NOVEMBER 20, 1998 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE
13
EVENINGS OUT
New benefit calendar has more of Jeff Palmer's men
by Bob Findle
For some time now, photographer Jeff Palmer has been providing us with images of some of the most beautiful men to be found.
The men are buff, the cut lines on their bodies running deep across stomachs, chests and arms. Alone or in pairs, Palmer catches them in black and white, shadows deliciously accenting a protruding nipple or
tracing the curve of a spine as it drops between ever-so-rounded buttocks; light dipping into the depths of a belly button or gleaming on the bulky expanse of a tense bicep.
Where does Palmer get the raw material for his art?
"Half the models are men I go up to," he says. "They have gorgeous bodies, but a real lack of attitude. Trying to shoot around attitude is yucky."
He says that without attitude, he can get
a lot more out of the model and produce a better picture.
"It's hard to get a person with attitude in a real vulnerable-feeling pose."
The other half of his shooting stock comes from looking over the pictures men send to him for consideration, and from placing ads.
Recently, Palmer went to Florida for two weeks, the shoot producing many of the images used in this year's Focus AIDS benefit calendar. Palmer has once again, for the
10th year, collected 13 images of nude males for this 11 × 12-inch month-at-aglance calendar that benefits agencies across the United States that provide direct services to people living with HIV and AIDS. So far, Palmer has distributed more than $400,000 to organizations in 15 cites and eight states.
In Florida, the call for models to use in the calendar brought him "men I had never met before. They just showed up at the location and I took it from there," he says. "It was great, great fun.”
A fun experience is important, according to Palmer, for both the models and for himself. Unlike other photographers, he lets the models contribute to the shoots.
"I provide a physical setting and work with how light plays off a body, then it is up to the models to take the lead," he says.
Besides the fun aspect of nude photography, Palmer says there also has to be a
feeling of respect for a good experience.
"There is a real limit, a line that cannot
be crossed," he says,
says. "You have to separate your desire for sex from your desire to make great pictures."
Palmer's pictures are made, he says, not only to sell calendars, but to be examples of what men-with-men sexuality can be. When he started, his art was part of his commitment to help others be out and open about their sexuality.
"There were so few positive images," he says. "There were lots of sex images, but nothing like men being tender with each other. Many men had never seen that
before-that you can actually have love with another man."
He also says he wanted to show healthy images of men to balance the images of the AIDS epidemic.
To order the 1999 Focus AIDS Benefit Calendar, send $13, plus $3 for shipping and handling, to Jeff Palmer Originals, P.O. Box 230034, Encinitas, Calif. 920230034, call 760-744-8360, or access http:/ /www.jeffpalmer.com on the web.
Bob Findle is a freelance writer living in San Diego, Calif.
Another gay Bible show
needed nonsexualness of photographing opens, retells Noah's Ark
naked men.
If the photographer is being sexually aroused or using the models in an unprofessional way, it will ruin the models' sense of security, limiting how much they are willing to do.
"When the model knows there is a real commitment, that the line will not be crossed, that frees us both up," Palmer
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by Dawn E. Leach
New York, N.Y.-Conservative religious outrage has barely begun to subside over a gay Christ figure in
"I'd love to know who these fundamentalists imagine created gay people."
Terrance McNally's play Corpus Christi, but New York theater has another biblical interpretation with overtly gay themes.
Paul Rudnick, who wrote the film In
and Out, has a new play opening in November with an Adam and Steve instead of Adam and Eve, according to the Miami Herald.
A re-configured Noah's Ark in The Most Fabulous Story Ever will have gay rabbits, a horny rhinoceros, and a crew of dominatrixes.
The Family Defense Council surprised no one by rushing to condemn the play.
"I'd love to know who these fundamentalists imagine created gay people," Rudnick responded. "If it wasn't God, maybe it was Cole Porter."
Rudnick said he hopes that conservatives will at least see the show before they write it off. He suggested that they might even enjoy it. ✓
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