March 30, 2021 1:52pm Twelve years after the photo was taken it is still a show stopper, as shown by the prior comments.
The pose, tattoos, and the penis made for an arresting moment.
Bravo.
January 25, 2010 2:17pm Thanks for your input Shon. I sincerely appreciate it. I couldn't have shared this image publicly tho without saying something. Ari is somebody I have great affection and even reverence for and our work together feels sacred to me; I still get very emotional when I look at these images of him. He is of Jewish descent and one of the most gentle and beautiful men I have ever known. To some less informed the swastika on his leg might have symbolized neo-nazi sympathy and it's just completely impossible for me to allow that to happen. I sat out there on the desert with Ari completely naked and shivering while he told me about some of his artwork. He knew the risk he took in doing the symbol. But in a way it's like what some of us who are gay have done with the word fag and what some who are black have done with the word nigger. We have taken these words or phrases or symbols that have been used to hurt us and turned them around and made them into something else. We have removed the sting and transmuted the pain. I do get your point because most often I don't like to lead my viewers with the particulars. But in this case I just couldn't have not said anything. I tried, I couldn't do it.
January 25, 2010 1:52pm I love this photo. Love, love, love. I do wish that you hadn't clarified the symbol, though. Let the viewer interpret it as they may. (Though the swastika as a goodluck symbol sits flat at the bottom. The swastika as used by the nazi is turned 45 degrees on its corner like the one tattooed on this man.) Either way, this is one of the best photos I've seen in a very long time.
