Sam Morris is still fighting the stigma of being an erotic artist
The former dancer tells Attitude's Sex & Sexuality issue how he's inspired by the male form (every inch of it).
Type ‘Sam Morris’ into the search engine of your choosing and you will be met with a flurry of X-rated images of the man – he has no problem posing in his birthday suit.
Blurring the line between art and porn, the British erotic artist pays tribute to the male form in his paintings and sculptures, and through more explicit content on his website.
Online project ‘Other Boys, & Lovers,’ for instance, is a collection of videos shot with an array of men he has met, and sometimes hooked up with, from around the world.
As he poses for a series of full-frontal self-portraits in Attitude’s Sex & Sexuality issue – out now to download and to order globally – Sam candidly details the journey he has been on to become so body and, of course, sex positive.
Sam Morris, exclusively for Attitude’s Sex & Sexuality issue, out now
“I always found sex to be a very private thing. I would never talk about how many people I’d be hooking up with. It was a dirty secret – well, that’s what it felt like. It’s something that I’ve really had to learn,” he begins.
“There was a moment where I asked myself: ‘Why are you so bothered about what people think? What is there in your head about the human body that you feel ashamed about? What has society told you about that?” he asks, rhetorically.
“I just thought, I need to let go of these shackles – I broke out of prison, for sure!”
The former professional dancer – who has been compared to the iconic Tom of Finland – wants to show a softer, more romantic side of gay sex.
Photography: Sam Morris
Whilst incredibly proud of his work, Sam, 31, has been judged by friends who don’t support the career path he’s gone down.
“My family are super liberal, they’re not very judgemental at all, so I’m very lucky in that sense,” he says. “It was more amongst friends, this kind of distancing of, like, ‘You can do it, but I just don’t want to see it.’
Photography: Sam Morris
“At first, I’d laugh it off, it’s fine, but after a while I’d start thinking, ‘This is my work and I’m proud of it’,” he continues. “I felt myself getting angry that I was apologising for what I was doing.”
Berlin-based Sam – who grew up in Essex – reveals that his job has made dating difficult in the past, too.
“There was a guy I dated in the summer of 2018 and he was awful. Ironically, he was one of my ‘Other Boys, & Lovers’ – I won’t name him. We got swept away and it was very romantic, then one day he just lost it,” he recalls.
“He saw a picture of me online with someone else and this picture was taken months prior, before we’d even met,” he goes on.
“He told me never to speak to him again, that I had sold my soul to the devil and I didn’t deserve love. I remember sinking into the darkest place.”
Now dating a ballet dancer – “he’s very supportive and understanding” – Sam has some advice for people tempted to bare all for the camera, or to sign up to sites such as OnlyFans.
Photography: Sam Morris
“Know what you’re getting yourself into,” he stresses. “I remember when I posted the first full nude of myself on the internet and thinking, ‘This is it now, I’ve made my bed, I’ve got to lie in it, there is no going back, I’m never going to have a normal life again’.
“It’s a choice and you need to be comfortable with that choice. The internet doesn’t forget, that’s what I say.”
See Sam’s full and uncensored shoot and interview in Attitude’s Sex & Sexuality Issue, out now.
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