We travelled to Rome to show you some of the gorgeous guys you might meet there

Elska is a project centred on travelling the world, meeting local guys, and introducing readers to their cities and lives through honest photography and personal stories. Below, photographer Liam Campbell shares with GayCities an exclusive selection of photos and behind-the-scenes commentary about some of the men he met for the Elska edition, shot in Rome, Italy.

Alan G (aka Aura Eternal)

I’ll never forget the moment when, at the end of our shoot, Alan thanked me for treating him like a person, for treating him like he was important just as himself. What he meant was that I used our shoot and interview to focus on Alan, not only on his drag alter ego, Aura Eternal.

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I’ve shot multiple people who’ve appeared on various franchises of RuPaul’s Drag Race. However, I try not to centre their Elska features around their fame. I want to show that Elska is a place for them as a person, not just as a persona. For this reason, I’ve always photographed queens out of drag (even if some elements of drag appear, like Alan’s Aura Eternal t-shirt in this pic, and a scene later in his bedroom where he wears a wig).

Similarly, I also try not to ask too many questions about Drag Race during our interviews. It seems more respectful to let them bring it up if they want to.  However, in Alan’s case, since I was genuinely a big fan of Aura Eternal on Drag Race Italia, I couldn’t help but ask a few questions. There are several things I could divulge here, but for space, I’ll just spill one bit of tea. That’s why he never watched the episodes he appeared on. He said he wanted to remember his Drag Race experience as he remembered it, not let the editors’ version of events alter anything. I love that! Nevertheless, I think he should watch it — he got a great edit, making Aura Eternal one of those queens that people are begging for on an All Stars or Versus the World series.

Enea F

I first came in contact with Enea a few years before actually making Elska’s Rome issue. He originally got in touch as a fan of my work and also to introduce me to his own indie publication, the absolutely lovely GRÆS Magazine. I was living in New York at the time, and I remember immediately hopping on my bicycle and heading to McNally Jackson Books in Soho to pick up a copy. Coincidentally, around a year later, I happened to see him in New York, just having a bite in a café in Williamsburg. At the time, I wasn’t sure it was him, but a DM later confirmed he was visiting New York and had been at that café.

Around a year after that, another coincidence occurred when I was in Florence on holiday with my husband. After I posted a quick snap on Insta, Enea DM’d me to say he was also in Florence for the weekend. I cheekily asked if he’d like to do a photoshoot, but then admitted I’d left my proper camera back home. He agreed hypothetically, that is, if I ever came to Rome to make an issue of Elska.

A year later, I came to Rome to make the first Italian Elska. And Enea was the very first person I contacted. I was so glad to finally meet him in person, and he was absolutely worth the wait. The picture says it all!

Andrewson M

I find participants in Elska in various ways. Sometimes they come onto my radar in the way Enea did, because they’re a fan of my work and they offer to take part if I ever come to their city. (By the way, I keep a list of potential future subjects that’s always growing.) Other times, I go onto the gay hookup apps and see who’s around and up for a shoot. And very occasionally, I spot people totally at random, which was how I ended up meeting Andrewson… On my second day in Rome, I saw him tagged in the photo of another guy I followed on Insta, randomly clicked it, and saw from his bio that he was in Rome. It was like magic. I asked if he was up for a shoot, and he said yes.

Normally, the guys I photograph for Elska are quite shy and even a bit awkward in front of the camera. This can be quite sweet, but it’s a treat when you meet someone who is just fierce from the jump. That was Andrewson. He knew how to pose, how to move, how to vary his expressions, and how not to look awkward!

The only downside was that it was a little hard to get him to look ‘natural’. That is, until we got to his place and I discovered the treasure trove of Pokémon stuff scattered everywhere. We got to talking about our favourite characters (which included him teasing me for loving Charmeleon, because “that’s so basic” as he said). I then convinced him to wear a Pikachu t-shirt with nothing else for one scene, and the hilarity of him Donald-Ducking in that look broke his modelesque poise. He found that scene ridiculous, but for me, it’s my favourite. (Sadly, I can’t share one of those images in this article, though, because they’re a bit too revealing! But they’re in Elska Rome, of course!)

Matteo B

…And sometimes I meet guys because they’re friends of other guys I photograph. When Andrewson and I were walking from the old viaduct, where we did the first part of our photoshoot, to his apartment, I asked if he knew any other guys who might be interested in being in Elska. He immediately thought of his friend Matteo, and later that evening, we made contact and arranged to shoot the next day.

Conversation was a little stilted at first between Matteo and I, presumably because he was tired after a tough day at work and had to rush home to meet me on time. But everything changed when I discovered a row of Korean language books on a shelf in his bedroom. I said a quick line to him in Korean, one I remembered from when I used to be a flight attendant and did a lot of flights to Seoul, something like, “Would you like a cup of ginseng tea?” His mood perked up instantly, and we riffed on about our favourite K-pop bands, the best Korean dishes, and our experiences visiting the country.

I tend to be more on the shy side, so doing a job like mine can be difficult. Luckily, however, with most people there’s some way to find a connection, and once you do, it feels like you’re old friends.

Leonardo F

My meeting with Leonardo was followed by another one of those coincidences that seem to happen to me wherever I go. A few hours after our shoot, I got a text asking if I was free for dinner the next evening and whether I’d mind if a third person came along. I agreed, and to my surprise, I showed up at the restaurant, a very buzzing SEU Pizza, and found that the third person was Enea.

Our dinner was the absolute highlight of my trip to Rome, not really because of the food (even though it was great) but because of the conversation. (That chat in fact forms the basis for the final chapter of Elska Rome.) The most exciting part of our night was trying to figure out the nature of Enea and Leonardo’s relationship. They didn’t seem to be a couple — there were no lingering glances or under-the-table touches, but their comfort together was as if they had been a couple, or had been friends for many years.

I’d only find out the connection between them later that night. There had been a passing comment over dinner where Leonardo teased Enea about having gone nude and also getting, erm, excited for one scene. Enea then laughed that he wanted to redo the shoot so he could do the same, that he didn’t want Leonardo’s chapter to be hotter than his! Anyway, I texted Enea after returning home, and, perhaps after too much to drink, asked if they’d like to do a shoot together or if that would be awkward. His reply was that they’d “done stuff together” loads of times, and that they had a long-time friends-with-benefits thing. Unfortunately, however, there would be no time for another shoot — I was flying home from Rome the next morning.

The made-in-Italy edition, ‘Elska Rome’, is now available in print and electronic formats. A companion e-zine called ‘Ekstra Rome‘ is also available and contains hundreds of pages of bonus outtakes, behind-the-scenes tales, and other special features.

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