Photographers - Part 33

 Florian Hetz

Florian Hetz (above) is a gay German photographer living in Berlin.  A severe bout of encephalitis abruptly ended his career as a theater producer.  An after-effect of the brain inflammation was memory loss.  During his recovery, he began taking photos as a diary.  The pictures reminded him where he had been and with whom.

"My memory is okayish now," he says.  "I don’t need that camera as a crutch anymore. I kept carrying it with me, taking photos of stuff that interested me. It conditioned me to see things photographically.”

Judging by his work, what interests him is primarily male nudes.  The photo above was taken during an artist residency at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles.

Hetz says, "The male nude is the least popular topic in the art context. It sells the least, and at the lowest price. Which is crazy. We grew up with the idea that the naked woman is beautiful and the naked man is not. I object to that heavily. Every human being is beautiful naked. Full stop."

Hetz has become especially noted for closeup nude photography.  The closeup views are somehow both impersonal (because the subject can't be identified) and intensely personal at the same time.

His photos have been described as having "obscene beauty."  The photo above is lit so the dripping penis looks like a shadow, but it isn't.

More obscene beauty – an artistic closeup of an asshole.

A closeup of a man sucking another man's tongue.

This looks like a closeup view of hands, until you notice the penis.

This subject is easily recognizable ...

but this closeup view of a scrotum is almost abstract.

We end with this view of a Fleshlight that, again, looks both impersonal and intensely personal.  Although it's not titled, I'm guessing it's a self-portrait.

You can see much more of Florian Hetz' work on his website www.florianhetz.com.