Abel Cruz and Jorge Freire

We have been huge fans of photographers Abel Cruz and Jorge Freire and their stunning work for a long time and we are proud and honoured to finally be able to welcome them at Stunning Men and get to know them a little more through our interview.

Jorge Freire

Alex

Brock Yurich

Chase Bauer

Jordon R Legault

Chris Villa

Abel Cruz

Aaron Lee

Alejandro Rodriguez

Ashtyn Long

Jake Blair

Beautiful Mag

They both are among the top photographers in primarily male fitness modelling but also fashion and they have helped start off many a modelling career.

Jorge Freire

Dan Flanigan

German Niebla

Ian Daviau

Jeff grant

"Reach for the moon"

Abel Cruz

Blake French

Boys in Wonderland

Christian Ramirez

Courtney Grant

The number of stunning models who have gone in front of their lenses is phenomenal and picking a selection of photographs for this feature has been
a difficult (if pleasurable) task!
We now leave you enjoy their work with these stunning young men as a picture speaks a 1000 words ...

Jorge Freire

Jose Baptist

Malek Zayed

Matt Anton

The Nuzzo twins

Abel Cruz

Elie Neufeld

Eric Rensburg

Jeff Grant

Michael Toscano

Here is the interview in full

Stunning Men - Welcome to Stunning Men to you both. It is a great pleasure to finally feature you in our blog.

Abel Cruz – Thanks

Jorge Freire – Great to finally make it here

SM – Could we start by talking a little bit about where you are both from?

AC – I’m from Nicaragua I came here when I was 5.

JF – I also came here when I was 5 years old. I am originally from Havana Cuba.

SM – You have just been celebrating 14 years of life together. Our sincere congratulations! What’s your secret?

AC – (Abel laughs) Patience, compromising, and never going to bed angry.

JF – Amen!

SM – You have your own style and identity as photographers, but how much collaboration do you do if any?

AC – Depends on the project, Jorge may assist me on a project as a photo assistant, with lighting, make up and hair and vice versa.

JF – We work in conjunction to make sure all of our projects are a success.

SM – Your work has been admired by many for some years now. How did you become photographers? Is that something you always wanted to do?

AC – I actually was involved in theatre and after a fall out with a theatre company, a long period went by with me not doing anything creative, Jorge encouraged me to pursue photography and within the first few months I was getting published. It is great to have this as my creative outlet and I have met a lot of incredible people because of it.

JF – Yes, I started photography when I was a senior in high school. I quickly learned that it was my ticket to get close the hot boys. LOL Long story short I have been photographing them ever since.

SM – What did you do before you worked as photographers?

AC – I studied theatre and visual arts.

JF – Photography started out as a hobby for me, I did hair and makeup for years until one day someone asked me how much I charged for a headshot. That became the beginning to my photographic career.

SM – You have worked with many stunning models over the years. How do you manage to find such stunning guys over and over again?

AC – Word of mouth has been great for us. We treat all of our models with respect and as family. Some of our closest friends started out as our models. Also facebook, myspace, model mayhem have served their purpose in finding models.

JF – We get this question a lot and the answer is pretty simple, they find us.

SM – Sorry to be so predictable guys! J Fitness photography Vs fashion photography? What do you think is the main differences between the two?

AC – I think all mediums are merging. Depends on the taste of the client / line what they consider fashion and fitness. Sometimes the two combine beautifully. I myself always try to bring some fashion in with my fitness models and vice versa with fashion models. Though the body types are different, if you got the right lighting and concept then the rest flows beautifully.

JF – So basically naked vs clothes (Jorge laughs and so do!)

SM – Do you have any role models in photography?

AC – We share the same role models David Vance, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts ...

JF – (continuing) ... Rick Day, Richard Gerst, and the iconic ads of Calvin Klein

SM – What do you enjoy the most in photography?

AC – I enjoy the whole process of creating, putting the looks together, fine tuning ideas with models and of course the shoot itself.

JF – I really love making people feel beautiful. There’s nothing more fulfilling than having them look at their image and say “Wow! Is that really me?”

SM – What is your favourite location for a shoot?

AC – I hate doing the same thing over and over again. So I try to switch up as much as I can. I love outdoor locations for their versatility but I also enjoy the controlled environment of a studio.

JF – Studio for me.

SM - Do you have any projects or photoshoots coming up you would like to share?

AC – Top Secret (Abel laughs)

SM – And me who was counting on a big scoop! Ah! Ah!

JF – There’s always something in the works for us.

SM – If you weren’t photographers, what would you be doing?

AC – Acting

JF – Assisting a photographer (Jorge laughs)

SM – What do you do to have fun and relax? What are your interests and hobbies?

AC – (Abel laughs) Photography for me helps me relax and it’s really a lot of fun for me. If I could do this for the rest of my life then I am set.

JF – Collecting models and housing them.

SM - What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

AC – Well craziest situation would be photographing a model for a magazine at Key Biscayne. He and his lover found some foam thrown around in an abandoned shack and took them for padding to shape their bodies for drag and a homeless came out of nowhere an attacked us and tried to sell the foam and demanded that we put it back where we found it. It was crazy. The last thing he said to me was, “I’ll find you, your car is not hard to find” as we drove off. I drive a yellow Chevy tracker. So I’ve never been back to that spot ever since.

JF – Drive 6 hours from home to watch a merman swim in a tank. (Jorge laughs) Don’t ask.

SM – What kind of music do you listen to?

AC – Everything from Rock to County

JF – I’ve been listening to the same CDs since 1993 (More laughs from Jorge)

SM – Where do you see yourselves and what would you like to be doing in let’s say 10 years time?

AC – I would like to have our own full fledge photo studio business. Have a few published books under our belts and just enjoy our every day lives with all of our friends and family.

JF – Truth be told sometimes I can’t even imagine what I am going to be doing next week. I just want a life full of love, happiness and passion. Those things can’t be measured by monetary success, but by the friends and family who you chose to share your everyday with.

SM – Finally, what three words describe you best?

AC – Inventive, Determined, Kind

JF – Funny, Indecisive, Blessed

SM – Jorge and Abel, thank you so so much for taking part to this interview and for being such good sports. It was fun and a pleasure to talk with you both. All the best for the future and we are really looking forward to seeing new work from you both.

Jorge Freire