Photographer Tyler Udall on his striking male nude portraits

A rising star in the photography world, 34-year-old Tyler Udall is bringing his provocatively-titled exhibition Boys to London. The former fashion editor for the likes of Dazed & Confused and Another Man magazines, who now lives in Vancouver, tells Attitude’s Simon Button the focus is on men, not boys – and yes, they’re in various states of undress…

How would you describe the exhibition?

It’s an excerpt from a larger project, a book called Auguries Of Innocence that I’ve been working on for the last four years, and the exhibition is pictures of boys who are all special to me for one reason or another, ranging from friends to my partner Cole.

How does Cole feel about being featured in your work?

He was reluctant at first. He’s kind of like kryptonite. He’s impervious to my charms and he wasn’t up for me taking his picture, even though normally strangers are just taking off their clothes without me even asking and relishing in the opportunity to be photographed. But with him it was a very long process to get him in his comfort zone but he’s fine with it now.

What was the original inspiration?

The way I work is documentary really, in that the people I photograph are all in my life. There aren’t contrived situations or characters. What really started the project is what started me photographing in the first place. I was going through a tumultuous time. I’d come to Vancouver from New York because I just wanted to run away and I needed an outlet really badly. A friend gave me a shitty camera to play around with. I’d never taken a photograph in my life, at least not for my own artistic purposes, and it quickly snowballed into something else. I started obsessively documenting friends, lovers and places. I wanted to be able to understand the transition I was going through, even though it was very muddy at the time. I wanted to be able to look back on it and put the pieces together with hopefully sober eyes down the road.

You say you were going through a tumultuous time. Is that something you care to elaborate on?

[Laughs] Not really, no.

Boys is a provocative title that some people might misread…

It seems very loaded. I really loathe titles and I like work to speak for itself. When people are asking me to define what the motive is, I’m a storyteller and these are my stories but what I really hope is that it leads people to a personal reflection on their own stories. If I go into a deep narrative about the images I’m making it kind of sucks the magic out if it. But as for it being called Boys, they’re all men. Maybe I should just call it Males. I’m quite fascinated with the current global climate around gender classification and sexual classification, actually. When are we going to get to the point where we’re not using ‘He’ and ‘She’? People seem quite obsessed with what’s between people’s legs and how that sort of amounts to you as a person. I think we’re at a tipping point. I can’t imagine we’ll go on for much longer where those classifications are acceptable. And this idea of Boys is pretty tongue in cheek, to be honest.

Is it tasteful nudity or full-frontal?

Yes, there will be some tasteful, full-frontal nudity. It’s a little more abstract in the exhibition but in the book there’s definitely full-frontal nudity. But I think people only ask about because it’s photos of men. When I take nudes of women no-one says a word and in fact those images are used commercially. No-one says anything when they see that in mainstream fashion magazines but even an abstract penis in an art gallery still agitates people for whatever reason, which I find quite peculiar.

What do you look for in a model and where do you find them?

A few things. I have to have a personal connection to them. That’s why I find them beautiful, because I know their personality and their quirks. The rare times when I have to shoot a model that I’ve never met, just because they’re an attractive person, the end result seems to be missing something. It seems a little lackluster. So the person has to resonate with me on an emotional level so it’s lovers and close friends. That being said, I also get excited about shooting different artists, be they filmmakers, writers, musicians or other photographers, but I have to like their work or be fascinated by their process. It’s not about a specific set of physical attributes.

You say you take pictures of lovers but you’re in a relationship…

[Laughs] The lovers are pre-Cole. We’re in a very exclusive, long-term relationship. Oddly enough the only person I’m sleeping with is the only one in the show and the book who is fully clothed. It’s also interesting that the images people find provocative or sexually suggestive tend to be of heterosexual male friends.

Have you photographed any well-known musicians?

A friend of mine Daniel Pitout is the head of two different punk bands, Nu Sensae and Eating Out, and I’ve photographed him quite a lot and I did a music video for him. I also shot James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins for his most recent album. That was a commercial project that came out of left-field because he was a fan of my work and it was my teenage dream come true. I was so obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins when I was younger. The fact someone I’d idolized was essentially sending me a fan letter and asking me to take his picture was pretty wonderful.

And would you most like to photograph?

David Lynch is so cool and I just want to crawl inside his head, and his face is just so wonderful. I’d be really excited to photograph him.

Are you a purist when it comes to the tech side of things? How do you feel about people taking pictures with iPads, iPhones and selfie sticks?

I think it’s wonderful. I’m by no means a technical photographer and the reason I shoot exclusively with film still – which is kind of dumb because it’s so expensive – is because I like the surprise at the end. Quite often it’s the moments I don’t remember happening that are the most special. But I like this new language of using imagery to communicate. The selfie phenomenon needs addressing a little bit, I think, and I can’t imagine using a selfie stick is any easier than putting your phone on a log or something. But what I do think is really interesting is the global village phenomena that’s happening. We’re able to communicate in this global cyberspace, using imagery to break down language barriers and communicate with other cultures and other people. We’re at the early stages of that and I’m fascinated to see how it will involve in the next couple of decades. It might sound kind of stupid that we’re using sticks to take pictures of ourselves but using sticks to draw on cave walls might seem a little lame compared to writing a novella.

Boys by Tyler Udall is at the Little Black Gallery, London, from May 26th to June 20th.

Select images will be previewed at Photo London from May 21st-24th.

Auguries Of Innocence is published by Armour Press

WORDS BY SIMON BUTTON