Portraits of Men Discovered Through Internet Sex Forums (NSFW)

For the project I create the pseudonym of “Renate Rost” and go onto internet sex platforms. There I contact men via email and chat and ask them if I can photograph them naked in hotel rooms. On the one hand I am very interested to see what kind of men are really hidden behind these anonymous internet profiles and on the other hand I am very keen on transforming their sexually coded bodies into an image. As a photographer and as a woman I miss the heterosexual gaze on the male body. I enjoy challenging the balance of power of the male gaze and the female object and let the men become my object of desire. For this reason I only work with heterosexual men that react to me as a female photographer. The process of photographing becomes a role play itself which reveals a sexuality and transforms it into an image that often even surprises my sitters. The interest in creating a scenario with a documentary background and the love for images superimposes the original setting: a man, a woman, a hotel room.

Paula Winkler lives and work in Berlin. She has won several awards in Germany and her work has been printed and shown internationally.

This post was contributed by photographer Maja Daniels.

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