Kissed: Sensuality In Gay Art

"You must remember this/A kiss is still a kiss/A sigh is just a sigh/The fundamental things apply/As time goes by."

So sang Dooley Wilson as Sam in Casablanca and when Ingrid Bergman implored him "Play it. Play it for me, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By," those lyrics became as indelible in the public mind as the National Anthem or the Lord's Prayer.

Now a gorgeous book encapsulates all of the passion, romance, heat, tenderness, intimacy, erotic energy, and just-plain mushiness encapsulated in two lips meeting. Only this time, it's guys only.

Top Photographers, Hot Models

Kissed takes its place on top of the mountain of gay-themed coffee table books by virtue of the purity of its motives, the narrow focus of the theme, and the intensity with which the photographers -- a buffet of the some of the best, and best-known, gay shutterbugs working today -- bring it out.

An Erotic Introduction

Jeffrey Essmann wrote the introduction, which, while more or less typical erotica, does bring forth a nice evocation of one man's sexual adventures as a template for the search for love.

In Essmann's case, it's love largely in New York, which means an array of types, nationalities and races. But if you're eager to get to the meat (!) of the book, you can skip it or go back to it later. Because you will definitely want to start perusing the 48 photographers.

Each brings a more or less (sometimes more, sometimes less) sensibility to the subject. Some are more romantic; others, more erotic; still others, graphic nearly to the point of pornography.

But all are beautiful to look at and ejoy.

Posed & Justaposed

Some, like River Betancourt and Ed Freeman, reminded me of the classic beefed-up perfect, smooth musclemen captured in chiaroscuro shades of black and white by David Morgan in the 1980s and '90s.

Others, like Sandro Bross, pose his models like fashion shoots. Some will not like the artificiality. I admit that I find it hot.

The editor likes to juxtapose stereotypes. The models also vary. Jay Diers likes twinks. Right after him comes Exterface,who shoots two bears. Mark Grantham likes runway-model types.

Light & Shade

Now consider Jay Jorgenssen, followed by Frank Louis: Both use light creatively to highlight the models' bodies and give a sense of drama.

Justin Monroe and Joseph Sinclair put their models into grimy (but ever-so beautiful) settings --�not dissimilar to one of those Falcon movies where the buffed, plucked, gym-built actors screw in a warehouse.

Sometimes ... a Third

Everyone will have his (or her!) favorite, but for me, the photo by David Rothwell of the two guys dressed in leather in a dreamy sci-fi background embodies that sense of (slight) danger with escapist romance. If I have a favorite photographer in this book, hands down it's Wilsonmodels.

His series of a three-way -- one guy in black briefs, another in a black jock, the third naked -- encapsulates how sexy it can be to reveal or barely conceal one's package, as well as the frisson that always take place when a third is added.