My photographic work is dedicated to male models and creators. As a teenager, I already knew that I found men attractive and find the source of my inspiration in their attractiveness, masculinity and eroticism. That’s why I only photograph men.
I am fascinated by the different facets of male representation: fashion, eroticism, nude and fantasy. I am particularly drawn to the field of dark fashion, to the dark elegance of the Victorian style with its ruffles, velvet fabrics, brocade and silk. For me, this fashion is like a gateway to another world – a world that I live and breathe through my work for the Bundesamt für magische Wesen bookstore anyway. The stories of demons, vampires, werewolves and other mythical figures are more than fiction to me. They are reflections of those forbidden longings and secret desires that drive us all.
These fantasies come to life in my photo shoots. I love to transform models and creators with the help of make-up artists and mask designers, to give them props that reinforce their role. Sometimes it goes so far that I send them to the dentist to have a perfectly fitted set of vampire teeth made. For me, every detail counts, because every detail condenses the illusion – and the illusion in turn nourishes the eroticism.
I’m all about making the seductive visible in the supposedly monstrous. The vampire, the demon, the werewolf – they are all embodiments of desire that cannot be tamed. I don’t see them as bogeymen, but as expressions of what we secretly long for and fear at the same time.
When I take photos or use the expertise and perspectives of other photographers such as Barbara Frommann and Niels Brähler or in collaboration with make-up artists such as Emilia Keil and Shideh Nkoukhessal, I want to create images that are aesthetic, erotic and mythical at the same time. Images that show that male beauty lies not only on the surface, but in the strength, in the vulnerability, in the sensuality – and in the fantasy that we allow it.
