American photographer Tom Bianchi was part of that first wave of openly queer people following the Stonewall riots, and he started out by documenting gay life at Fire Island Pines in the 1970s.
In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País to celebrate 50 years of his wonderful homoerotic photography, he reveals where he met his husband…
On DudesNude!
“Fifteen years ago I met a guy on a website, a portal called DudesNude. We started exchanging photos, you know, like everybody does today. He lived in another city and came to visit me in Palm Springs. The day we met in person we knew we wanted to be together. We've been together for 15 years.”
That’s a wonderful love story.
“Oh, it is. A marriage blessed by DudesNude.”
This really brought a smile to my face because I met my husband on DudesNude, too! We actually have a polyamorous relationship, so I have a second lover as well – and where did I meet him? On DudesNude, obviously!
I first joined the site back in 2011, when I was fresh out of a long-term (and very heteronormative) relationship. Dating had changed out of all recognition since I’d last been single, with everything now online. I discovered DudesNude’s webcam chat room and started exploring a more exhibitionist side, and I got chatting with a young German guy. A first visit to Hamburg happened a few weeks later, and after four years of a long-distance relationship we got married in 2015.
And then in 2020, just as the whole world locked down due to COVID-19, I started chatting on DudesNude with a young Spanish-Canadian in Ottawa. He was expecting to move to Madrid in six months – but the pandemic meant it was actually 18 months before we were finally able to meet in person. We’ve now been together for three years (or four if you count that time when our relationship was entirely online).
We all know that DudesNude is a fantastic sex-positive community, as soaked in sex as Tom Bianchi’s 1970s Fire Island polaroids. But it can also be a gateway to queer relationships of all sorts – as friends, lovers, or anything between the two.
I wonder just how many relationships have gotten started through DudesNude over the last 22 years?
