Yves De Brabander
Yves De Brabander (born 11 April 1976) is a Belgian photographer and art director. He is known for his photographs of male nudity in themes of gay culture and censorship. From 2004 to 2009, Yves De Brabander was the permanent photographer of Sensoa, the Flemish expertise center for sexual health and HIV prevention. Themes that often recur in Yves De Brabander's work are niche, fetish, gay culture and censorship. De Brabander often portrays young male models, usually naked or almost naked. De Brabander does not describe the naked portrayal of his models as something sexual, but as a form of vulnerability. His style refers to classical painting and the Old Masters. When printing his work, De Brabander uses a loose style in which he mounts photos as a collage on wooden panels or folds and tears an image
From 2004 to 2009, Yves De Brabander was the permanent photographer of Sensoa; the Flemish expertise center for sexualhealth and HIV prevention. Responsible for the photography of all lgbt-related campaigns and materials.
De Brabander’s works from this period are included in the UCLA Library of the University of California (USA) and the archives of the research institute of social history in Ghent (BE).
www.yvesdebrabander.be
@yvesdebrabander
ABOUT BEND MAGANZINE:
Bend magazine was aimed at a young audience, so I wanted to deliver a photo that could appeal to everyone. I chose to portray an average young boy, slightly out of focus, on black and white film, almost sacred.
To slightly rough it up a bit I shot the portrait on black and white film and later chose to print and re-scan the print again. This way it just got a bit more grainy and rugged. This was the birth of a process I would start using more often in my work as from that day/
(Anecdote: a very humble boy-next-door entered my studio that day. I briefly explained what I wanted to achieve. We started with playful shots of the shadow the peg cast on his chest, until he suddenly put the peg on his nipple and I heard a subdued moan, that’s the exact moment this image was shot.)
“Some Like it Rough”
Visual for Bend over Seks No 3, Antwerp feb 2007.