Benjamin Fredrickson About His “Men”-Series (Part II)
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.”
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Photographer Benjamin Fredrickson About His “Men”-Series (Part I)
“Self portrait with Louie”
“I first started documenting my intimate moments with a Polaroid Spectra camera. It was a way for me to document my sexual escapades. For me it was creating and keeping a memento from an otherwise lonely sexual experience that usually wasn’t satisfying at all. I was having a lot of sex, meeting guys online through sites like Manhunt and Adam4Adam. Of course not every man that I met was okay with me taking instant photos of our sexual encounter. If I had a photo of every encounter I would have a shit ton of images!
Eventually I became an escort and as the money rolled in I was able to buy and upgrade my equipment and buy more and more Polaroid film. Around this time I also realized that I truly had a passion for photography and documenting my intimate moments – I then started shooting on film with my Pentax 67II, the camera that I hadn’t touched since college, and that is how the “Men“ series came about. Since I was shooting on medium format film it was a little more work, and required more patience from the subject. With that in mind I began photographing friends as well as lovers and random online hookups. This is a project that I intend to keep working on, even as I start new projects.”
“Kael”
“I had never met Kael in person before I photographed him. I knew of him through mutual friends. Something about him intrigued me; I think it was that he looked so sprightly. I eventually met him at his apartment; he was full of energy and had a great smile and laugh, it was refreshing. He was very comfortable in his own skin and didn’t have an issue-posing nude for me. Kael has an amazing body – and a great ass! He had shown me these really sexy photos of himself that were taken on a trip to Iceland. The ones that stood out were close ups of his ass half submerged in water- the water lapping at the roundness of his supple bubble butt. It was difficult for me to not get an erection as I photographed him that day. I took his portrait in his roommate Jesse’s bedroom, I liked how the windows were covered in newsprint so I made him a paper hat to wear, and it just felt right. Kael was fun to work with. His confidence in himself really turned me on!”
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Boys Galore: Guarro
Guarro is another free E-zine dedicated to guys in freaky poses and photography in general. Issue #1 is a reminiscence to Lady Gaga and features a lot of photographers already mentioned on CATCH FIRE such as Benjamin Fredrickson, Exterface, Mathias Uris or Javier Felices. Click here to check it out.
Ticket To Hell #2
The second issue features photographs and artwork by Benjamin Fredrickson, Bruce La Bruce (some nice preview pics of Francois Sagat / L.A. Zombie), Joachim Baldauf, Stefan Mosebach et al. and is pretty entertaining. Check it out here (there is a price printed on the front, so I assume it can also be ordered in a printed version, but the site doesn’t say where). Thanks, guys!
