“I never set out to portray the male as gay, but to capture male beauty in its diverse splendor, as art, for everyone to enjoy,” says Australian photographer Paul Freeman.
Freeman’s contemporary male nudes have been showcased around the world, as well as featured in numerous books, including his most recent Outback Dusk, the fifth in a series of coffee table books depicting rugged men on the Australian outback, which is set to be released in October 2014.
Despite receiving international praise for his work, which masterfully manages to be both sexy and artistic at the same time, Freeman says that often times heterosexual men are made uncomfortable by it.
“In my experience, many straight men are programmed to be repulsed by portrayals of frontal male nudity,” Freeman explains. “If they look at a book of my work, they flick past full frontal shots lest they be perceived as gawking at ‘it’, or admiring ‘it’. They will happily cavort drunkenly with their mates and expose their genitalia to each other in fun when it is part of carousing, yet don’t feel comfortable viewing it publicly in photographic art.”
The reason for this?
“Men have so many issues around their genitalia,” Freeman hypothesizes. “Being confronted by photographic depictions of their own or other men’s [forces them] to confront their own weaknesses and inadequacies in the most primal way.”
We, on the other hand, don’t have any issues admiring “it.” So without any further ado, check out Freeman’s sexy male gladiators from his books Heroics and Heroics 2. And see more NSFW images on his website.
Published for one-time use only with permission from Paul Freeman. Photographs may not be saved, copied or republished on any other website.
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