Men at Work by Apolo Gomez

Issue 137

Men at Work is a portraiture series of masseurs, escorts, models and pornographic film actors. For me, there is more to the constructed sense of desire in queer sex work, it’s not just visual or experiential; it is psychological and that is when a connection can be formed. The advent of the ability to promote services online changed sex work entirely, making it safer and more accessible for clients. Online escort websites first came across my radar in 2015 when Homeland Security raided Rentboy, which was at the time one of the oldest escort websites on the internet. In 2017 when I first started this project, SCOTUS passed FOSTA, an anti-sex trafficking bill that would allow states and victims to fight online sex trafficking and would hold online platforms accountable for their users. After it was passed a lot of online resources for sex workers and platforms they could use to promote and advertise services started to disappear. I met most of the men I’ve photographed for this series through some of these websites and apps that are still up.

Apolo Gomez lives and works in Albuquerque, NM, USA.
To view more of Apolo’s work, please visit his website or find him on Instagram @apologomez