing to stay in position, look at the camera as instructed. They were very, very natural, and that’s why we were able to maintain the high standards captured on film.” The calendar, 10” x 17”, is done on matte art paper because:  “One of the things we try to do at Ourglass is to make things totally different, fresh, new and not sleazy.” The contact number is 683-6161. The  intention is to continue with the calendar in coming years as we have seen so many interesting male specimens. We also  plan to raise the standard of photography, keeping it very professional but classic.”