Michael Alago’s “Polaroid Encounters” Is 200 Shots Of Muscle, Ink And Analog Lust
Before Grindr, before the endless grid, there was a man with a Polaroid camera and a very good eye. Polaroid Encounters: 1998-2009 collects 200 of Michael Alago’s instant shots of muscle, ink and bare skin, and it is exactly as filthy and fun as that sounds.
Alago is best known in music. At 24 he signed Metallica to Elektra, then went on to work with White Zombie, Cyndi Lauper and Nina Simone. He says he “was never in the closet”, and when he left the industry, he turned the same eye for talent on the men around him.
Tricks, bodybuilders and ex-con boyfriends
The 142-page hardback gathers candid and posed Polaroids shot across New York, Dallas, New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco, many of them in Alago’s own Chelsea apartment.
The cast is gloriously mixed: tricks, friends, models, bodybuilders, tattooed roughnecks and ex-con boyfriends, in various stages of undress.
Getting them on film was the easy part. “I never had a problem walking up to a good looking man and letting them know I was an artist and could I photograph them,” Alago says. “I was young and sweet and the men most of the time said yes.”
A love letter to analog lust
The book reads as a hit of nostalgia for a grittier, hornier New York. Jack Fritscher, who wrote the introduction, calls it a love letter to analog lust, full of images that “pop like poppers.” Sean Yseult of White Zombie put it more plainly on the back cover:
“Shocking, sexy, rough, tough, and gorgeous. Tattoos are a plus; muscles a must.” Her closing line? “Enter if you dare.”
Polaroid Encounters is Alago’s fourth book of male erotica, after Rough Gods, Brutal Truth and Beautiful Imperfections. It is out now as a limited edition through Shining Life Press for US$60, and the first 100 copies come with a signed Polaroid from his own collection, so the keenest among us should move fast. Available from Shining Life Press at www.shininglifepress.com
