Once considered “obscenity,” the male nude is only now being restored to the pantheon of fine art. With the decriminalization of printed matter dedicated to the male physique, magazines featuring homoerotic work are being welcome. With the publication of BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! magazine Volume No. 2, and exhibition at Los Angeles’s premier photography gallery Fahey/Klein, Ghislain Pascal, co-founder of The Little Black Gallery, celebrates Pride in high style.
The new issue brings together the work of ten photographers from nine countries including AdeY (UK), David Charles Collins (Australia), Matthew Finley (USA), Ashish Gupta (India), Manuel Moncayo (Mexico), Juan Antonio Papagni Meca (Argentina), Sebastian Perinotti (Argentina), Mauricio A. Rodriguez (Venezuela), Xavier Samré (France), Inon Sani (Peru), and illustrator Matthew Hetznecker (USA) in a sensual celebration of the LGBTQ community in its many-splendored glory.
“Despite the pandemic we managed to launch a new independent magazine dedicated to queer and gay photography,” Pascal writes in the letter from the editor. “The response has been phenomenal and we are now distributed across the world in some of the most famous magazine stores and kiosks. It just goes to show that there is a market for a well-produced print magazine showcasing fine art photography by queer and gay photographers that is not just a dick magazine!”
Let’s Get Free
In the five decades since the Stonewall Rebellion ushered in a new era of civil rights, the community has faced tragedy and triumph time and again, never failing to forget that there are still countries today where homosexuality remains illegal, gay rights systemically denied, and queer lives are under constant threat of violence.
The Pride Issue opens with Iquitos, a feature by indigenous Peruvian photographer Inon Sani, shot in the tropical waters of his native land. It continues with Argentine photographer Sebastian Perinotti’s Diary Non Diary, a collection of intimate portraits made at home that are particularly poignant after a year spent in isolation. French photographer Xavier Samré transports us to Brazil in a collection of Polaroids made at the beach that suggest nothing is so lovely as the pleasures of sand, sun, and surf, while British photographer AdeY’s Boys Will Be Boys is a playful romp through life with nothing on, save a single image of a young man mid embrace wearing a t-shirt stating “I’M NOT GAY” any nothing else.
Trained as a dancer, AdeY considered going into acting before realizing he was far more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. He taught himself photography and discovered a passion for collaborative work, creating a space for his subject to participate in the creation of the image. In his pictures, nudity is a state of being, rather than a state of undress, a reversion to the natural world so often denied to us. AdeY reveals he wants “to create a non-sexualized and open-minded representation of humankind” using photography to transport us to an idyllic world where we may enjoy the sheer joy of simply being alive.
By Miss Rosen
Miss Rosen is a New York-based writer focusing on art, photography, and culture. Her work has been published in books, magazines, including Time, Vogue, Aperture, and Vice, among others.
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Magazine: Volume 2, The Pride Issue. Published by The Little Black Gallery, $30.00. Available here.
“BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!”, a Group Exhibition hosted in conjunction with The Little Black Gallery Fahey/Klein Gallery, 148 N. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA. Through June 19, 2021. More information here.
