By: Falene Nurse Category: ART+FASHION Date: 24.Jul.2014

Tad by Guan Jr Guo for Real Good Looking… a weekly visual exploration taking a closer look at how we look at men. 

Guan Jr Guo was born and spent his formative years in Taipei, Taiwan. He leans towards vivid candids and stark black and whites, with his portraits creating a deeper meaning in every shot. He believes that there are always emotions to be recorded, in the real moments. He started making independent films in 2008, with his video ranging between disjointed narratives, traditional storytelling and documentary. Since then he has travelled to New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Beijing to shoot. A few years later, after he completed his military service in 2012, he relocated to Los Angeles, California, permanently.




TAD

The Merman

To be bald, black and beautiful-the winning trifecta reserved for the likes of Taye Diggs and Erykah Badu. Bestowed upon only the truly blessed brethren, rarely achieved by mere mortals like myself. Yet, we managed to find our equally stunning subject, Tad, lounging poolside. Lucky us.

Tad is an excellent swimmer, surprised? Why?

Where – His Place, Poolside

When – Summertime, Los Angeles, 2014

Why – Because I need to know where all the black Mermen went? Not just American, but African, Caribbean, or Aboriginal Mermen? In art and literature, they are usually depicted as Nordic or Greek. Yet some Mermaid mythology stems back to Africa and Australia, where water spirits and sea people were equivalent to fairies in European storytelling. In fact The Babylonians were known to worship Merfolk as Gods. Their main sea God Oannes, was reputed to have risen from the Erythrean Sea (Red Sea), and was believed by his followers to be an actual live Merman. Could he have resembled, the lithe and limber, Tad? With a smooth hairless head for ultimate propulsion?

Legend dictates that Oannes originated from a body of water located between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula.

So did the ‘the black people don’t swim’ idea begin as urban myth, based somewhere in American fact? In the US, “the significant historical reason behind this was the segregation era” says Prof Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America. Due in large part to this, “swimming never became part of African American recreational culture” in the past.

  

But thankfully, the times they are a… changed. Today black people do swim and rather well, as I can personally attest. Noteworthy recent swimming Olympians include gold medallist Cullen Jones from the beachside borough of the Bronx and fellow freestyler, Californian local Anthony Ervin (also Jewish and Native American). Honorable mention goes out to Silver medalist Maritza Correia, the first black (female) United States swimmer to set an American and world swimming record. In closing black people swim, were Mermaids and Mermen in religious folklore, but more importantly when we do hit the water–this is how good we look doing it.

  

 

Thanks Tad for being our modern day Merman. Next time Tad’s true story is revealed: will his sexuality, profession or even age, altar your perception of his beauty to you?

OBJECTIFYING MEN, TOGETHER, FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF AMERICA: Join me again next week in the glorious objectification of men.

Dave (our first subject) will be on our RGL: Recap. 

Discover if Tad was everything you thought he was soon!