Dylan Ricci:
Masculine Grace

PHOTOGRAPHY | DYLAN RICCI       WORDS | CLIFFORD THURLOW

If you take a stroll around the galleries and museums, as he often does, the marble sculptures of male nudes from Greece and Rome are inspired by the classic perfection of the gods. It is this divine spirit Ricci sets out to create in his photographs.

Before the 1970s, male imagery with few exceptions remained on the fringes of photography, an extension of gay culture. Rather than being openly and honestly homosexual, male nudes were invariably shot in obvious poses to portray the ideals of body culture and body building. Encouraged no doubt by the general acceptance of the female nude as an art form, the male began to re-emerge in the classic mould highly praised by the Greeks and Romans and copied assiduously by the painters of the Renaissance

"The female nude is everywhere, in every magazine ad, on every bus shelter. The female form is adored and appreciated, as it should be," says Ricci. "What I am trying to do in my work is show that the male body is just as beautiful. I want place the male nude back where it belongs in its rightful place in the world of fine art photography."

It surprises Ricci that so many good photographers shoot women, but very few shoot men. The reason for this, he believes, lies in the fact that the majority of male nudes continue after thirty years of liberation to be shot for the gay market. They are often tasteless, a cliché, and good lensmen don't want to get lost in the obscurity of a subculture.

"Nude photos always arouse powerful emotions," he continues. "I've watched people in galleries and it's fascinating. Good male nudes, and they have to be good, can achieve the same effect as female nudes. When they touch people on an emotional level they are equally admired, equally enjoyed."

Dylan Ricci sees the nude form as something pure and aesthetic and comes to his work without the use of props or paraphernalia. He creates clean, classic images without formulas or crudity. He shoots entirely with digital cameras, the instant feedback an essential tool in the constant quest for perfection and simplicity. Isn't perfection always simple?

"My aim is to objectify the male physique," he explains. "I always shoot in my studio and don't go in for outdoor nudes on beaches or rocks, or lazing in water or dripping with cream or veiled in leopard skin - or nudes in bed. Just me, my models, my camera, a couple of lights and a few different coloured backdrops, that's about it."

Ricci prepares simple, uncluttered sets for his shots, but then allows the shoot to take its own shape and atmosphere. Models usually have a good sense of the way their bodies move and look. They require little direction and these sessions tend to be spontaneous collaborations. Less experienced models need more encouragement and once a bond of trust with the photographer is established, they find the self-confidence to stop posing and be natural.

"It also depends on what I am aiming to achieve with a particular shot," he explains. "Sometimes I sketch poses that I would like to try out. I exert more control in these sessions, but even then there are moments of spontaneity which can produce great results. Often the best results."

Ricci's work is clearly personal and, while he carves his own path, he has drawn inspiration from a wide variety of sources - Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, May Ray, Stephan May, Herb Ritts, Andy Warhol and Robert Mappelthorpe. "They each had a style, a vision, which they pursued with passion," he says.

Clearly Ricci is no different. He has style. He has passion. People have preset ideas of identity, of male-female roles. The photographer's task, he believes, is to challenge that form of conditioning. Robert Mapplethorpe is best known for his male nudes, but the archetypal image of the new femininity is his photograph of female body-builder Lisa Lyon in the masculine pose of Charles Atlas. A woman can be beautiful and have a muscular physique. A man can be beautiful and at the same time be sensuous with an unapologetic sexual directness. This is what Ricci is trying to achieve.

Dylan Ricci's photographs have been included in anthologies of male nudes and he wonders with unusual modesty if his images are commercial enough to warrant an entire volume or an entire show devoted to his work.

"I will continue to search for new and interesting ways to present the nude and what I would like to achieve in the long term is that people begin to see male nudes in a way they have not done before."

In the past, Ricci has received emails and letters calling him "a faggot and other vulgar stuff," he says, but more and more the communications are from admirers who have found themselves in a dialogue with his work. "Eroticism is not my goal, but rather the portrayal of human perfection. I shoot nudes because the human body is beautiful and should be celebrated as a work of art."