Bauer’s Boys - Part 1
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IF THERE IS ONE MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF, IT IS PROBABLY RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER BAUER. BEING THE VERY FIRST ONE TO ACTUALLY PHOTOGRAPH MALE NUDES IN BRAZIL, HE KNOWS AS NO OTHER WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE A NAME AS EROTIC PHOTOGRAPHER IN A COUNTRY THAT SEEMS SO OPEN TO IT, BUT IS STILL SO CONSERVATIVE.
Bauer is a man with years of experience when it comes to shooting the most beautiful men and women of Brazil. He has worked – and still is working – in the areas of fashion and art photography, and can easily be seen as an expert when it comes to erotic nudes. Being the first to portrait Brazilian men naked, he has made name for himself, and for the magazine, by working for G Magazine. Having featured many of his models in the past, BeautifulMag was curious to know more about the man behind the camera. We looked him up for you.
Bauer, can you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Bauer: My name is … I am a descendant of Russian and Italian grandparents and was born in a small town, called Ibiporã / PR, in the south of Brazil. I am the oldest of 6 brothers. Currently I love in Sao Paulo, which is the largest city in Brazil. Here I have a studio, assembled in an old industrial area, near the city center. It is a one way street, and the place is very quiet.
You are known for your photographs of beautiful sexy men. How did you come to do this kind of photography?
Bauer: It was a long way. I have worked for 17 years for a major publisher in the area of marketing and promotion. Eventually, in 1987, I created my first studio and shared the space with a friend who was the owner of a small publishing house, publishing magazines for bodybuilders and martial arts. I was doing photos for these magazines with all the athletes, always making it look very athletic and artistic. At this time there was no publication in Brazil containing nude male photography.
I found my career very boring. I wanted to shoot fashion and erotic, but couldn’t find the way to do it. Until a photographer friend advised me to do photographs for the gay world, claiming that that would be the only way to get recognition. Around that same time, another friend was traveling to London and brought back many erotic postcards of men and women. This gave me the idea of doing the same here in Brazil and so I created the brand BauerCards. I tried collaborating with several postcard companies but none was interested in my project. Which forced me into doing more customized work producing small amounts of BauerCards. I invited beautiful women and men for the project. It was very soft erotic and all in black and white. Not having a lot of resources, I paid the models with copies of the photographs. Surprisingly the BauerCards sold well, but I did have many problems to get them in local sales. Some places I had to visit 7 times to convince them of the artistic and commercial value. It was just too painful and eventually I had to stop the project.
Bauer, the world got to know you as the photographer of the famous Brazilian magazine G Magazine. How did you arrive here?
Bauer: I did start making myself a name in the fashion industry. All gay men in Brazil started to know the name Bauer. At this time I started to shoot for a magazine called Sexy, showing portraits of naked women. Ana Fadigas, owner of the magazine, decided to launch a gay magazine in collaboration with the website BananaLoca. The first edition of BananaLoca Magazine showed men without showing anything, and sold poorly. When this didn’t change after three editions, a disagreement on the existence of the magazine ended the partnership with the BananaLoca website.
Ana however believed in the concept and created another magazine focused on the gay market: G Magazine. Still not showing any full frontal nudity, this mag also didn’t sell too well, and it wasn’t until the 3th edition that it showed its first erection. It was the first thing that went up, the sales followed fast – ha ha ha. The thing is however, that here in Brazil magazines sell better when the main model is a celebrity. G Magazine presented beautiful man, but the readers wanted to see famous people, not just sexy guys.
Do you have an example in other photographers? Someone who has inspired your work?
Bauer: Outside of Brazil: Dean Collins, Herb Hitts, Avedon, Albert Watson, Patrick Cox, David Lachapelle. And all the wonderful photographers who are in the magazine PHOTO France. Here in Brazil there are two photographers that I love, Miro and Klaus Mitteldorf. -B-
The BeautifulMag | Bauer Interview continues Thursday, July 24.
BAUER | BEAUTIFUL
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