Going West (1)

You may or may not know by now that DNA magazine has used the pictures from my shoot with West Phillips for my cruise-site racism story. I was beyond stoked when I got the news. Imagine seeing myself in a double-page spread-opener (and then some) in one of the more popular gay magazine in the world in just a few days' time! Of course much credit goes to West, who recently told me that he is going to push for more Asian representation in the magazine. Damn right! We need to start somewhere and create the demand for Asian models and so I think this entire project would be a very good first step. I am glad that I am part of this small progression towards the ideal the gay Asian community is striving for.

By the way, the underwear required for this shoot was provided the night before at a house party of an underwear-line owner when I lamented that I did not have any good underwear (as a person who does not wear any). Talk about perfect timing–the racist incident, the shoot, the underwear from the party, and DNA wanting to write the story. The universe is certainly wanting this to happen!

The shoot took place near Redfern train station in the abandoned section of Carriage Works. There were straight topless skaters right in front of us that afternoon and come to think of it, it was a slight turn-on that I was being watched all this time. The photographer really liked the location and returned subsequently with other models. It was just too bad that it started to rain before we could explore further. Thankfully I had another opportunity to work with West in a second shoot with two other Asian models–watch out for that!

This whole Carriage Works series will be split into three separate posts starting from this one. Enjoy.














PS: I will be one of the models featured in this exhibition and it opens today. If you are free, do come down and see me in all my naked glory!