BROKING

A little reminder of how great summer is … photographs by BroKing.

“I’m BroKing, from Chile. I started taking pictures of myself to send to the guys I met on Grindr, but I quickly realized I was putting in more effort than most, paying attention to the framing and lighting of the images I sent. This led me to consciously explore erotic self-portraiture, and I began taking nude photos of myself, experimenting with poses, lighting, and colors. These moments were charged with self-eroticism; they became opportunities to observe myself, to create, and to explore the most sexual version of myself through photography.

At the same time, posing and observing myself evoked very contradictory feelings: sometimes it brought frustration, other times admiration. Eventually, I realized that the images I liked and those I didn’t, were illusions, and that photography was a fiction where I could be a character or just another element of the landscape. That realization gave me a sense of freedom.

However, self-portraiture has its technical and symbolic limitations, which led me to invite friends to model. My goal was to create a setting where I could connect with other men through the exploration of self-eroticism and the means and pleasures associated with this practice. I try to create a space that goes beyond simply taking photographs, as it allows us to talk about our bodies—the aspects we like, those that make us feel insecure—while also freeing ourselves from the expectations of how we should look according to the beauty standards we’ve constructed as a society and within our gay culture.”