This month Elska Magazine celebrates its seven year anniversary.
So far thirty-eight issues have been published, each dedicated to a different city and including a range of everyday gay, bi, trans, and queer men living in the targeted city. The goal is to let readers feel as if they’d travelled themselves to the city and got to know LGBTQ life there by meeting some locals.
“Beauty is not something narrow. Furthermore, it is through visibility and a sincere portrayal of diversity we can erode all the ‘-isms’ that plague our community.”
Elska editor, founder, and chief photographer Liam Campbell says the purpose is also to focus on equality, with each of the men given space in the publication no matter their age, race, identity, body type, or whether they fit the mold of body types we usually see privileged in gay media. “The men in Elska are not celebrities or models, they are our friends, our lovers, our brothers, our partners, the people we love — indeed the name ‘Elska’ means ‘love’ in Icelandic.“
In addition to spotlighting diverse kinds of beauty, Elska places an importance on including a wide variety of geographies throughout its canon. That means multiple issues made on every continent. The purpose is two-fold according to Liam: First Elska aims to show that LGBTQ people exist everywhere and deserve our attention. Second Elska seeks to highlight a range of locations so as to emphasize simultaneously how different gay life is based on where you live and also how the hopes and wants of people everywhere are essentially the same.
“When I started Elska my initial idea was simply to find an outlet for my passions for photography and travel,” recalls Liam. “I chose cities based on where I personally wanted to visit and then I just met whoever I could find there, spontaneously and without any special selection criteria.”
However Liam says his motivation altered once he started being able to afford to travel outside his native Europe following the fifth issue. But that’s when the editorial team of Elska started receiving complaints, first about featuring ‘too many’ non-white men and then for including older men, trans men and various body types.
“But rather than let them upset me I let them inspire me to stand behind my belief that beauty is not something narrow,” says Liam. “Furthermore, it is through visibility and a sincere portrayal of diversity we can erode all the ‘-isms’ that plague our community.”
He points out that he’s been seeing a gradual increase in positive attitudes towards diversity over the past couple of years. The amount of love the editorial team receives in the form of letters and messages for sharing the bodies and voices of less visible communities makes up for any monetary deficit.
“It’s fueled me to keep going. It’s also convinced me to keep visiting more unexpected locations.”
To this end, participants are photographed in their streets and in their homes, dressed in their clothes or sometimes not dressed at all. Then each participant also writes a personal story, adding even more to the sense of intimacy.
Liam says that issues made in places such as Germany, the UK and Australia stand alongside issues made in Morocco, Poland and Bangladesh, together prove that the whole world is queer, beautiful, and to be loved. “Some of the plans for the next year’s cities are certain to surprise even our most loyal readers.”
“Some of the plans for the next year’s cities are certain to surprise even our most loyal readers.”
Asked where our readers can get their hands on Elska Liams says Elska’s collectible print publications are sold in select shops around the world and for order online. He adds that there are also available limited edition signed art prints, e-zines, annual subscriptions, and more. A list of stocklists and more information can be found on the Elska website, www.elskamagazine.com
