Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

The photography of Michael Meads is utterly, breathtakingly, stunning. If Bruce Weber's work weren't so self-consciously "sexy," it might look this good. Meads photographs (mostly) straight boys in the deep south, but these pictures, none among them explicitly sexual, are so painfully erotic - and homoerotic - precisely because of the ease with which straight boys (boys meaning anywhere from 16-30, at least that's what I'd guess most of their ages are) so often carry themselves. There's posing, yes, but there's nothing posed. Everything in these photos screams real. These are "good ol' boys," good even when they're being "bad." It's guys hanging out, drinking beers, smoking, being affectionate in the most loving, nonsexual ways, playing with guns and snakes, pissing, and showing off their cars. Phe-fucking-nomenal work, truly devastating. [Link via Snozzwanger, who's apparently one of the subjects, but he won't say who he is (was).] [Penis alert: not all of it's work-safe.]