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The exclusive photography of Fred Bisonnes played a big role
in setting Advocate MEN apart
in the crowded field of male erotica. Fred was the founding art director
of the magazine; in addition to his photo images he has contributed illustrations
and video reviews. Before Fred joined A-MEN,
his photography was regularly seen in the magazines published by Modernismo;
this word was credited both to him and to Falcon Studios, for which he
was then stills photographer.
Fred has worked as a professional photographer off and on for
nearly 20 years. He took his first “commercial” photos of nude men
in 1972. In the late ‘70’s he had his own male-erotica studio, Western
Man; before that he published male-subject photography under the names Paragon
and Gymnos.
Following are excerpts from and interview with Fred.
First
off, how do you pronounce your name?
Well, Fred is like bed; Bee-zone-ahs, or something close to that.
Is
it French? Italian? Basque?
Fictitious. It’s an anagram. My nom de porn.
Why
use a pseudonym?
Why Rip Colt? Or Matt Sterling? Or William Higgins? Or Al Parker? Or Kristen
Bjorn? In the field of male erotica, there are very few of us – on either
side of the camera – who create under the names on our drivers licenses.
But I’m certainly not ashamed of my nude photography. People in the business
know who Fred really is.
How
did you get into the ”business”?
The first male nudes I photographed – in the early ‘70s – were
soft, After Dark sort of images, very “artsy,” seamless
paper voids and all, no cocks showing, let alone hard-ons. I really didn’t
start shooting blatantly sexual nudes until I became stills photographer for
Falcon Studios. That was in 1977, when I stood in for an ailing photographer
friend during a weekend production. I took the initial Falcon assignment simply
for the voyeuristic appeal. Up till then I’d honestly never seen a gayporn
film. Personally, I was into Colt magazines for fantasizing purposes.
The Falcon people liked my work, and eventually I began to
shoot stills for them on a regular basis. Except for a period from January ’79
to June ’81 – when I had my own studio, Western Man – everything
in print with Falcon’s name on it was my camerawork. I dropped them as
an account over a year ago, however.
Why?
At age 45 I decided I was finally too old to be slithering around on my belly
taking the required “jerk-suck-rim-fuck” clinical shots of
guys balling together. I also had some really serious reservations about
being a party to business-as-usual hard-core production in these safe-sex
times. And I was more than occupied with A-MEN assignments plus
other work and personal projects.
Falcon never
identified Fred Bisonnes as the studio’s stills photographer. When
did you start using that photo credit?
The owner of Falcon likes to think of his video and magazine products as “team” efforts.
Hence no one is singled out by Falcon for recognition – or blame. Part
of my agreement in resuming work for them in 1980 was that I could continue
shooting my “own” models independtly and submit this photography
to the gay glossies for publication. I’d already been doing this as Fred
Bisonnes for Western Man. By the time I returned to Falcon’s projects,
I’d had several layouts in the Modernismo mags credited to Bisonnes.
When Advocate MEN came into being, it was only logical to continue with
that pseudonym.
You stayed in San Francisco when A-MEN relocated
to L.A. What is your relationship to the publication today?
I’m paid a monthly fee to shoot exclusively for them – a professional
retainer, it’s called. I charge a daily fee – a “per diem” – for
actual photography executed for A-MEN. The magazine hires the models
I photograph and owns outright the resulting images. My contract with A-MEN allows
me to “edit” the photos, however, before turning them over to the
editors and art director. This gives me considerable control over my own images.
Not every frame of film by even the best of photographers is a great photo – or
even publishable. Anything I don’t ever want to see in print is destroyed
by me. Bad facial expressions, movement blurs, out-of-focus or incorrectly
exposed shots, that sort of thing. Sometimes I throw out a shot simple because
I don’t like the composition.
What format do
you work in for A-MEN?
I shoot Ektachrome color-positive film (EN-100, 36 exposures) using a Nikon
SLR. Whenever possible I work with available light, using a tripod. In extremely
low-light situations I’ll throw on some wattage, but I try to avoid having
to do so. I never use a strobe.
Do you work with a
stylist, with other assistants?
Stylists are for fashion shoots. Any model-blemish touchup I take care of myself.
Assistants, generally, are too much of a distraction – both for me and
for the model. I require all of a model’s energy and attention to be
focused on the camera. Some beefcake photographers employ fluffers, or so I’m
told by models. I leave it up to my models to get it up themselves.
Go
on; we’re listening…
Some masturbate. I’ve photographed a couple of guys who had perpetual
hard-ons from the time they took off their pants, but that’s unusual.
Some models simply close their eyes and – presumably – fantasize.
Others require beefcake or hard-core magazines for inspiration. Getting stiff
in an unsexy situation is a lot harder than you may think (pun intended).
What
do you mean by “unsexy situation”?
The photo session itself is an artificial circumstance, in that the model presents
himself sexually to the camera without receiving response from the other side.
Being naked and hard in front of a camera for three to four hours isn’t
something most of us do in our everyday lives.
You
mean you don’t help out, that is get it on sexually with
your models?
Friction-fiction writers would have us believe that nude photo sessions are
choreographed seductions of models by photographers – or vice versa.
I’m sure there are beefcake photographers who do take advantage of the
compromised – nude, sexually stimulated – situation of their models.
But I think it’s important to keep a photo session on a strictly professional
level. Maybe it’s advancing age or merely jadedness, but I seldom get
turned on by the models I work with. I know a session is particularly hot when
I do find myself aroused in the course of it – especially when the model
isn’t particularly my type.
Ah-ha!
And what is your type?
I knew I shouldn’t have said “type.” I’m really very
eclectic in my taste for men. I like blonds. And swarthier… ah, types.
Being hirsute myself, I’ve always preferred smooth bodies to hairy ones.
And age peers to youths. I’m really more into faces as a starting point
than bodies per se. I never notice a basket first.
What’s
your favorite part of the male anatomy?
That’s easy. The chest, well-defined pecs. And nipples. After that, the
ass. And a plump perineum. Then armpits and the curve of the biceps. I’ve
never been concerned with cock size. Cut or uncut is a tossup with me.
A-MEN gets
a fair amount of mail wondering why Fred Bisonnes doesn’t take more “ass
shots” of his models. If that’s your second-favorite male body-part,
why not more butts from Bisonnes?
OK, for the very reason that I especially appreciate a great male ass, I’m
disinclined to photograph a mediocre or downright ugly one. The fact of the
matter is, the buttocks are too frequently the least-attractive feature of
an otherwise “hot” model. They often tend to be flat or flabby
and are prone to disfiguring zits and bruises and rashes.
Then, too, many models don’t want to moon for the camera,
even if they’ve got great buns. It’s a macho thing. I guess. Male
asses suggest sexual passivity, and certain models have a top-man image to uphold.
Unfortunately for the ass fans in A-MEN’s audience, not every model
is an Arturo Bardewyck or a Joe Gere!
Do you have any
underlying philosophy in your approach to photographing the male nude?
Let me be clear that I’m not shooting “art” photography for A-MEN.
Even though I hope the images I produce for the magazine can stand on their
own as well-composed photographs, the bottom line is that they are masturbation
aids, fantasy fuel.
I believe anyone who so utilizes my A-MEN photos creates
an imaginary sexual relationship with the particular model in the pictures – a
mental movie. Because it’s easier to relate even imaginatively, to someone
who’s looking at you, a model’s eye-contact with the camera is basic
to a Fred Bisonnes photo session. Few of my A-MEN images are what I call “statue” photos – disinterested
bodies, figure studies. And I encourage my models to smile – those who
will.
Your photography has a certain style-consciousness:
artful arrangements of discarded clothes, towels, etc. And you usually use exteriors
and tony interiors for your settings, rather than the studio backgrounds employed
by many present-day beefcake photographers. Is this incidental or carefully contrived?
I do fuss about details in a photo setup. It’s part of composing a picture,
much as artists and illustrators do. Also, ambiance is important in helping
to create the fantasy potential for a series of erotic pictures. I resort to
blank backgrounds nowadays only when nothing else is available or nothing would
work better.
What qualities make someone model material?
It’s in the eye of the beholder. I suppose; but do you know the expression, “Well,
I wouldn’t kick him out of bed…”? There are many men who
are physically appealing enough in person, but who aren’t “commercial” enough
in the sum of their features and body parts to move scores of thousands of
discriminating men to spend $4.95 to take home pictures of them for fantasizing
purposes.
However “sexist” it may be, most of us, gay and
straight, male and female, would like to possess physical perfection in our sex
partners; and this is especially true, I think, in the case of our imaginary
sex partners. If we have to settle for the flaws of nature in our real-life lovers,
at least we can be more particular about our fantasy lovers.
It’s to A-MEN’s credit that the editorial
thrust has been to avoid stereotyping models. This diversity, this variety, has
apparently been part of the magazine’s success to date. Boyish blonds,
big-dicked pornstars, black beauties, beef on the hoof. Latins and Asians, leathermen,
a 50-year-old daddy, a half-breed Indian – I’ve photographed quite
an assortment of men for A-MEN!
One criticism A-MEN readers
have voiced is that enough mature men appear in the magazine – men in their
40s and 50s. Why not more A-MEN daddies?
Their lack of availability as models. Sure, there are lots of really together
older guys who’d put men in their 20s to shame in the body-beautiful
department. But by the time a man has made it to his fifth decade, he’s
probably pretty well established in a career and wouldn’t get nude for
a camera – at least not for publication – for fear that such exposure
would fuck up his job security now or in the future.
How
many men have you photographed nude?
Over the years, hundreds. Several hundred. I’ve never kept a count. I
do know I’ve shot nearly 50 subjects for A-MEN alone, to date.
Do
you have a favorite model?
Unequivocally, Sky Dawson. Facially, physically, he’s just about flawless
to my taste. After him, I guess, would be Todd Baron. Then Kristen Bjorn.
All
Falcon stars. Do you have a favorite A-MEN model?
Paul Brandt. Watching him move in the nude is witnessing visual poetry.
What
beefcake photographers do you admire?
I’m particularly pleased with Kristen Bjorn’s increasing maturity
as a photographer. He was my “discovery” as a nude model. And my
protegé as a photographer of male nudes. His early camerawork looked
a lot like my own – the highest form of flattery, it’s said – but
he’s found his own style. I’ll admit to being envious of his omnipresence
in print. He’s become a household name – in very select households.
And he’s got a whole country [Brazil] of hot-blooded, immodest guys as
his personal model pool!
The other current producer of male erotica whom I respect greatly
is the master of us all, the man who calls himself Rip Colt. When the definitive
social history of gay people is written someday, I believe Colt will have to
be credited – along with erotic artist Tom of Finland – with having
created the visual-erotica images by which young male homosexuals of the ‘60s, ‘70s
and ‘80s came to actually like their special sexuality, instead of despising
it, as did the rest of the world.
If
you weren’t working in your present manifestation, what
sort of photographer would you like to be?
A Bruce Weber. I’d like to shoot fashion. Men’s fashion.
You
don’t sell slides or photosets of you male nudes. Why not?
Too much effort for too little return. Profit, I’m talking. I’m
busy on a book project, though, a full-color collection of male nudes, which
I’m titling "Bare Essentials". If nothing more pressing gets
in the way. I hope to have it published by the end of the year. Then I may
also be remembered as an entry on library catalogue cards. In very select libraries!
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