Guys, Feeling Uncertain About Your Sexuality?**+

Guys, Feeling Uncertain About Your Sexuality, is the title

suggested, as one views this female underwear advertisement

(reklamen) and finds this shaven-headed young man staring back

intently. If you, guys, have been looking at scantily-clad young

women and find virile young men staring back at you, do you feel

like you have a sexual identity problem? Your ratings and

critiques are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly or very

critically, please submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please

share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! ;~)) John

To me the composition of this image truly reflects the title. The blur around the young man not only makes him the central figure but also reflects the maddening pace of that world around him. Also waht is truly striking to me is also the way that you captured his expression of bewilderment and loss in the flurry of acivity.

Great capture and observation.

This is an unlikely photo for Photo.net, and especially for anyone who professes to be heterosexual to take or comment on (I'm pretty thoroughly heterosexual, but have no hesitancy in taking or posting such a photo, as I am pretty secure in my own sexuality).

 

This is what I saw before the Metro train passed in front of me as I was observing the poster, rear, looking for a likely juxtaposition photo, showing the underwear-clad model and passersby on the Metro. I got one wonderful shot of this same poster, with a woman looking quite bewildered, which I'll post someday, and it truly is quite good.

 

But before the train went by, I saw this guy observing me, and when the train had passed, he was still staring at me intently as I had my huge Nikon D2X and 70~200 E.D. V.R. lens pointed directly across the tracks at him, so I took the photo.

 

I realized before the train passed at first exactly the juxtaposition that was present and waited for the train to pass, just to capture him as he craned to look for me, and got him at just the right moment.

 

It was obvious to me: If a man looks at a beautiful, underwear-clad female model and finds instead a young man, shaven-head, staring back at him intently, maybe he can be said to have a sexual identity problem.

 

After all, fundamental 'Christian' denominations in the U.S. sponsor 'deprogramming' schools and tutelage for males with 'homosexual' tendencies, claiming they can 'unlearn' their predeliction toward sexual excitement and pleasure at being around, viewing and enjoying the same sex.

 

Hogwash, I think, but I'm not homosexual, so what do I know. I just can extrapolate from a heterosexual viewpoint and I think if someone tried to 'program' me into homosexuality, they'd have a veeerrry hard time, and even in prison, I'd probably not be 'gay for the stay', which would mean 'very hard time'. (most males in prisons, I understand, adopt homosexual practices while they are incarcerated only, though they are avowedly heterosexual, then revert to heterosexuality when they are released and seldom or never revert to the prison sexual practices while they have their freedom (or so I am told).

 

So, this photo is emblematic of sexual identity, and this male, being (so far as I can judge) fairly good looking, was ideal for the part.

 

This was a studied shot, although the study was formed in less than the time it took a Metro train to pass, stop, unload and load its passengers and pull out of the station.

 

The train that passed was going in the opposite direction, I surmise (not remembering exactly and not having reviewed my captures, but remembering the moment.)

 

And the blurs resulted from use of a V.R. (vibration reduction) lens, and a very slow (1/5th to 1/10th sec) hand-held shutter speed at full extension or so - about 200 mm.

 

So, the man was transfixed while those around him were moving and when I reviewed the capture, I was stunned by how powerful it was and chuckled to myself, but understood that few would ever be 'attracted' to this image, and fewer males would comment on it, but vowed to post it, no matter what.

 

Your analysis is spot on. It was the hoped-for effect, and it was realized better than could be hoped. If the faces had turned out sharper on the spectators, I would have selectively blurred them, using Gaussian blur, to create the effects that their movement caused anyway.

 

Long explanation for a simple photo; but maybe it's more complex than one realizes at first glance.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

Hi John, I think this guy just has boobies on his mind and it shows...he can't wait to get home and check out the New Nudes on Photo.Net...

I love these moments..I feel Photography any way you look at it is truly about the moment... you got a nugget! I for juan have no problem looking at this guy or this photo...I was wondering if he ever looked back or if he smiled as this photo made me do...I have a similar shot to find for you not as good as yours but still fun...thanks for the post...Juan

 

 

Thanks for the compliments on my Photoshop skills I too think your ability to transform film into digital images is very good! I thought of another title for this image...Ladies and Gentlemen are you comfortable with someone pointing a large barrel at you while passing on a train? To me that is what I see in their faces...more a fear of gun barrel, than any real sexual thoughts...Yes our society uses sex to sell..It works! I too would have taken this shot Had I seen it...I like your photography TONS...

What word do you use for boobies??

My favorite films are Polaroid Type 55 and Fuji Across and of course all the Ilford films...

P.S. Have you had a chance to see Ricardo Yamamoto pics?? he has his first male nude? It's quite interesting... got to go for now!!

Actually, he had 'me' on his mind, as he spied me photographying even before his view of me was cut off by the intervening subway train, then when the train passed, I found him staring intently at and for me, (unless there was a similar poster behind me, as I didn't look, sorry to say). But it was clear, he was intent on my photography, and eyeballing me and my cameras, which were some considerable distance away, and not so readily apparent, as I was behind a crowd of people on a platform, shooting through the crowd with my long telephoto (but very large and very visible with huge camera).

 

Anyway, no matter what piqued his interest, it made a wonderful shot and I'm glad you too are secure in your own sexuality, Juan. (P.S., I don't call them boobies, although I understand some American women do call theirs that).

 

P.S.

 

If you look closely at all of my photos, you'll find one in which 'the finger' is featured prominently -- can you find it? However, I do not use Photoshop except to 'size' my photos or adjust contrast here and there, generally, compared to your photos -- my hats off to you for what appears to be good Photoshopping -- or if not, send me the name of the film you use, I want to buy a boxcar load.

 

John

When I took this, it was before the premiere of the film (cine, kino) 'Brokeback Mountain' which brought male homosexuality themes to the big screen in a way that achieved widespread critical acceptance, and that film and the so-called 'Gay' Academy Awards which features many films with similar themes had no part in my decision to post this particular photo.

 

Rather, it represents my own puckish sense of humor -- I see what I see, and post what I will, even if it contradicts my own personal feelings, as I have no axe to grind with my photos, either politically or philosophically (or in those instances in which I do, the commentaries below are where I can disassociate myself from a 'misleading' photo or one which misrepresents my views).

 

John (Crosley)

I am surprised that this picture did not generate more discussion. What you show here is what is in the back of most heterosexual guy's minds literally. It can be interpreted as a pretty accurate statement about male sexuality. Facials expressions are fascinating because they provide a non verbal form of communication. This is quite a provocative stare if you ask me.

It's a vacant stare.

 

He was staring away in my direction as a train came and I recognized that. I can assure you he wasn't looking wistfully or sexually at me. Perhaps if the look had been quizzical or disgusted . . . . ;-) But he was looking 'at' me or 'past' me.

 

A train passed and through the passing train windows, I picked out (framed) this scene, which I had previsualized, and then the moment the train's last coach passed, I snapped the shutter.

 

Thus, you can see, he had no real time to be 'provocative' unless that says something about the viewers' own sexuality (that's a joke . . . )

 

In fact, the whole photo is part joke, and jokes often are good when they hold a substantial element of truth (and surprise).

 

His stare and the focus on it is the 'surprise'. I blurred the woman's face, right, which was 'in focus' in order to help the idea along.

 

One of the few Photoshopping gimmicks I've engaged in. Also, French law discourages making faces recognizable, although for him it 'had' to be recognizable, so I flirt with disaster if he complains.

 

But what the hell, are they gonna come and get me in Ukraine?

 

John (Crosley)