17c起草社区

CONSIDERING he was removing his clothes for the camera, Ernesto Romo-Corella was surprisingly relaxed.

鈥淚t was easy,鈥� says the Sydneysider.

[showads聽ad=MREC]鈥淭here were about 20 people, you got there, got naked, you got dressed again.鈥�

Romo-Corella鈥檚 image is part of a new exhibition by established gay photographer Rod Spark that is currently on display just off Sydney鈥檚 Oxford St.

Called My Reality, Embodied Diversity, Spark鈥檚 exhibition features two photographs each of more than 50 men. The first image clothed, the second in the Emperor鈥檚 new clothes.

The photos are sparse, passport snap cold, shot against a plain background with no retouching.

One of Romo-Corella鈥檚 friends questioned why he volunteered.

鈥淭hey were like, how can you do it, you鈥檙e so brave?鈥� he says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 because it has a meaning behind it. It鈥檚 not just getting naked for the sake of it.

鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 be doing it in the city because that鈥檚 out of context.

鈥淏ut at the same time, I wouldn鈥檛 be wearing a scarf on the beach if it鈥檚 35 degrees.鈥�

From the backstreets of Darlinghurst to the nation鈥檚 capital, the image of the nude 鈥� particularly the male nude 鈥� is being re-assessed. Freed from its usual lair, lurking within computers accessed on a lonely night, and released blinking into the glow of a thousand halogen spotlights pointed towards stark museum walls.

Unencumbered flesh is the subject of Bare: Degrees of Undress at Canberra鈥檚 National Portrait Gallery. LGBTI celebrities, including Ian Thorpe, Carlotta and Leigh Bowery, feature prominently.

Exhibition curator Penelope Grist tells the 17c起草社区 she is particularly fond of a portrait by artist Ross Watson of gay Olympian Matthew Mitcham. The oil painting depicts the diver in a Sistine Chapel pose but with a rich dollop of rippling six-pack.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e absolutely fabulous, I really love how [Watson] appropriates that Renaissance tradition and inserts his figure into classical mythology,鈥� Grist says.

Athletes are in abundance. Grist says this is partly because it echoes the role of the nude in Ancient Greece that represented almost God-like physical prowess.

The exhibition鈥檚 name, which avoids the term 鈥渘aked鈥�, is quite deliberate.

鈥淣ude is planned and nakedness is accidental but bareness is right down the middle, it鈥檚 this stage oscillating between the public and the private,鈥� she says, noting in many of the photos there is a dynamic between vulnerability and confidence.

Grist adds that when you see someone with few or no clothes, 鈥測ou immediately have an emphatic response, just for a moment you think about yourself in that place and that鈥檚 what makes it a powerful and energising subject鈥�.

However, Grist assures it鈥檚 all totally above board: 鈥淣othing in the show is not extremely normal nudity, what you would see in the shower which is comforting but fascinating.鈥�

It鈥檚 a sentiment Spark shares, who says one reason for the project was to explore how secure men were in their own skin.

鈥淚 would hope that I鈥檓 not objectifying anybody, that鈥檚 the opposite of what I鈥檓 trying to do by displaying a range of men of age, body size and shape and by removing the emotion where everybody is basically of the same expression and posture,鈥� he says.

Spark says the aim was to move away from the 鈥渃ommercialised nature鈥� of the nude, the 鈥渂uff, hairless, muscular male,鈥� and instead discover the diversity of masculinity in gay men.

鈥淭he rest of us exist and were just not being presented,鈥� he says.

Not that the exhibition hasn鈥檛 faced criticism, with Spark highlighting one comment on social media which shrieked: 鈥淚f I wanted to see a naked body, I鈥檇 watch porn.鈥�

He puts it down to lingering Victorian prudishness.

Nonetheless, Grist believes the Australian attitude towards nakedness is more relaxed than the British.

鈥淏ecause of the beaches and there being no issues getting fish and chips in your bikini,鈥� she says.

Like Spark鈥檚 images, John Bortolin鈥檚 photographic book Manscapes focuses on the solitary male nude.

Other than that, it鈥檚 a world away. The clinical desolateness of the studio is replaced by the warm hues of the great outdoors of NSW鈥檚 Byron Bay and surrounds as a multitude of muscular men, nary a slither of fabric between them, casually lean against the boughs of mighty trunks or lazily lie about the dandelions.

鈥淚 love natural light and having the light on flesh just works for me,鈥� Bortolin says.

Compendiums of men in states of undress are a common sight in gay bookshops, with more than 10 produced by prolific Australian photographer Paul Freeman alone.

Asked to identify a genre for his work, Bortolin offers up 鈥渁rt nudes鈥�, saying he wanted to ensure that despite the full frontal nature of the images, they wouldn鈥檛 be seen as pornography.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want it to be sexual, but I did want it to be sexy,鈥� he says.

Most of his models 鈥� only one was professional 鈥� are straight men from northern NSW.

鈥淎 lot of them said it was scary but wanted to push through personal boundaries,鈥� Bortolin says.

鈥淎s the underwear came off, after 10 minutes, they felt comfortable.鈥�

While he insists all his subjects knew what the final product would be a few were nonetheless taken aback: 鈥淲hen they saw it in a book with other men they were quite confronted, it was hard for them to look at.鈥澛�

In contrast, others have put their images on social media (鈥渢hey are getting all these 鈥榣ikes鈥� and they love it鈥�) while five of his models came to the launch in Sydney.

鈥淭he attention they got was incredible and they didn鈥檛 care if it was men or women,鈥� he says.

Bortolin adds that his book was never meant for an exclusively gay audience and many women have complimented him on it.

He says the reason for the concentration on men was because the fully-naked male form is so rare in popular culture.

Spark says time constraints, and the fact he knows more men, was why women are absent from his show. Meanwhile, the Portrait Gallery simply had fewer images of bare women in their archives to choose from.

鈥淭here doesn鈥檛 seem to be a聽lesbian equivalent to the coffee table photography books enjoyed by gay men despite the fact that lesbians are equally as fascinated with women鈥檚 bodies as gay men are with men鈥檚 bodies,鈥� says Ann-Marie Callihana,聽who has been taking pictures of LGBTI Sydney for decades including for the 17c起草社区.

Calilhanna says art has historically embraced both male and female nudes but modern mores around sexuality has led to a divide. Women are taught to feel shame about exploring sexual interests while men are encouraged to feel strong and positive.

鈥淚t鈥檚 said that men find love through sex, whereas women find sex through love,鈥� she says.聽

鈥淭his dichotomy polarises the genders and extrapolates to the visual where you will find both images of men and women displayed for male enjoyment but much less emphasis is given to the display of male or female images for female enjoyment.鈥�

Despite his bravado, at one point Romo-Corella felt far less comfortable about his public nakedness.

鈥淚t sounds silly, but I was not thinking women would look at the photos,鈥� he confides.

鈥淢y first response was to get out of there.

鈥淭hen I remembered that, at the end of the day, I like my body, who cares about the sex of the observer?

鈥淚t came back to the original feeling, that taking my clothes off is not as revealing as opening my true soul to those who I choose to share it with.鈥�

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is at the LOSTSpace Gallery, Darlinghurst until August聽22.

is at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra until November 15.

is available聽.

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**This article was first published in the September聽edition of the 17c起草社区, which is . To obtain a physical copy, to find out where you can grab one in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and select regional/coastal areas.

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