Trick or Treat, It's Hot Boy Halloween

BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! is neither a pep rally cry nor the cheers of teenage pop band's fans but a fine art photography program launched in 2018 by editor Ghislain Pascal, a former celebrity publicist, and curator of The Little Black Gallery in London, England. In celebration of the third printing of the "BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!" hardcover anthology as well as the sixth volume of the magazine of the same name, Pascal is bringing a collection of daring, flesh-revealing, and provocative show of photography celebrating the masculine form to Craven Contemporary in Kent, Conn., for a pop-up exhibition opening with a reception on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. 

With a global range of talent, including Alexander Courtman from Germany, Sean Patrick Waters from America, and Mauricio A. Rodriguez from Venezuela, BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! is a unique collective acquiring images of men exclusively from the portfolios of gay and queer-identifying male photographers.

"Many magazines and online platforms have pictures of beautiful men, but I wouldn't necessarily decide they fit my criteria," Pascal said over a Zoom interview from his home in France. "They're just photographs, not fine art. It's a very difficult line that I tread in making my selection. You can also go all the way to the other side of the spectrum where it can go too far. Is it fine art… or is it now pornography? It is hard. It's not an easy decision to make."

Expect leather, glitter, nature, and plenty of skin; Pascal's selections for the show are equally confident and erotic, but how to define the artistic lens of "gay photography" is a murkier question. Is it about desire, intimacy, an understanding of masculinity and the male form that connects both artist and the subject? "For me," Pascal said, "there's one photographer that I think will always be defined as groundbreaking and setting the mold for what photography for queer and gay men means, and that's, say it with me, Robert Mapplethorpe. His work is still breaking barriers today."

On view through Nov. 5.