This story originally appeared on i-D Germany.
Queer bodies have a certain inherent power. Perhaps because many people have had to wait a long time to find other queer bodies; to touch them; to stop hiding their own. Maybe because they’re too often met with resistance – by those who find them too flamboyant, too dangerous, too ambiguous – before being embraced by themselves and each other for self-love, safety and pleasure.
In Spyros Rennt’s new book, Corporeal, these are precisely the moments captured. They show what it is like when queer bodies seek, find and recognise each other. “I document queer desire, because queer desire is what I experience,” the Berlin-based Greek photographer shares. “There is a place for it. There is space for it. You just have to create it and that’s what I try to do through my images.” The images in his third photo book — following Another Excess (2018) and Lust Surrender (2020) — were captured in the last three years: some at days-longhouse parties, others by the sea in his native Greece or locked down during the pandemic. There are self-portraits, candid snapshots and intimate pictures of friends and connections in the queer club scene. “But I’m not interested in showing only sex, gay bodies and nightlife,” he shares. “My work is ultimately a documentation of my experiences, and my experiences are diverse”.
Spyros has lived in Berlin for 12 years now, after growing up in Athens and spending time in both Munich and San Francisco. In Greece, he was used to long summers spent at the beach; in San Francisco he discovered the drag scene; while in Munich he learned that a regular nine-to-five job was not for him. So he taught himself photography. “It was a gamble,” he says. “I didn’t plan to photograph the queer underground, but I felt that I had to go this way, that it would bring me closer to happiness.
Throughout Coporeal, the euphoric shots are interspersed with the occasional still life; moments of calm that range from sun-ripened oranges in Athens to a messy table scene; an abandoned wig and a champagne bottle. “An image of distraction,” says Spyros. Most of the photographs, though, depict people embracing, loving and celebrating. Bodies lying together messily, or standing confidently by themselves. A celebration of queer desire and acceptance. “At the end of the day, it’s the body that we live with as we move through the world,” he says. “How we present our bodies to the world is always a statement. It’s not just about presenting a traditionally beautiful body. Every person should know that they are special in their own way.”
Credits
All images courtesy of Spyros Rennt