“Climb up on that branch—sit facing this way.”
Shawn eyes it. “Let me make sure it holds first.”
He swings a leg over, testing the weight.
Click.
“Hey—I wasn’t ready!”
Larry grins. “Those can be some of the best shots.”
Today we’ll come down from the mountaintop and take a step Into the Woods. We start with Shawn Killen perched up on a thick branch in a shot from Male File No. 2 (1983), then move through a range of photographers and models situated in forests or wooded hideaways.
Something about the visual of the male nude in the woods just works for me—especially in the mid-century before everybody started manscaping themselves smooth. The textures belong together somehow: body hair, bark, dirt, leaves, shadows.
The woods also carry all kinds of symbolism—the wild, mystery, magic, confusion. Places of wandering spirits, pagan rituals, drunken celebrations, and things happening far from the order of church and city life.
I also connect the woods to rugged masculine fantasy—the pioneer, the hunter, the lumberjack, the mountain man. But there’s another layer too, especially from a gay perspective. Trails, hidden spaces, cruising grounds…places of both hiding and seeking.
The woods can feel lonely, dangerous, playful, erotic, or freeing all at once. That tension is probably why these images still work so well.
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