The title of the exhibition Taking a Risk for Safer Sex outlines both the content and the process of the show. It comprises more than 50 photographs of men in a state of undress, nearly naked or completely so, penises concealed or displayed. It is now on show at Café Manhattan in Cape Town’s “gay village”, De Waterkant, and will culminate in a fund-raising auction of the images on July 14 from 8pm.
The exhibition is part of the Play-Nice campaign, associated with the organisation Health 4 Men. Play-Nice has branded condoms, lubricant, posters and designer lights all over the “gay village” and its venues, especially those in which men gather to pick up sexual partners or indeed to have sex on the premises. The idea is to make a campaign for responsible sex appealing and sexy, and through projects such as Taking a Risk … to involve members of the gay community in what you might call brand-building.
It is the second edition of the show, the first having taken place last year. The subjects of the photographs range from sex workers and students to performers and magazine editors; the pictures cover a range of ages, races and body types — as well as moods. Some are outright in-your-face sexy, the men posing like porn stars, while others are humorous. A few are touchingly intimate.
Not all the subjects are even gay — one is a straight bartender who works in the ‘gay village”. One of the photographers is straight; another is himself a gay porn star and producer. The latter is Reno Horn, who (as Kurt Rogers) worked in gay porn overseas before returning to South Africa and starting his own porn outfit, Liberate Studios, in Cape Town. It has so far produced four local-is-lekker movies.
Last year Horn posed for the exhibition, naked as well as clothed and with his beloved dogs. “This year,” he said: “I thought I’d get involved behind the scenes. I work as a hair and make-up artist and photographer in the fashion world, so it was a nice little project for me. I really enjoyed it. I photographed for three or four days, and it was really interesting to meet the guys, to come up with a theme or a story for each person. I think we did pretty well.”
The photographs are indeed good-looking and stylishly done. They are by no means sleazy or tacky. The basic theme, in the year of the World Cup, is sport, so many of the subjects get a giant soccer ball or a surfboard or a baseball bat to pose with — and more than one makes idiosyncratic use of a vuvuzela.
The idea of “taking a risk” meant, for the subjects, pushing themselves to reveal a little more than they might ordinarily do. Each had to determine his comfort level, and in that respect the photographs reflect an engagement with the male body from within, as embodied selfhood, as well as from without, as objects of spectacle. As Glenn de Swardt of PlayNice pointed out, promoting responsible sex often has to do with getting men to confront their own “bodilyness”, to bring into the light parts of their own physical being they might otherwise keep hidden in obscurity or want to deny.
Visibility itself is an important theme in gay-liberation politics, where “coming out” is a key act in assuming agency as an openly gay person. Self-acceptance is the first step towards acceptance in the larger society, and sometimes public display, as in the gay Pride parade, is the way to insert yourself into public discourse and fight for rights.
In a similar manner, sexy, glamourising photos can help men see themselves in a new way — and help others see gay men as something other than a furtive, hidden community. Pride counters shame, and a certain form of self-presentation is involved in enacting pride. Perhaps, as in these photographs, playing with the politics of the image means having to stage and restage visibility in a dynamic of revelation and concealment.
Still, for the subjects of these particular pictures, a risk had to be negotiated. “A lot of guys were quite nervous and didn’t know what to expect,” Horn said. “It’s quite something to ask people to pose naked or even semi-naked. But, because I’ve had a lot of experience in front of the camera, I knew how to handle it, to make them feel at ease. It was fun. I didn’t feel any of the guys walked away feeling it was tasteless. I make sure when I take a picture that I show them so they know what it looks like, to put them at ease. You can see that most of the guys I photographed were enjoying themselves.”
The subjects were taking a risk in revealing themselves so publicly, but there’s another risk the show ran — that of adverse reaction. Which it got, surprisingly perhaps for a venue that is one of Cape Town’s longest-established and best-known gay spots. The day after Taking a Risk for Safer Sex opened with a rapturous party on Thursday July 1, staff at Café Manhattan complained to owner Russell Shapiro, and Post-It notes were to be found stuck on the glass of some images, covering up the genitals on display. One staffer was allegedly so offended that he took leave until the end of the show.
Another, to whom I spoke, said the very idea of an exhibition of naked people was difficult for him. “It’s supposed to be a private thing,” he said, meaning sex and sexuality. “Even with your girlfriend, it’s nice when she’s half-naked.”
But, he said, he had now talked about the show to Shapiro and others, and understood what it intended to do. He was more okay with it now.
Nonetheless, as Shapiro told me, it was a little tricky having the show on while the World Cup had filled Cape Town with tourists, many staying in the area, and few of whom must have had any idea that Café Manhattan was a gay venue. He was getting a lot of walk-in trade, he said, and there might be children among the clients booking before- or after-match meals. No customers had complained, but the Post-It notes would stay for now.
Appropriately, perhaps, the stick-on fig leaves extend the game of concealment and revelation staged by the photos. For some customers, no doubt, it helped them focus on their food without, as Shapiro put it, “a cock in their face”; for others, it added the giggly fun of a peep show. While I was there, one woman was being escorted around by a grinning waiter, looking at the pictures one by one and lifting the Post-It notes to peek at whatever was under them.
For more information on the PlayNice campaign and activities, go to www.playnice.me or call 021 421 6127