“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.
NJjoe
Nice to see MEN with hair on their chests rather than the usual hairless twinks we see too many of these days. The photos are beautifully posed and shot. Thumbs up!
Bromancer7
OMG they are all so hot!
crowebobby
Not my sexual fantasy, but incredibly beautiful men and photography. Somehow I feel no compulsion to denigrate them because they don’t conform to my particular sexual taste. I wonder how that can be?!
TampaBayTed
At last, beautiful, handsome me who aren’t covered with graffito.
kupenda
Why are they all white?
Sebizzar
@NJjoe: Body hair has been back for awhile now where have you been lol.
@kupenda: Same.
Bromancer7
@kupenda: Because that’s what the photographer chose to do. When you become a photographer you can shoot men of any color you choose.
Does that answer your stupid question?
SportGuy
@kupenda:
I guess to be a gladiator you have to be white, who knew, LOL!
Bromancer7
@SportGuy: Yes, it was in the handbook. Didn’t you read it?
paulfreeman
@kupenda there are actually men of colour shot as warriors in my book Heroics II ( available on Amazon ????) which has over 180 photographs. Unfortunately only a very small selection, and censored at that, were able to be shown here!
paulfreeman
@kupenda: there are actually men of colour portrayed as warriors in my book Heroics II (available on Amazon ????) which has over 180 photographs. This is just a small censored selection shown here.
pscheck2
@kupenda: A matter of choice and a damn good one at that!