This week Elska celebrates its ten year anniversary. During this Pme, the project has published over fiWy issues, spotlighPng local men from LGBTQ+ communiPes around the world. To commemorate this milestone, a print publicaPon Ptled ‘Ten Years of Elska: Special RetrospecPve’ has been released. Inside, a collecPon of Elska’s favourite stories and portraits has been selected.
The compendium reflects Elska’s celebraPon of honesty and diversity. Instead of models or celebriPes, the men featured are beauPfully ordinary and appealingly imperfect. And instead of highly edited and polished wriPng, the texts are real, raw and somePmes random. Alongside tales of coming out in a Mormon town or falling in love on a road trip through Ukraine are a frank account of gender transiPon, a diatribe against homophobic society in Northern Ireland and even a lusty poem about foreskins!
“When I originally started Elska, my goal was simply to combine my love of travel, photography and men” says Elska editor and chief photographer Liam Campbell. “For the first issue, I flew to Lviv, Ukraine and hoped to meet three or four local guys who I would photograph in the city and then publish some sort of licle staple-bound zine. But everything just sort of exploded. I actually met twelve guys there and I ended up doing at-home nude portraits as well as vaguely editorial-style street shoots. Because of all this extra content, I had to expand my project into something more like a book. And then I had the idea to include stories, both my own chronicles about my journeys as well as stories contributed by the men I met, which made the publicaPon grow even larger.”
“I am immensely grateful that Elska resonated so well, which has enabled me to keep going for all these years,” conPnues Liam. “I am also proud that I’ve been able to do my work in my own way, publishing real rather than sensaPonal stories and presenPng images of regular people rather than those who fit within the confines of convenPonal beauty standards. I’ve always found ordinary people more compelling, and I’m glad, as well as a licle surprised, that so many others share my perspecPve. Because of them, I’ve been able to take my project to over fiWy ciPes around the world so far.”
Elska’s roster includes books made in well-known and lesser-known places, as well as in gay- friendly and not so gay-friendly sociePes. CiPes on every conPnent of the world except AntarcPca have been featured, including: Odesa (Ukraine), Buenos Aires (ArgenPna), Chisinau (Moldova), Taipei (Taiwan), Tbilisi (Georgia), San Francisco (California), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Cape Town (South Africa), Melbourne (Australia) and Dhaka (Bangladesh). When combined, a total of 827 different men have taken part in for Elska, and many more are on the way.
Elska print books, including the new ‘Ten Years of Elska: Special RetrospecPve’ are sold in select shops around the world and for order online. Also available are e-books, art prints, postcard sets and annual subscripPons, which include six books per year. More informaPon can be found on the Elska website, www.elskamagazine.com.
