Elska, Issue 19 – London, England

Elska is a bi-monthly male photography and culture art-zine on 130 pages of beautifully stroke-able matte paper. Each issue is shot in a different city with men from that city, including not only their photographs but their stories too. It’s a sort of cross between a quasi-intellectual queer pin-up and a sort of sexy anthropology journal.

In this issue: 
Our nineteenth Elska Magazine issue is our second to be made in the UK, but our first to be made in England. Inside, readers are introduced to fifteen men from the local gay/queer community. Each get their own chapter containing a personal story they wrote from their life in the city, and several intimate and unairbrushed images shot of them inside their homes and out in their neighbourhoods. None are hired models or celebrities, none of them scenes are staged, and none of the stories are commissioned, resulting in an honest glimpse at gay lives in the British capital.

Living in London is vastly different to what tourists see and experience, which is why the images don’t show what you might expect – there’s no Buckingham Palace or even a Gherkin in the background. The stories are rather more real as well, and in the case of our London issue, often a bit dark. Some of the fifteen men you’ll meet in Elska London include:

• Tommy M, who talked about the fabulous gay life he dreamed of as a teenager, eventually moving to London from his native Lithuania to find year after year of his expectations being shattered;
• Harry F, who shared a recent experience dealing with a barrage of homophobia from a punter at his local pub, something he didn’t expect to happen in this city and in 2018;
• Omar B, who wrote about learning to accept loneliness as a normal part of London life, and learning how to flourish anyway;
• Jamie T, who opened up about a sexually unwelcome experience at a work function and how the #MeToo movement has barely reached the LGBTQ community;
• Brad C; who discussed the trials of dating in the capital in a colourfully detailed and most explicit way that transports you into the city’s pubs, parks, and bedrooms.