It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that Joe Allen Shea is Australia’s Godfather of Zines. Apart from his work as a sometime writer, photographer and freelance aesthete, he is the custodian of independent publishing house Izrock, home to some of the country’s – nay, the world’s! – best zines. The latest addition to the Izrock stable of titles is Hot Dudes by Keegan Walker, described in the latest Izrock Pressings update as “a new homoerotic skateboarding publication”.
Izrock describes Hot Dudes as a photographic enquiry depicting partly clothed young male skateboarders (some of these the best in the world) shot in several continents. As the culture of skateboarding claims to be creative and open-minded it is regularly macho and sexist. Walker’s images expose male bonding and acceptance while questioning it’s homoerotic nature.
I love this.
I don’t skate anymore. Mainly because I don’t have the skills to avoid making dickhead moves that end in scabs, and I want some parts of my body surface to be devoid of gnarly purple scar tissue when I get old(er). But I love this concept of Keegan’s because I reckon there is a major homo vibe within skate culture that has existed since the movement really picked up in the Sixties, and one that has re-emerged over the last decade or so. As bunches of dudes go, there’s not many cultural groups as easy and unselfconscious about hugging and kissing and getting shirtless together as in skate culture. Call it homoeroticism or just post-modern public displays of plutonic man-love on six inch trucks… Whatever you wanna label it Hot Dudes is really just a celebration of comraderie between guys – so why not pick one up for your best mate as a way of saying “I love you, man.”
Specifications:
239mm high x 172mm wide
36 pages – black laser printed
Edition of 100
$12 in Australia including postage
Keegan Walker skating
