Warning: This article contains full-frontal male nudity and may not be appropriate for work environments.
Online dating does not bring out the best in people. For the most part, there's no time for your most accepting self to get to know the individuals flashing across your screen. Instead, more often than not, you find yourself mocking a tagline or a dumb artsy photo before swiping left.
Lisbon-based photographer and drag queen Adam Moco was particularly disturbed by the body-shaming he witnessed on gay hookup apps, expressed blatantly on online profiles with warnings like "no fats" and "no femmes."
So what's the best way to shut down all the judgmental, troll-esque hate that plagues the Internet? Duh, a nude art project.
Moco embarked on a mission to document the diverse -- and all very, very sexy -- men around the world, all just a right-swipe away. Since 2013, he's used location-based apps like Grindr, Scruff and Tinder to meet up with men in a nonsexual context, creating intimate and revealing portraits that show the many shapes and sizes of queer babes around the globe. The black-and-white portraits, all shot in natural light, provide a raw glimpse of the unfiltered male form, in all its contrast and complexity.
Along with the images, Moco records his subjects' musings on nudity, bodies, and living in their skin. "I like to be naked," Joao, one of Moco's subjects, explained during his shoot. "In the summer I go to the beach, all naked. When I was a kid I used to look in the mirror and this was the body that I'd see growing up. It’s my body -- to be ashamed makes no sense."
See more of Moco's images and listen to the accompanying recordings on his website, Bare.
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