A glory hole neatly tucked in a public toilet, and this was enough for him to fearlessly stick his erect penis through it. There was no shame or commitment; the sole motivation was wild sex and unrestrained desire. This is how the sexual life of photographer Florian Hetz began. He used to frequent public toilets to explore sex and discover his own sexuality, an experience that forever marked and influenced his work.
His peep-show, “The Matter of Abscence” reminds us of his youth, where the identity of the other fades away. These body parts could belong to anyone, and Hetz interprets the human body as something pure and finely constructed that can be viewed in tiny fragments. These masculine figures become sexual objects, which we can almost touch and feel.
None of these photographs are glossed over with intimacy nor are we allowed to view the faces or identities of those captured. Only a sliver of information is offered, a tiny glimpse of a person whose reality and life have been blurred by the power of their own bodies. As if looking through a glory hole, we only observe fragments of bodies, and having this limited viewpoint increases our excitement and curiosity. This lack of information, of not knowing what lies on the other side of the “cubicle” heightens our imagination.
Hetz is thrilled by this limited vision because his mind cannot help but construct the rest using only the most perverse fantasies. In truth, you never truly recall a complete body, your eyes are immediately drawn to the erotic diminutae like the neck, lips, thighs, buttocks, and sinuous back.
Every time the photographer has a sexual encounter with someone, there is an ‘essence’ they can only perceive and never capture. We cannot help but recall The Unbearable Lightness of Being, where Tomas is torn between his love for a woman and his womanizing ways, “Making love with a woman and sleeping with a woman are two separate passions, not merely different but opposite. Love does not make itself felt in the desire for copulation (a desire that extends to an infinite number of women) but in the desire for shared sleep (a desire limited to one woman).” Just as Tomas seeks out that essence with multiple partners, Hetz’s photographs models who solely belong to everyday world in order to unravel “that” which cannot be observed with the naked eye.
Hetz has become obsessed with discovering the small intricacies of people and for the most part in his photographs he knows where our eyes should gravitate to. Once he has the angle and the closeness perfected will he then press the shutter and capture the moment. Each image is an extravagant representation of his interior world.
Many would view his work and immediately call it “sick” and “depraved” because this unparalleled insight into the nuance of the body does not fit well with what is common or expected. The bodies do not glisten with make up or fake tan, nor do they grin in feigned happiness. But instead of being offended by these labels, Hetz views them as a compliment, since it means the viewers were touched by his work one way or another.
Born to a slightly bohemian Norwegian-Prussian family, he was inspired by Robert Mapplethorpe after reading about his life and work. At the tender age of 14, Hetz realized that like the American artist, he too could find comfort in photography. He is widely recognized in the Queer Art scene in Germany. He spent the first few years of his career immersed in dark and desolate places of the city. Each work he has constructed since then pays homage to those early days.
Lucian Freud was able to capture in a subversive and true way the male figure by showing the genitals right in the middle of the canvas. Obscenity and aggression are etched across his work, and the subjects he captured were both pathetic and liberated. Their nudity wasn’t tamed by the Renaissance tonality; instead, it stripped the body bare and left the soul exposed. This photographer closes in but never reveals the true soul of his recalcitrant models.
Source:
Dazed
