LUSTED MEN book : open collection of erotic pictures of men

LUSTED MEN, photographing men to (re)awaken desire – Pre-orders! One of the aims of the feminist photography book Lusted Men is to revitalise the erotic imagery of men in ways that challenge established gender roles. With no fewer than 750 pages, over 700 erotic photographs of men have been brought together thanks to a five-year call for contributions, open to all, accompanied by a selection of texts and an afterword by our patron, Maïa Mazaurette. The LUSTED MEN collective is offering you the chance to support the creation of this book and receive a preview at home. A photographic survey Where are the erotic photographs of men? The very fact that this question needs to be asked draws attention to the glaring absence of erotic representations of men. Because of the prevalence of the male vision in films and advertising, women’s bodies have constantly beeen put on display, since eroticism is a field associated primarily with femininity. So where are the images of men? On the rare occasions when they do appear, representations typically show men in positions of strength and action, in control and being dominating. Homoerotic production is a rich source of representations, but it remains confined to certain distribution channels. LUSTED MEN invites you to create new images and to liberate your imagination. Launched in 2019, LUSTED MEN has taken shape as a major call for erotic photographs of men. It is aimed at both amateur and professional photographers, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. In order for artists to contribute to the LUSTED MEN collection, there’s just one condition: the men featuring in the images must all be fully consenting adults. Each artist has been able to explore his or her own vision of eroticism through an unrestricted range of photographic styles. The collective has brought together contributions from over 700 international contributors. This year, part of this participatory photographic collection is being brought together for the first time by LUSTED MEN in a magnificent photography book. You’ll find over 700 photos, along with a selection of testimonials, a manifesto from the collective, an anthropological study, a text tracing the history of the LUSTED MEN community and an afterword written by our patron Maïa Mazaurette. In short, Lusted Men is a feminist photographic investigation, at the interface of art, research and visual activism. A project for society: enlarge your desire! The book Lusted Men is an impetus and a tool for self-exploration, allowing the exploration of the intimate, the vulnerable and the erotic, in contrast to traditional masculine iconography. Lusted Men aims to open up paths of emancipation away from gendered roles. In this book, images abound, shattering the binary vision of the woman as the ‘desired object’ and the man as the ‘subject who desires’. The scale and success of this fund-raising appeal are unprecedented, and for the 700 photographers who have contributed images to the Lusted Men book, this initiative has been a way of giving them a voice and allowing them to share their perspectives with as many people as possible. And we’re counting on you to make this happen! By supporting us, you are joining us in the challenge of producing a crucial book that (re)defines what it means to eroticise men. Enlarge your desire – let’s widen the scope of our desires! *Please note that the photographs shown here are the least explicit; to see the entire uncensored collection, pre-order the Lusted Men book! Join the LUSTED MEN community We’re offering you a magnificent publication (format : 15 x 22 cm), something you’ll treasure and that will make you want to show your support for LUSTED MEN in style. With its bright red cover, screen-printed and textured on high-gloss paper, and over 700 colour and black-and-white photographs reproduced on beautiful paper, this is a book to be viewed like a collection of highly desirable frescoes. In addition, by joining the LUSTED MEN community, you will be supporting a cooperative, highly committed and totally indispensable project. The LUSTED MEN Club pack As well as the book, we’re offering a pack comprising a sheet of stickers featuring our best catchphrases, so you can post your feminism wherever you go. This pack also includes a LIMITED EDITION unisex LUSTED MEN T-shirt (avilable in all sizes), screen-printed with our logo. Our approach involves full commitment, right down to the production of our T-shirts, which are designed by Traphic’s independent designers and screen-printed in France on 100 per cent organic cotton. About LUSTED MEN LUSTED MEN originated in an email inbox, on a beach in Greece, in a small flat in Marseille, in a large flat-share in Brussels, outside an exhibition in London and inside a Parisian bar. The same question dominated the lives of several women who had never met: where were the erotic images of men? The LUSTED MEN collective – made up of artists, researchers and art workers, all activists – has been collecting erotic photographs of men since 2019, via an online call for contributions, open to anyone and everyone. The images emerged in a great deluge, ranging from carefully staged shots to the most spontaneous, intimate selfies. To date, this visual activism project has brought together over 700 photographers and models. This participatory archive covers a broad spectrum of eroticism, and circulates at exhibitions, workshops and performances. And now, thanks to you... in this photo book! Lucie Brugier is an artist and printmaker based in Nantes. After studying sociology and political science, she initially specialised in cultural communication and community work, but now she uses a variety of media, including photography, to explore the idea of symbolic objects and good-luck charms. She uses workshops and events to bring her images to a wider public. Salomé Burstein is an independent curator and researcher based in Paris. Alongside her focus on theatre research and visual studies (ENS, EHESS, Columbia University) as well as the investigations into collective practices (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm), she has collaborated with several artistic institutions (Council, Lafayette Anticipations) and publications (JRP Editions, Texte Zur Kunst, Klima), producing texts, interviews and translations. In 2021 she founded Shmorévaz, an independent art space located in a former shoe shop in Paris. Marion Chevalier Taton is a researcher in contemporary art and the social sciences. She lives and works in Seine Saint Denis, in the Île-de-France region. She studies the ways in which artists and female art practitioners question established legitimacies, interrogate collective responsibilities and participate in political subjectification. Her research focuses on mobilising towards social and climate justice in contemporary art, and the study of transformations of artistic production brought about by capitalism in the twenty-first century. A graduate of the École du Louvre and the EHESS (School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences), she has worked with a number of institutions (Palais de Tokyo, Maison Jaune, Fluxus Arts Project, Peggy Guggenheim Collection) and is currently undertaking a doctoral thesis at the CNAM (National Conservatory for Arts and Crafts) in Paris. Laura Lafon Cadilhac is a photographer and artistic director based in both Bagnolet and Cannes. She holds a degree in gender and cultural studies and photography. She uses stories – both those that other entrust her with and those that she tells herself – as the starting points for her photography and editorial work. For around 15 years, Laura has also been leading artistic transmission workshops and regularly gives masterclasses. She loves images – whether making, collecting or producing them – and she sees photography as a pursuit that has enormous power, representing new visions of the world. Since 2020 she has also been the director of photography for Gaze, a print magazine that appears biannually, dedicated to celebrating the female vision. Morgane Tocco was educated at the Lycée Autogéré de Paris and received her doctorate in social anthropology from the EHESS. Currently based in Marseille, she specialises in questions of the body and images viewed through the prism of gender. Her PhD thesis looked at women’s attitudes towards men’s bodies in the context of ordinary heterosexual relationships in France.