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German photographer Matthias Herrmann is the living embodiment of the truism coined by Oscar Wilde: "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." Although he works as a commercial photographer and shoots portfolios and other fashion and portrait work for models and entertainers, over the years Herrmann has found that he is, perhaps, his own best model. "I'm mostly pretty easy to handle, but not always," says the Vienna-based photographer with a smile in his voice. "Nobody would believe this, but I'm actually pretty shy. Yet I see myself as a tool, in the same way Cindy Sherman uses herself as a tool." It was Herrmann's commercial work - shooting photographs for a brochure for an upscale hotel in Gargellen, Austria - that led to this series of images. "Here I was at a lovely hotel, with a beautiful space at my disposal, and of course, the hotel had not asked for brochure photos with naked men in them. But naturally, I am always available to pose for myself at four o'clock in the morning, so there - I had a model." Herrmann's nudes are a somewhat humorous backlash against what he calls "the invasion of gorgeous coffee-table books and magazines showing these gorgeous male bodies, beautifully lit and beautifully posed." Of course - although others will argue the point - Herrmann does not think himself as such. "I hope to be a little more critical of that in my work, and one of the criticisms I use is humor, sometimes through the text that accompanies some of the images. After all, how many more photographs of beautiful men in beautiful poses do we need?" The gallery world must agree. Herrmann's work has been exhibited at the Robin Gibson Gallery in Sydney, the Wessel+O'Connor Gallery in New York and elsewhere. His most recent show at Gallery Barbara Farber/Rob Jurka, in which this series of images appeared, was part of the cultural program of the Gay Games in Amsterdam. And a separate show opened in September at Gallery Praz/Delavallade in Paris. Each opening serves as a new opportunity for Herrmann to expose his work - and himself - to an increasingly large base of fans. Mixing with the crowds also offers the artist an opportunity to spread a bit more of his decidedly wry philosophy. "I think the gay world is very limiting in terms of what we accept as beautiful and not beautiful, and I think gays should not limit their fantasies to washboard abs and pecs, or how big is someone's dick or how hard is his butt" he says. "They should instead turn their fantasies toward me." Reed Massengill |