A Queerty Original!

Joe Oppedisano Knocks ‘Em Out

https://youtu.be/B3zl0CW8G_M
Joe Oppedisano’s uber-masculine images absolutely pop off the page. And now they’ll pop off the screen as the Albany-born, New York-based photography prepares to debut a behind-the-scenes making of his latest calendar, Knockout!.

An extension of his celebrated male skin shots, the Tony Sellari-shot film, also called Knockout!, takes the viewer inside the ring as Oppedisano snaps Spartan-like mixed martial arts fighters at their most fierce.

Originally intended to be a “making of” video a la the Deux des Stade rugby project, Oppedisano says he wanted something more explosive:

That’s not really my take on things… It was just very typical and I didn’t want to do something like that – it just seemed very gay and I had seen it before. It didn’t excite me. I wanted to do something that was going to keep me interested and that’s not very easy.

It’s certainly not. In fact, Oppedisano didn’t exhibit an interest in photography until around his thirtieth birthday, when he suffered, as he describes it, “a bit of a nervous breakdown.” Says the shutter bug, “I was kind of bored of myself, so I just picked up a camera and taught myself how to shoot.”

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Prior to picking up the camera, Oppedisano had worked as a fashion editor for the likes of L’Uomo Vogue, W and Details. That, too, happened by accident. A textiles student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Oppedisano traveled to Italy for a bit of international exposure. He soon found himself in the spotlight when a designer asked him to model in a show. From there it was to the editorial room at an Italian women’s magazine and then back to America, where he landed an internship at Esquire.

It’s quite a coincidence that Oppedisano’s first book grew out of a shoot for that very magazine:

I was doing a shoot for Esquire – and it was a suit story, and I shot it in [gritty gay bar] Boiler Room just to give it – to make it a little interesting. After I shot the story that I needed to shoot for the magazine, I kept the guys there and I said, “I want to see you guys fighting.” I wanted some action. They stayed and the make-up artist stayed. It’s actually in the book. And I thought, “Well, this is really cool.” And the magazine loved it.

That shoot made it into Oppedisano’s first photographic collection, Testosterone.

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Like the rest of his career, Oppedisano’s book happened by accident: the already-established photographer had been showing some shots to a publisher friend who suggested he collect them into a book. It sounds like a smooth transition, but Oppedisano described a few clashes with his publishers, Bruno Gmunder Verlag:

They wanted me to reshoot the entire book as nude and I had to convince them that the strength of the book was that the guys were not nude. …Also, the shot of Buck Angel they did not want, because they didn’t want to see a woman in there. I think it worked out. The Buck Angel picture at the end is the ultimate in testosterone.

Buck Angel, of course, is the trans man whose enlarged clitoris makes the boys go wild. Well, some of them, at least.

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One can’t help but wonder what Oppedisano’s parents make of his career trajectory. His father did, after all, grow up in Italy and came to the States at age eighteen. When asked if his parents are “fans,” Oppedisano seems indecisive: “I guess.”

The elder Oppedisano’s do come to his shows, of course, and his father apparently enjoyed his son’s first collection. Or can at least understand where he’s coming from: “My parents came to the book signing and my mother said that my father looked through the book the next day and he came out and said, “You know, it’s really just like Playboy, but only for guys.” Oppedisano insists his work goes a bit beyond the legendary men’s magazine. And his next project, Testosterone 2, will go even further:

With Testosterone, people said, “Oh, there’s hardly any dick in it.” People wanted to see cock after cock after cock. So, with this one, I’m giving them cock – and more. It’s beyond porn. We’re trying to figure out if we can get these pictures published, they’re so over the top.

When asked to describe the images, Oppedisano spoke of gang bangs and excretions. Too bad he didn’t bring a film crew along for that juicy ride.

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