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Latin for: I am Human, Therefore nothing Human is Alien to me.
Who is that man???

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Travel     Where     Books & Magazines     Shows and exhibitions     Permanent Collections     Email

Efrain John Gonzalez is a photographer with a bent to the unusual, the erotic, and the sexually extreme. An internationally published photographer who for the past 20 years has been seeking radical images that tells a story of people finding their souls with piercing, branding, cuttings, tattoos, latex, leather and a whole lot of radical sex and sexuality. He has traveled from coast to coast to find images of people exploring their limits (as well as their skin ). Much of his photographic imagery was taken at the moment it happened, at events such as Living in leather (Portland, Chicago ), The Fetish Factor (East Village ), Wig stock (Thompson Square), The Eulenspiegel Society (New Yory City), Mayday (Seattle), The Black Rose (Washington D.C)., The Power Exchange, and The Fetish Fantasy Flea market (Boston). Some of his work has been compared to that of other famous photographers , such as Robert Mapplethorpe, and Helmut Newton, but he prefers to see his work more in the light of such photographers as Weegee, W. Eugene Smith, and Erich Salomon. Their dedication and artistry allowed them to use the camera to capture the living core of human experiences. What Efrain Gonzalez tries to tell us through his lens is the idea that Radical sexual play is not the symptom of some bizzare mental illness that it has so long been perceived to be by those who fail to understand it, But that radical sexual play is a natural outreach of the sexually curious and exploralion of the self by those chosen few who dare to walk down forbidden paths to seek an inner truth Why do I get the feeling that someday I'll be describing this to a psychiatrist? - Homer Simpson I love to travel and cover events where body mods, like tattoos, and piercings are celibrated. Last May I photographed people at the Tattoo convention at Roseland in New York City. On New Yearˆïs Day I went to the heart of beautiful Maryland , where I photographed a private play party where you could see all kinds of piercings being used and abused for all kinds of interesting effects. I saw so much, and yet its so hard to capture exactly on film the feelings that I saw in the moment. To push the button on a camera in such a moment that all the things that I see are perfectly aligned so that the image that results will tell the story of that moment. Society is one vast conspiracy for carving one into the kind of a statue it likes,and then placing it in the most convenient niche it has. - Randolph Bourne Where do I get these Images of sexual play and pain How can such images of love and pain; play and torture, laughter and blood exist side by side, even in the same space and moment. The truth is that these images of souls inflecting pleasure and pain is a reality that is perfectly normal There is no insanity , no mental aberration , but a health expression of the inner self that is normal and in many ways spiritual. How is it possible to love in this way . Those who cannot understand what is in our souls say................ Is it not insane!?! Is it not a sign of mental aberration!?! Is it not illness!?! Is not all of this behaviour a sin!?! Is it not an unnatural act aganist God !?! But wait , Isnˆït that what they said about being gay, or about being lesbian, they even said it about Elvis!!!

Books Bisexual Resource Guide; Second Edition Das SM-Handbuch ; Charon-Verlag, M.T.J. Grimme, 1996 Fetisj Tabu ; Oslo,Norway Magazines Bad Attitude Body Play Honcho Nugget Outweek PFIQ Pornfree Pony Press Prometheus SandMUtopia Guardian Schlage Zeilen Screw Secret Seventeen Spectator Taste of latex Time Out Women In Power

Shows and exhibitions Mosaic Books - 167 Avenue B, NYC , May 4, 198? Sexhibition - Kampo Cultural Center, Bond Street, NYC, Febuary 1991 May Day 1992 - Masonic temple, Seattle WA, May 1-3 1992 Lust - Rita Dean Gallery, San Deigo, CA., August 1992 Rated X Show - Neikrug Photographia;East 68 st, May 1987, 90 The Black Rose - Washington DC, August 1993 Taste Of Latex - Benefit Party 432 West 14TH Sreet, May 30, 1994? Tease-o-rama - The Vault, 28 Tenth Avenue August 25 1995 SEXART 4 - Mark I. Chester Studio, San Francisco,Sept 1995 Alt.sex.photo - Hellfire club, 28 Ninth avenue, September 29, 1995? 5th Gay Photo Exihibit - Leslie Lohman Gallery; 131 Prince St, NYC, Apr 1996 Gaelic Gotham.- Museum of the City of New York, Apeil 9,1996 Tattoo - Studio Museum of Staten Island, Oct 1996 Club Casanova: The Year In Review - Cake, 99 Avenue B, Dec 29,1996 Fetish Tabu - Drammen Kunst-Forening; Oslo, Norway, March 1997

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Permanent Collections

The Body Archive - 9 Ninth Avenue, NYC 10014

Museum of The City of New York - Fifth Avenue at 103 Street, NYC

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If you wish to see more of my photographic madness,
or purchase prints of my work
Email me at;gonzoonfirst@erols.com

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