Naked men and boys performed dance, sport, balance and acrobatic feats for each other in ancient Egypt and Greece. In Rome the naked entertainer existed in the banquet and the arena and the naked artist's model has always been a source of inspiration. In the the early days of the last centuries the naked male was fairly underground, but in recent times he has emerged from the shadows and once again into the spotlight as an element of entertainment and artistic expression. Regularly because it is often found to be confronting, male nudity is used as an attention grabber. It is still out of the norm so it is a powerful tool to be used to make a point, focus attention and explore beauty, passion and even philosophical or political ideas. It is that general and widespread inhibition that 20th and 21st century humans seem to have that gives it impact. Personally I do not think of nudity as shocking, surprising or out of the norm, but I gather I am not in the majority. To me the aesthetic is all. When I did photography I often told a model 'I am not doing a portrait of you. You are merely an arrangement of light and shade. A shape.' I lit and arranged a body to be pleasing to the eye, express what I believed to be beauty and compliment what the model had to offer.
Ethereal Icelandic band Sigur Ros with Shia LaBeouf
Shia naked and heading in a new unencumbered direction.
Shia naked and heading in a new unencumbered direction.
Dirk Jan Jager and Simon Ferdinando
Theatre and music
Dimitris Papaioaonnau
Astounding Powerful and Beauftiful. Director, Choreographer and visual artist. His works contain a lot of male nudity and he was also responsible for the Opening Ceremony for the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Macumba Antropofaga by Teatro Oficina
Sao Paolo - Brazil
Brazilian Play with Black Magic
Sao Paolo - Brazil
Tom Goss a gay troubadour.
