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# Going down under! Melbourne gays laid bare in magazine exploring queer bodies and voices around the world
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/going-down-under-melbourne-gays-laid-bare-in-magazine-exploring-queer-bodies-and-voices-around-the-world/
- Published: 2024-09-11T15:18:10.000Z
- Updated: 2024-09-11T15:18:10.000Z
- Description: Elska, a project dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of LGBTQ communities around the world, has put the spotlight on Melbourne for its latest edition. Inside, readers can get to know a selection of everyday queer men from Australia’s most liberal metropolis via a combination of intimate photo
- Author: Graham Robson
- Tags: News, Australia, Elska, LGBT, LGBTQ, Liam Campbell.

**Elska**, a project dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of LGBTQ communities around the world, has put the spotlight on **Melbourne** for its latest edition. Inside, readers can get to know a selection of everyday queer men from Australia’s most liberal metropolis via a combination of intimate photography and personal storytelling.

“***Elska Melbourne*** is our third Australian adventure, following previous issues made in Perth and Sydney.” says Elska editor and chief photographer **Liam Campbell**. “Even though those other Aussie editions proved popular, we also got a lot of complaints from people asking why we didn’t shoot Melbourne instead. At first I thought such messages came from a place of arrogance, but after being told over and over that Melbourne is Australia’s queerest, most liberal, and artsy city, I knew we had to see it for ourselves.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pk48-elska-melbourne-sam-g-2.jpg)

“From the moment I arrived in Melbourne I knew they were right,” continues Liam. “*Elska*’s photographic concept has always been to shoot people with spontaneity and without plans or expectations, which results in a combination of indoor and outdoor pics as well as clothed and unclothed photos…

“Everything is up to each subject, but Melbourne marks the first time in our nine-year history that everyone we met opted to bare all for their photos. That makes Elska Melbourne, our forty-eighth issue, the first to be all naked! And I think that proves how queer, liberal and arty this place is.”

Inside *Elska Melbourne* and the companion zine ***Elska Ekstra Melbourne***, readers are introduced to sixteen ordinary men from the local LGBTQ+ community. Each was photographed in their city and in their homes, revealing a diverse bunch of beautiful bodies. Each subject also wrote a story to go with their photographs, enabling readers to get to know them at an even more personal level.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pk48-elska-melbourne-logan-b-2-e1726067640287.jpg)

Some of the stories you’ll read here include: **John H**‘s account of discovering gay liberation in the early 1970s; **Luke B**‘s remembering of growing up gay in rural Australia and discovering that he wasn’t actually ‘the only gay in the village’; **Zhi Z**‘s confession about using travel to understand more about himself and where he belongs in this world; and **Jayke F**‘s description of a day at the nude beach, where he confronts his insecurities and through the visibility of diverse bodies finds a path to appreciating his own body.

*Elska Melbourne* is 180 pages and is available in flagship print format or in a downloadable e-version. Both are available for order online from the [Elska website](http://www.elskamagazine.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk) as well as from a select group of shops around the world. In addition, the companion e-zine *Elska Ekstra Melbourne* is available, containing over 500 pages of outtakes and behind the scenes tales. The list of stockists and details of the subscription service can also be found [on the Elska website](http://www.elskamagazine.com/?ref=scenemag.co.uk).

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/pk48-elska-melbourne-product-1-e1726067759395.jpg)