Second part of the feature. Click here for the first one.
“TJ”
“I met TJ one early afternoon on Adam4Adam, a gay hookup website. I went over to his place near the University of Minnesota campus. His roommates weren’t home; when I got there he started sucking my dick right away. Then we moved to his room, just so that we wouldn’t risk getting walked in on. He mentioned that he was still hung-over from the night before, so was I. We 69’d on his mattress; I ate his beautiful ass while he sucked my dick. I had set my glasses aside, near the mattress, as we changed positions TJ managed to step on my glasses, new glasses at that. So after he shot a large load on his stomach I asked if I could take his portrait. I got the impression that he didn’t want to but did so because he had just broken my glasses. My camera was in the other room. As I reached for it someone, his roommate was getting home and I think he caught a glimpse of my bare ass as I scurried back into the bedroom with my camera. Adrenaline was running high. So I quickly put on my broken glasses and tried to focus my camera at the same time. Snapped a few shots, had him sign a model release and then said goodbye. It all worked out, this is one of my favorite shots.”
“Jim reclining”
“Jim was a client of mine. I used to have an ad as an escort on Men4rentnow. That’s how we first met. He’s a really pleasant, sweet and generous man. His willingness to let me photograph him really goes to show how special our relationship is and how it has developed into a friendship.”
“Micah”
“I love Micah Edel. He gets many texts and drunken messages from me, professing my undying love to him. I might have even sung a love song to him over the phone once. We met years a go through a mutual friend. I was in awe of his beauty then, and had to meet him, I thought for sure at the time that he would have a bad attitude, the kind that is like, ‘I know I’m hot, leave me alone.’ There are a lot of those kinds of guys here in Minnesota. He is really quite humble about his beauty, probably cause growing up people hated on him for his unique features. Anyways, I first photographed him at a water sports photo shoot that I was doing. For the photos, Micah wore a simple black bow tie, as my friend, Daniel peed in his face. It was really sexy! I took this portrait on my bed years later. It was really random, I had moved to a new apartment and bumped into him outside, it turned out that he lived in the building next to mine. I was really excited. So naturally I invited him over and asked to take his portrait. Micah is modest when it comes to letting me photograph him, put I appreciate that he has boundaries and enforces them. No full frontal nudity, and that’s okay with me. Being the creeper that I am sometimes I asked him to push down his underwear just enough to see some sexy pubic hair. The tattoo on his arms read, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill me can only make me stronger’.”
Benjamin Fredrickson studied at Parsons Paris School of Art and Design, he received his BFA in Photography from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His work has been published in Butt Magazine and Brief Magazine and currently live and works in Minneapolis. The complete “Men”-series and more on his website and his “Polaroids Blog“.
