The Men of Manilla (and not a Marcos in sight)

Elska the gay photographic bookzine took off to the Philippines for their 25th Edition to check out the men of Manila. Despite the fact that this is a very traditional Catholic  country, Elska discovered the local gay men that they encountered and who wanted to  volunteer to be included in this issue  were particularly open and unabashed by sex or sexuality, and were being uninhibited in their pictorials and explicit in their tales.

Elska shoots all the men in their natural habitat and allows them to choose to be photographed either clothed or not.  It is however their accompanying stories (you’ll need to buy the magazine for them) that are most revealing 

There is Paolo D’s piece about his struggle to find his own light in spite of the demons of mental illness; Bryill B’s tale of a mutual encounter on a very crowded rush-hour commuter train; Rej T’s story of going to a provincial family wedding and trying to escape the gaggle  of bridesmaids hunting for a single man; Anton L’s text that admits how  he is annoyed about hookup apps yet how he keeps using them anyway; and Jeff M’s story about trying unsuccessfully to stop loving a man who clearly doesn’t return his love.‘