Toronto-based photographer Christopher Sherman knows a few things with certainty. They include, but are not limited to, the following: the male g-spot is in the butt, kindness is horny, and censorship breeds small minds. But the one aphorism he lives by is this: always have a horny day.
Bare bottoms, exposed crotches and words of sexual diversity can be found in the issues of Sherman’s Horny Newsletter. Shot on a digital camera, Sherman challenges societal taboos about sex and, well, horniness. Poetry, short essays, and tales of desires are shared by artists, musicians, and other creatives, alongside intimate photography.
In the 10 issues published thus far, Sherman has featured the likes of DJ Rose Hips, artist and actor Juan Manuel Salcito, Mone Tamagawa and Miles Gertler.
The Horny Newsletter was birthed out of the isolation of the pandemic in 2020, Sherman wanted to create something to break the barrier of intimacy and present sexuality as an integral part of our human existence.
“Sex and sexuality are a big part of our lives, but we kind of keep the images related to it in this separate guarded world … when we couldn’t be together I started reading about people’s sexual experiences, I had more time to explore what other humans were doing,” says Sherman. “To me, I always thought pornography was interesting and beautiful — not all of it — but there were elements of it that were beautiful.”
Sherman’s goal with the series has always been to eliminate the shame around sex, horniness and erotica, and to bring artistic and fashion photography to the world of sexuality. “What if Juergen Teller took my Grindr photos?” he says.
Sherman says that marketing and mainstream media have simplified and flattened people’s ideas of what sex and sexuality are.
“Everything from the point of seduction and awareness is a form of sex and sexuality,” he says. “I had all these incredible photos of people that I shot over the years and thought, how do we piece them together?” says Sherman. “I thought, let’s add their voices with the photos so that you can hear the multi-dimensional [through stories] connecting us.”
Queerness is central to Sherman’s newsletter, capturing the voices of Toronto, Montreal, and beyond voices and how they seek community, understanding of sex culture and queer experiences. Horny Newsletter provides an intimate glimpse into North American queer culture from a diverse array of backgrounds, with the intersection of BIPOC and queer media.
In his first issue, Sherman featured photos of fellow artists, such as painter Nicko Cecchini, who he had previously shot. He reached back out to the subjects and asked them horny-centered questions. Soon, it evolved beyond a Q&A and became more personable.
Sherman’s photography goes beyond the newsletter. His work has been featured in Interview Magazine and Vogue and as well as campaigns from Yves Saint Laurent. He’s also shot celebrities like Hunter Schafer, Spencer Badu, Baz Lurhmann, and Matty Matheson, with a focus on capturing intimate moments of his subjects.
Most, if not all, of Sherman’s work, plays with the concept of the human body in a vulnerable yet natural stage. Throughout Sherman’s work, you can see the inspirations he has taken from his childhood and those around him.
“I’m a fan of photography first,” he says. “I grew up [looking at Richard] Avedon, Juergen Teller, Wolfgang Tillmans. In Toronto, there are so many great photographers, too, like Petra Collins, Adam Levitt … I will always be a fan of photography [first].”
Sherman recalls how his past experiences influenced his work today, specifically through his relationship with Interview Magazine’s Mel Ottenberg.
“Mel Ottenberg is the modern version of Andy Warhol … [I] saw that he could see the work without the shame of the cultural stare,” says Sherman. “He could see it for the photography, the art direction, and the creative direction, and then combining that to also do celebrities which is a super corny world.”
Ottenberg gave Sherman that opportunity to shoot incredibly interesting queer people, but most importantly do it on a large-scale platform. Sherman plans and hopes to do the same for others.
“I happen to have a seat at the table, within the media of imagery and conversation of community,” he says. “Let’s make a bigger table, let’s have more voices on the table so that we can have more representation of what our community looks like.”
Christopher Sherman’s Horny Newsletter can be found on his site.
