On a recent Sunday, in the back room of an unassuming, suburban home near Curry Ford and Conway, a porn star was posing on bicycle, ass in the air like he just didn’t care. Meanwhile, children played in the street and an old woman walked her fragile little dog, poop bag poised and ready.
Lee Vandergrift has made a name for himself photographing some of the hottest men in Central Florida. Straight, gay, white, black, and purple, he’s shot them all, and usually in their underwear. His Beard Envy Project made ripples in the local scene by celebrating some of the prettiest, hairy faces in town. Yet, even though his work is insanely popular in the LGBT scene, he’s only had one local show. He’s a product of an era where social media has more clout than traditional galleries. You know he’s out there but you’ve never actually seen him; an art unicorn, if you will. When I was asked by Watermark to have a sit with Vandergrift to talk about his latest project, From Behind – a photo series on butts, I couldn’t turn it down.
[NOTE: The photo gallery after the jump depicts nude backsides and is likely NSFW. Click at your own risk!]
Half an hour before I strolled into Vandergrift’s home, he had just been doing a shoot with visiting porn star Jaxton Wheeler (a man who some say inspired the new Marvel Comics’ Hercules design, man bun and all). He’d managed to take a tumble and knock his shin on something while following the jock strapped Wheeler into a garage to snap a pic on a bike, because art. Vandergrift clutched an ice pack to his leg for our entire visit, when not scrolling through his phone to show me pictures of all his hot model friends.
“How do you not walk into walls all the time when you’re photographing guys like that?” I asked, while fluffing a pillow on his love seat. Vandergrift had finally relaxed on his couch and wrapped his now-swelling leg with a green ice pack while his cute pocket dogs cuddled around him for emotional support.
“When I have the camera in my hand, I’m just focused on getting the photo. I’m not thinking, “Oh, this guy’s so hot,” he says.
“At all?” I ask. I’ve seen his Instagram. Multiple times. I know what these boys look like.
“Well, yeah, but I’m just like, this is so beautiful, I must document it. It’s not until after the process – which for me used to be in the dark room, you know, with 35mm film. I would get …” He gets dramatically silent as his eyes widen and he mimes holding up some face-melting photograph, “… it would get very sensual seeing these images, and I’d be like,” fans himself, “Oh my gawd. But while it was going on, I was just really a technician and trying to make sure the lighting was right, and the composition was correct, and the model was going to look as best as possible.”
Vandergrift’s photos are notoriously clean and organic. He shoots his subjects straight on with bright, natural lighting. “Natural” is one of the best words to describe his work. The models always seem relaxed and at ease, a tribute to his gifts as a photographer. As most of his pieces deal with nude or semi-nude men, his work could easily be seen as soft porn or overtly sexual.
“I don’t want them to seem salacious,” he says.
The models in the photos often gaze out at the viewer in a way that invites you in. You’re looking at something that you probably shouldn’t, but they’re daring you to look away, like in Manet’s“Luncheon on the Grass”or “Olympia.”The works play on the male gaze, usually applied toward women.
Lee started the Beard Envy Project at a time when he was growing his own beard. “A friend suggested that I start doing Beard Envy, because at the time it wasn’t coming in, it was taking forever.” He started noticing other people’s beards and noting all the similarities and differences; long, curly, thick. A friend of his, also a photographer, suggested he do a photo essay of men with beards. “I was like oh, that’s a good idea and I’ll call it the Beard Envy Project because I have beard envy,” he says.
He started shooting friends, and then friends of friends, and then eventually it took on a life of its own. Vandergrift now sees “his beards” (what he calls men he’s photographed) everywhere he goes. And even though he’s since ended the project, he still wishes he’d gotten a few more.
“If I could find a bearded woman, like a real bearded woman, she’d be in there,” he says.“I actually follow one on Instagram. Her name is Harkim or something like that [HarnaamKaur] and she lives in London,” he says. She’s his actual Bigfoot, his elusive big catch.
Vandergrift’s latest project still uses handsome men as the subjects, but this time the gaze has dropped a little lower. From Behind is his latest collection of works that is calling attention to the finest asses – or posteriors – in the realm.
He started the series because he didn’t think butts were represented enough in the art world. “We’ve got the Kardashians, we’ve got J.Lo, women booty all over the place, but I don’t think we have enough men booties.”
As anyone who went to the recent Nude Nite Orlando can attest, there was a palpable lack of the male form being represented. That could perhaps speak to the abundance of middle-aged straight male painters and their predilection to painting naked breasts.
“I just went to Nude Nite. I’d never been,” he says.“For five years people have been like, ‘Oh, you need to do it, you need to do it.’ And I went, and I was disappointed. First of all, I think one of the things was that there was not a lot of male representation there. And the one photo of a male penis, when I came up to it, there were people standing around it laughing. And I was like, “Really Orlando? Really?”
Beard Envy, is different from From Behind, because with Beard Envy he could approach someone in public and say, “Hey I really like your beard,” but you can’t do that with a butt – at least, you can’t do that with a butt and not be painted as a thirsty pervert. Up until recently the subjects were generally just people he had worked with before or that have referred to him by mutual friends. But once he launched the project on Facebook, the pictures started to come.
“So people are sending you photos of their butts?” I ask, wistfully holding up my chins with clasped fingers.
“Yes.”
The focus is still on avoiding the salacious. Vandergrift’s daily struggle is to walk that line of playful beauty and admiration on one side and porn to the other. In a world where photos of your neighbor’s junk are only a left swipe away, Vandergrift has two rules that he operates by to keep his butt work tasteful.
“I don’t want to see them winkin’ at me, and I don’t wanna see no pink. Turn to the side a little, you know?” he says.
But what’s the butt-motivation? You love butts, you want to see butts, so you’re photographing them? Is there a deeper narrative that you want people to know about it?
“Um, well [laughs] … no? I wish there was more substance to it,” he says
There really doesn’t need to be. It’s evident in the photos that Vandergrift takes that he is doing it from an appreciative stance. He really is just trying to be the best butt ambassador he can be.
“Again, I just don’t think the male butt is represented enough. Here, this is Richard, he has butt abs,” he says, Holding up his Instagram. “All I can think is, people deserve to see this.”
So what’s Vandergrift’s next step? Does he think that this will carry forward (nudge, nudge)? Will there be an Upfront Project?
“Troy,” he says, referring to a past model, “Well, he asked if we’ll ever do an Upfront or a Penis Envy. IF, big IF, it would only be navel to mid-thigh. That’s it, just penis. Because, once in college …” – Vandergrift is a graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design – “I had this guy actually come to my dorm room. He was beautiful and very muscular, the composition was perfect, the lighting was gorgeous … but, I showed his penis in the photograph. I just remember everyone was like, ‘Oh my God his penis!’”
Even in art school?
“Yeah, even in art school,” he says.“So to me, I love looking at it, and if I see male genitalia in a movie I’m like,‘Yay! Penis!’ But I think in American culture it’s too polarizing. “
Do people ask him all the time about whether he sleeps with his models?
“Yes.”
Does he?
Clutching his ice pack like it was a purse in Parramore. “No.” Vandergrift trickles off the record here and mentions a few potential Boogie Nights, but notes that he isn’t single and wouldn’t want to cross that tan line. All the muscles, butts and beards couldn’t break through his professional ethics, he assures.
“See, here’s the thing. I love muscles, they’re great,” he says.“But, I’m walking around with this model and I see a tall nerdy guy and I’m like, ‘Now that’s cute.’ Muscles are great, but I’m married to a body builder.”
He is. One who looks like he’s a Tom of Finland model.
“Exactly,” Vandergrift laughs, “Men who have lots and lots of muscles are always worried about losing those muscles. It a constant struggle – the struggle is real.”
Vandergrift revealed that a large number of his models deal with some type of body dysmorphia and he has a pocketful of stories about men he worked with who have struggled in some way with their body image.
“I had a friend who had a lot of self-image issues,” he says.“He was heavyset as a child. But he’d been working out, he’s matured, he’s a man now. We did a shoot, and he posted one on Scruff. He sends me a screen shot of his image on Scruff, and he’s like ‘I was one of the most woofed at men in 24 hours.’ And he was like, ‘You changed my life.’ And I was like, ‘You’re the one who’s done the work.”
How does Vandergrift feel about his photos being used on gay hook-up sites?
“I’m flattered.My favorite part of this project is that people are like, ‘Oh, you did Beard Envy,’ and they started dating,” he says.“There are three couples that I know met like that. I’m bringing people together.”
Vandergrift has unwittingly created a sort of Pantheon of Gayness in Central Florida. His active curation of hot men with beards is like a stamp of approval from the hairy men in the region. It’s as if you’ve reached a level of acceptability and coolness once you’ve been tapped for Beard Envy and From Behind. That makes you a more desirable catch.
Vandergrift’s work is shaping the local gay scene. His illustration work sells faster than his photography and has adorned doctor’s offices and Orlando Fringe posters alike. But he’s still not really a part of the local art scene. Most of his work that has made it into the public eye has done so through gay channels. When asked about traveling to London on a United Arts grant to photograph the aforementioned bearded lady, Vandergrift seems baffled at the prospect of applying for grants, completely unfamiliar with the process.
“You’ve never done that? Applied for funding?” I ask.
“No.”
“I guess you don’t need to, as a working artist and you haven’t had an actual ‘show’ right?”
“Well I had a show at The Center. That’s where I got a lot of those photos,” he says, gesturing at his art-clad walls, “But I had a full-time job. I mean I have a full-time job; it just doesn’t pay enough or pay for insurance and all that rigamaroo.”
Why doesn’t he just approach a local gallery like Snap! Orlando?
“I honestly don’t know that I could,” he says. “I don’t know how. I don’t know the avenues. People are like, ‘Why don’t you do this?’ and I’m like, ‘You can do that?’ Here’s my friend Jeff, he’s straight,” he diverts, showing yet another gorgeous man on his phone to change the topic.
Vandergrift operates by relentlessly creating his art and then gently pushing it out into the world. His lack of formal middlemen representing his work has only helped it spread in a more organic way, like a plant that was fed with compost rather than Monsanto canned chemical food. The stalk is broader and stronger and has more support. His works speak for themselves. His following is growing stronger every day. His army of hot, hyper-local models grows too. Yet he still seems uncomfortable when talking about his next step.
When prompted about trying to cement something with a gallery or to gain representation, he responds by holding up his phone, “This is a guy I want to photograph. He’s Asian, huge muscles. He has the nickname ‘dickskin’ because with his muscles, with his arms are down, it’s just like veins.”
In the grand aesthetic scheme of artistic intent and its resulting audiences, it doesn’t need to be anything other than what it is:photographs of hot man butts and beards – unfiltered, unabashed, often unclothed and always unashamed.
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