GAYLETTER

On a perfect mid-summer day, we traveled to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn to shoot a story for GAYLETTER Issue 7 tittled ‘TV’ — the story was very simple, we just wanted to recreate what we often do with our friends: gather at someone’s house to watch TV, usually with some nice blankets, comfortable looks, snacks, smokes and lots of wine, beers or whatever is available after 5 hours in. It became a joke to us that we would go watch TV at a friends’ house and then end up sleeping on the floor until 4:00am. It’s prob the best thing to do while it’s cold in NYC. It’s like Netflix and chill but without the sex.

We headed to our shoot with photographer Cody Chandler (who scouted the location), a groomer (Boswell from Best Barber), a stylist (Christopher Rao) a few models and our small team. During breaks we hung outside — the breeze was right, the sun felt perfect.

Cody took a few behind the scenes pics of Alex, Elvis and Chris during a smoke/vape break…We thought we’d share them with you here.

Alex, Elvis and Chris wear pants by Marc Jacobs.

To see the full ‘TV’ story, grab a copy of GAYLETTER Issue 7. …

Surprise, you dear readers are the first to get a glimpse at the latest issue of GAYLETTER Magazine — Issue 7.  It’s our Fall/Winter edition and it is full to the brim with some very enjoyable stories, interviews and explorations into the queer world of 2017.

We’d like to give a big thanks to all those involved, starting with our cover image, photographed by the endlessly talented Kostis Fokas. We knew the moment he shared the photo with us that it had to be on our cover.

Inside issue 7 we have contributions by Tyler Akers, Ross Bleckner, Tom Capelonga, Cody Chandler,  Vincent Dilio, Benjamin Fredrickson, Brian Kenny, Matthew Leifheit, Danielle Levitt, Benoît Loiseau, Andrés Mañón, Slava Mogutin, Daniel Nicoletta, Gio Black Peter, Manuel Solano, Cyle Suesz, Luis Venegas, Gerardo Vizmanos and more.

This is an especially prideful issue, so we encourage you to carry it prominently as you move through the world. As we say in our editor’s letter, there’s a young queer kid out there who more than you could ever know needs to see that our flag, and you, exist. Get it here. …

On the evening of May 11, 2015, the world watched with gaping mouths and finger-snapping YAAASSS BITCHes as Kennedy Davenport wiped the stage with Katya Zamolodchikova in a lip sync battle for their lives. Katya, the blond, kooky, insecure, Soviet-inspired, mostly pretty, very bendy audience favorite, was sent home from the competition. “Katya, you may doubt yourself sometimes, but I have no doubt that you are a star. And a hammer, and a sickle,” RuPaul said. “Now, sashay away.” Today, Katya is a star — an All Star, actually — but this isn’t about her.

This past winter, we invited one of our favorite collaborators, Slava Mogutin, into the studio for a photoshoot. Born in Siberia, Slava spent his early adult years as an acclaimed writer and journalist in newly post-Soviet Moscow. As one of few openly gay voices in Russian media, he pushed hard on the country’s barely-there tolerance for homosexuality. By 1995, facing threats of criminal convictions and jail time, he was forced to flee, with the United States granting him political asylum.

So we decided to pair Slava with Katya Zamolodchikova. Get it? They speak Russian; they have Soviet roots; they’re gay. Instead, Brian McCook arrived. Brian is the Boston-born performance artist whose life has been linked to his Katya character since her breakout success on RuPaul’s Drag Race. But one of the first things he told us was, “I’m not doing Drag Race drag today, OK?” What followed was a chaotic collaboration between two formidable artists. …

Writing this while gagging with excitement and giggling (but also yasssing internally, externally and extraterrestrially)…

We are so happy to present GAYLETTER Issue 6 to you, our wonderful newsletter readers first. Let’s just go head and write out the words written on the sweater, HBA designer Shayne Oliver is wearing, on our cover: cocksucker, faggot, homo, Mary, queer, pansy, fairy, nellie and fem. Yes. That felt good. It’s 2017 and with orange Cheeto face in the WH, and LGBT rights being attacked all over the shop, we felt it was time to use our cover to take a stand for queers around the world. Photographers Inez & Vinoodh were on board with our mission and excited to shoot Shayne in the amazing sweater by artist duo David McDermott & Peter McGough.

Also in this issue: Ms. Katya Zamolodchikova, of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame, photographed by Slava Mogutin; the Academy Award-winning director of Moonlight, Barry Jenkins; trailblazing photographer Bob Mizer; the legendary duo Pierre et Gilles; musician Kevin Abstract; artist Celia Hempton; custodian of the Tom of Finland Foundation, Durk Dehner; and, so much more.

If you plan on ordering a copy, thank you! Read it in public and show the world that you exist. We’re here, we’re queer. Please don’t hide.

Get it here. …

Let it be known that Tom Daley isn’t the only hot guy on Great Britain’s diving team. If you have any interest in toned, scantily clad, elite divers who also happen to DJ in their free time, you’ve probably come across Chris Mears. He’s the one with the fabulous scar and gorgeous eyebrows. He was once told he had a five percent chance of living. Now, he’s on the road to the 2016 Olympics. We photographed the 22-year-old in Los Angeles, where he spends his off- season, at El Matador beach in Malibu. Afterward, we asked a few personal questions. He couldn’t have been more forthcoming.

We had a super busy Summer so far and we are very grateful for that. For those of you who were paying attention, we launched Issue 4 of our magazine with two separate covers, one by photographer Kostis Fokas and one by Gerardo Vizmanos. Our latest endeavour is a collaboration with Print All Over Me.

The official announcement should come soon, but you’re reading our newsletter so you get to find out first. “The collection is made up of utilitarian classics – T-shirts, baseball hats and tote bags – with full bleed prints of Issue 4’s striking covers…Their respective images depict a landscape of multiracial behinds and a portrait of a man making contact with his own reflection.”

More about Issue 4, which is almost sold out. It features work by photographer, Alvin Baltrop, Campbell Addy, Hal Fischer (author of Gay Semiotics), the comedian Josh Thomas, Rumi Mussabi (a founding member of The Cockettes), a look at the Tom of Finland house in Los Angeles, an amazing feature on Edmund White photographed by Slava Mogutin amongst other things.

The collection is available for purchase here. …

Baby Morocco loves being naked. “I would prefer to be permanently undressed.” Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Baby (real name Clayton Pettet) moved to London at the age of 18 to study fine art at Central Saint Martins. Now 21, he has legions of fans on Instagram and Tumblr.

His gender-fluid, often sexualized self-portraits are endlessly entertaining. Back in 2014, he gained international notoriety for a performance that was, according to the media, going to involve him “Creating Art Through Penetration Of His Virgin Butthole.” Many were disappointed when Clayton didn’t actually lose his virginity but instead sat on the floor and asked the audience to feed him bananas. At the time, he told Dazed that the performance was about stealing the word “virginity” rather than having it stolen from him.

 
“I was at a party the other night, and a boy said he followed me and unfollowed me and followed me again because he thought my Instagram account was complete narcissism.”

 
We’re fans of the talented Mr. Morocco and pleased he could pose for some exclusive photos for us. Get it, baby!

This story was previously printed in GAYLETTER issue 4.

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