Before liberation had found its language, Arthur Tress was photographing hidden queer worlds in New York City.

Born in 1940, Tress is regarded as one of the masters of modern American photography, his work held in many of the major museum collections in the United States. His photographs trace seismic shifts in social history while exploring desire, sexuality and the complexities of human encounter, alongside an extraordinary body of ethnographic work.

In this special extended episode of The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast, Graeme Smith speaks with the legendary 85-year-old photographer about a life spent documenting dream imagery, underground culture and social change.

Best known for work moving between documentary, surrealism and homoerotic fantasy, Tress reflects on photographing men in The Ramble in 1969, the subject of his extraordinary new book The Ramble, published by Stanley Barker.

The conversation ranges from cruising culture before Stonewall, Coney Island ruins and ethnographic travels, to 1980s New York, Robert Mapplethorpe, queer visual history, masculinity, fantasy and the underground worlds that shaped modern queer photography.

A rare long-form conversation with one of the great, if still too little-known, figures in American photography.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, American photographer Christopher Makos reflects on a legendary career spanning decades, including his iconic collaborations with Andy Warhol and his lasting impact on queer photography. He shares insights on the people, places, and images that continue to define his work, and what he’s looking forward to next.

New York-based artist Jordan Eagles discusses his provocative and politically charged practice using blood. In a conversation focused on identity, stigma, and the realities around blood donation for the LGBTQ+ community, Jordan explains how his art confronts systems and challenges perceptions.

And we hear from our very own photographer AdeY, who introduces his latest series and book, JOY, offering a short look at his newest work.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

QUEER BRITAIN brings together standout moments from our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS recorded live at our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café in London.

Intimate conversations in front of a live audience with creatives shaping queer culture in the UK today.

Composer Iain Bell, described by the BBC as one of the most compelling musical dramatists of his generation, reflects on opera, audiences, and the question of elitism. Actor and his husband, the writer Michael Batten, discusses his critically acclaimed theatre work, including Remembrance Monday, and the journey from concept to sold-out runs in London and Mexico.

Kitty Scott-Claus (RuPaul’s Drag Race UK) brings humour, warmth, and insight into performance and identity.

Comedian and broadcaster James Barr talks candidly about being out on the radio, comedy, and navigating being a regular on the Piers Morgan show.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graeme Smith speaks with two filmmakers whose work has been part of this year’s Academy Awards conversation, each telling a very different story about queer lives and history.

First we cross to New York to meet Matt Nadel, the documentary filmmaker behind Cashing Out, an Oscar shortlisted short documentary produced by The New Yorker. The film uncovers a little known and unsettling chapter of queer history during the AIDS crisis, when investors began buying life insurance policies from dying gay men, turning tragedy into a financial market. It is a powerful and complex story about capitalism, mortality and a moment in LGBTQ history that is often overlooked.

Then we head to the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café to meet Lee Knight. His short film A Friend of Dorothy earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short. The film stars two beloved queer icons, Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Fry, and Lee joins us in front of a live audience to talk about the remarkable journey from writing the script to finding himself in the Oscars race.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Triple Booker Prize nominated author Tash Aw joins us to discuss his latest novel, The South — named one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Books of the Year.

We talk about what it means to be recognised at the highest level of global literature, and how The South explores identity, immigration, queer lives and globalisation from a perspective rarely centred in Western publishing.

A precise, intelligent conversation with one of the most critically respected writers working today.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DJ Fat Tony is one of the most recognisable figures in British nightlife, spending decades at the centre of club culture, fashion and celebrity. His time DJing at Trade, the legendary gay hard dance club, was just one chapter in a much bigger story.

Tony joins us for a revealing conversation at our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café in London to share his stories from DJing at the wedding of Brooklyn Beckham, reflecting on the ups and downs of his long friendship with Boy George, and looking back at his early days brushing shoulders with the New York art world with Keith Haring & Andy Warhol, including a memorable detail about what Warhol actually smelled like.

The conversation moves between funny, shocking and unexpectedly tender. Tony speaks openly about addiction, recovery and rebuilding his life. Now more than twenty years sober and happily married, he looks back on the chaos with honesty and perspective.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! features a genuine political outlier: Carl Cashman, the 34-year-old leader of Liverpool City Council’s Liberal Democrats in the North West of England, a straight politician who has built influence by putting LGBTQ+ people at the centre of his politics.

Carl represents a new generation of progressive politician: culturally fluent, visibly present, and entirely at ease in queer spaces. He’s as comfortable sharing the occasional gym selfie and taking the attention that follows as he is being clear and values-led on trans rights, European Union membership, and civil liberties. Often to the left of his own party, Carl has joked that at Liberal Democrats conference it can feel like 80% of the room is LGBTQ+, and he’s clear that queer members and voters are central to the party’s progressive energy.

The Liberal Democrats are the party that delivered equal marriage and the party still reckoning with the cost of the 2010 coalition. Yet in a landscape dominated by caution and culture wars, they remain one of the few national parties openly pro-EU and committed to individual rights.

During a week of TV appearances in London, Carl joined Graeme Smith — equally Liverpudlian, equally direct — in front of a sell-out crowd at the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café in London. Over a drink, in a queer space, he answered tough questions about trust after 2010, immigration, the arts, trans rights, Trump, and whether Westminster is next.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! we speak with Tyler Udall - the first ever BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! photographer and a regular voice on the podcast.

Recorded during one of our MEETS at our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café London, this episode traces Tyler’s path through a series of worlds that don’t often get connected. He began as a ballet dancer in New York, before moving through the fashion world, including as fashion editor of Dazed & Confused and AnOther magazines, before stepping away from the industry to build a photographic practice rooted in intimacy and lived experience.

Tyler is known for work that resists spectacle. His photographs focus on queer bodies as presence rather than performance, shaped by memory, vulnerability, and the politics of being seen. His undeniably personal and emotionally compelling photographs are shaped by the familiarity he has with his subjects, most of whom are friends and past lovers.

In this conversation, Tyler speaks candidly about being diagnosed HIV positive in the late 2000s, and how photography helped him process this.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to two extraordinary queer filmmakers: Ira Sachs, one of the defining voices of American independent film; and Benoît Duvette, an emerging French director making waves. 

Sachs to promote his latest film, Peter Hujar's Day, that centres on the legendary queer photographer Peter Hujar starring Ben Whishaw; and Duvette to talk about his recent film Eden & Charlie, which caught our attention for its tenderness and clarity of vision. 

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast presents highlights from our BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! MEETS, each recorded live in front of an audience at the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery Café.

We hear first from German photographer Richard Kranzin, on his journey from model to photographer, about exploring the sensuality of male youth and his new book Interior. Then from Argentinian photographer Sebastian Perinotti about his latest series & zine The Mirror, who is joined by one of his models & collaborators Bernardo. And finally from Irish photographer Charles Moriarty, who is joined by bodybuilder and actor Brock Yurick to talk about their new book BROCK.

Brought to you by BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! boysboysboys.org 

@boysfineart

@boysgallerycafelondon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.