In the United States, same-gender sexuality has become more acceptable in the past two decades, and the number of people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is increasing as well for this reason. But in most areas of the world, sexual minorities are discriminated, yes still today. For example: ‘A 2014 Ugandan law, called the "kill the gays bill" by some, attempted to punish same-sex relations with life imprisonment or even the death penalty. The law was later found to be invalid, but it resulted in a huge surge of violence against LGBTQ people, including the murder of a prominent activist’
Nudity & Gender & sexuality
As you might know by now, nudity to me doesn’t have to be sexual at all. And I guess you can feel this in the images from this shoot too. I am proud to have been a part of this universal message, to have had the chance to break all those simulated thought methods at once for a magazine as Playboy felt empowering. And above that, the entire experience, the shoot itself, was something I’ll always remember, holding your breath underwater with strangers and then synchronize and dance together. It felt like we were healing each other and the entire pool turned into a spiritual bath.
Some words from Ed for Playboy:
“I think there’s an advantage to my being gay in that I don’t want my female nudes to be sex objects,” he tells me. “I want them to be about grace and movement.” He welcomes seven models—five women and two men—to the pool area.
The models move and behave as though they inhabit this slice of suburbia full-time, and as though a crew of strang- ers aren’t watching them. One scarlet-maned woman repeatedly and patiently glides and jumps into the pool at Freeman’s direction.
She stops swimming only to listen for the next instruction, unfazed by a topless peer practicing sun salutations on the other side of the yard.
Although Freeman has convinced the men to be part of this PLAYBOY cover shoot, he offers them no guarantee they’ll make the final cut. “But,” he tells me, “if I have anything to say about it, they will.” Toward the end of the day, all seven models are told to sub- merge themselves and cradle one another. “I want to express freedom within this notion of gender identity in the culture, which is very much about an upward and outward movement,” explains Freeman. “So this is not going to be pictures with peo- ple diving downward.” Freeman instructs them to point and arch their collective ex- tremities. Simultaneously, they all look up at the fading sunlight. The shutter clicks. “A lot of people tell me, ‘This reminds me of Renaissance paintings,’” he says. “That’s probably because those paintings were of gorgeous bodies. They weren’t sexually interacting; it was just about the beauty of the human form—and that’s really what I’m about.”
Photography and vision by Ed Freeman
Some more words of myself in the short video below.
