This just in: Grindr has launched its very own publishing house and has commissioned a fancy new coffee table book featuring the work of Berlin-based photographer Matt Lambert to go along with its line of sexy athleisure wear released earlier this year.
Home features a series of portraits of gay men who Lambert connected with through the app, as well as other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Related: Too Many White Guys On Grindr & Too Many Are Racist, Blogger Laments
“I’d say the average age was probably, like, 21 or 22,” Lambert tells Dazed, adding that the limited-edition, 102-page book is intended to be “a snapshot of about twenty people that I’d met and had a conversation with about the ways digital or virtual spaces have helped them find a sanctuary or solidarity.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
He continues: “A lot of my work deals with intimacy and digital spaces and I’m not trying to present this dystopian view of the world, that romance is dead as a result of the internet, but rather to say ‘hey, we’re here now and digital spaces have done some really fucking incredible things for people over the last couple of years’.”
Related: Grindr Has Ruined Absolutely EVERYTHING, Disgruntled Blogger Laments
According to Grindr’s creative director Landis Smithers, the project was also inspired by the Orlando tragedy.
“After Orlando, we began to look for ways to express this common sense we all had that something had been taken away from us,” Smithers tells Dazed. “A sense of comfort in each other, in the ability to be safe, to walk or speak or simply exist in places we had taken for granted were ‘ours’.”
Lambert adds, “These spaces are incredibly important places to come of age, often before we’re able to come of age and come out in the real world. So the idea was just to document conversations with young gay men and ask them when and where that space was for them.”
Related: Turns Out Grindr Is A Godsend If You’re Gay, Twentysomething, And Disabled
Home is currently available for preorder and will ship after the new year. Here’s a sampling of what’s inside…
walterhpdx
Wow… Without reading the story other than seeing that it was based on Grindr, I expected it to be early 20something. I was kind of surprised that the images are race-inclusive, until I read, “In true Grindr form, the models are all young, thin, and naked, with a tendency toward Anglo.”
ErikO
Who would actually buy this?
crowebobby
With exception of the 1st and 4th, not young enough and not naked enough.
crowebobby
@crowebobby: I meant the 5th.
Herman75
Mr. Smithers expects you to “buy” it.
Jack Meoff
There is something a bit creepy and unsettling about these images. They seem a bit predatory or something.
Brian
Grindr is awful. This book is awful.
ChrisK
I always say where there’s smoke there’s fire and the only thing I come out of this is that Matt Lambert likes em under aged. If I saw this on someone’s coffee table I’d be calling the local law enforcement. I’m sure you’d find something even worse on their computers.
Bob LaBlah
I knew none of the victims but were I the friend of any of them I would ask these people to not do this. AOL.com had a tribute to the victims in their People Who Died in 2016 slide show tribute. There was a lot more to those kids than just sex if you read their profiles in the tribute. It is nbr 48 if your interested. Grindr, this was disgusting and shame on Queerty for even mentioning it. That is more kiddie porn if ever any existed and you know it.
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/12/09/people-who-died-in-2016-muhammad-ali-scalia–deaths-that-made-headlines/21623723/#slide=4304129#fullscreen
Louis
Yes this rears into the realm of pedophilia these boys are way too young and this is a disgraceful way to pay respect to all the LGBT Americans who were killed in June in Orlando.
This is no way to pay respect nor honor their memory.
ingyaom
@Louis: …and LGBT non-Americans – several of those killed were not US citizens, and not all were gay, either.