JOE OPPEDISANO: TESTOSTERONE

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Δυο μικρά αποσπάσματα από την συνέντευξη που έδωσε ο Joe Oppedisano στον Scott Dagostino (FAB Magazine, issue 311) με αφορμή την πρόσφατη κυκλοφορία του φωτογραφικού λευκώματος Testosterone:

"Gay fantasy” is what Joe Oppedisano calls his work. In the crowded field of male nude photography, Oppedisano’s shots stand out with their potent sexuality – an unapologetically- raw masculinity conveyed with rich colours and stark lighting. A fixture in European gay magazines, the New Yorker is finally becoming a name in North America.
The photographer gravitates towards “guys who are beefier and sexier” rather than the fashion world’s preference for “skinny and interesting” models. “I grew up playing football and baseball and running track,” he says. “I was always into athletic guys.” In the first collection of his photos, the aptly-titled new book Testosterone, Oppedisano takes his massive models into a world that’s “dark and dank and a little spooky. You turn a corner and see this big tattooed man. Is he going to fuck you or kick the shit out of you? There’s that question of should I go for it?”

He describes his work as “highly stylized and homoerotic” and it’s an artistry that prevents even his sexiest shots from being dismissed as pornography. He studied art history in Florence and was inspired by Caravaggio and other Renaissance painters. During a normal work day, he says, “I just started shooting with this really dramatic lighting. It’s very strong, very top-heavy. It accentuates the body and the muscles.” Another inspiration was less highbrow: “Black velvet paintings from the ’70s,” he laughs. “I love the bright colour and shadows.” Used in his own work, Oppedisano says, “all that muscle and flesh coming out of darkness is really romantic and sexy…I really saturate the hell out of my colour. The reds are redder, the blues are bluer. Everything is much more rich than it would be in real life, which makes it more cinematic.” (…)
While many photographers of male nudes strive for classicism – Greek statues by way of Leni Riefenstahl – Oppedisano’s tastes are more pop. “I find more inspiration in movies,” he says. “Did you see Batman Begins?” he asks. “Oh my God, that was so hot. Totally hot.” Having already done a ‘gay cowboy’ spread years ago [below], Oppedisano loved Brokeback Mountain. “The part when he spits on his dick to fuck him raw in the middle of the woods was genius! I couldn’t believe it!” After seeing the film, he says, “I’d have loved to do another gay cowboy shoot out in the woods somewhere but everybody was kind of going for that at the time so I held back.”It’s the pack mentality too often seen in publishing that Oppedisano pushes against. While preparing Testosterone, he says, the publishers “wanted me to reshoot the book, to be like a Bel Ami book, and I told them I wouldn’t do it. I would rather not have a book.” After a while, he says, “they realized that having guys in Dolce & Gabbana suits fighting in a boiler room IS much hotter than them naked and laying lifeless on a bed, pretending to be sexy.” Oppedisano wants “that really raw masculinity that you don’t see in other photographs of a guy looking pretty with his ass up in the air. Sure, you want to fuck him but after that, then what?” (…)