New Era: Crotch Magazine Editor Talks About Going Digital, Censorship, and More!
The UK-based publication has just recently taken their glossy pages online while maintaining its steamy content fans have adored.
For a magazine that focuses on men in their alluring forms, it is safe to say that Crotch has established its legion of fans mostly concentrated in Europe. But what makes the fans stay loyal?
We spoke to Crotch Magazine editor Frank and started the conversation with the key to standing out among publications that are thematically similar to theirs.
“I started the magazine, as I felt there was a real drought on the shelves for a publication that focused on the men that I love to follow. There are magazines that shoot models, but I’ve never found fashion models particularly interesting, and there are magazines that focus solely on muscle boys, or on porn stars.
We had been shooting real men for a while, and decided to have a go at shooting them with their sexuality at the forefront, more skin, nudity, and showcasing the best in men’s underwear and swimwear. We wanted to shoot all our favourite guys, from the cute guy at the local gym, to a world famous porn star, with everyone in-between, the Onlyfans lad, a cute bear from Instagram, with nothing holding us back!”
From Max Wyatt to Francois Sagat, the magazine’s risk to be risqué defies the people’s perception that high-art seldom exists in erotic visual media.
“We love working with sexually open and expressive models. We want to celebrate men’s bodies and sexuality. I think the high-art appeal comes naturally through the team that puts the issues together that work alongside me, a collective of creatives who work across the fashion and publishing world. And we are super honest with each other, we love beautiful things.
Some of the men we shoot are already all over social media, so we want to shoot them in a different way, unique to us, celebrating and focusing on their physicality.”
Remember the transition period from buying CDs to downloading and now streaming your music? It is undeniable that public consumption of media has evolved before our eyes. And Crotch makes sure that they can catch up with the trend without any compromise.
“Don’t get me wrong – I love the print issue! It’s so beautifully printed, and that has been our focus so far. But we had sold out of Issue 1, with Tim Kruger on the cover, and had been getting a lot of requests from people wanting a copy, so we quietly added that as a digital issue.
We also know how expensive it can be to ship the magazine globally – we are based in London, and although we have stockists around the world, we sell most of the copies directly, and the cost of shipping can be inhibitive for some readers – It’s a thick issue, with 180 pages. The digital copies gets rid of this problem, so when Issue 1 was doing well and worked for readers, we though we should add the others too.”
“Our print issue sales have gone up! Although this might have more to do with the world being in lockdown, and self-isolation. The digital copies open up our readership scope, which is really exciting. We have to question ourselves constantly, about what we’re doing, what we want to say with each issue. Over-riding everything else, we want to celebrate life, freedom, and sex. And this feels even more important right now in the current climate. I’m really excited for issue 4, where we are pushing things a little further.”
Due to technological advancements, these types of media are becoming more and more accessible to the general public. This also means that censorship in print and social media has become more prevalent.
“I worry mostly about censorship on Instagram. I’ve had so many friends and colleagues who have built their audience only to be reduced to nothing, through an unknown censorship. The power of Instagram is unnerving, it’s such a fantastic tool, and brilliantly engages with followers and has been a great support for us. But when problems arise, it’s really very difficult to resolve issues and communicate with the team there.”
To blissfully wrap this up, we asked Frank about his most favorite people they featured on the magazine and we understand the hesitation to reveal his minute biases. But we did get some exciting answers.
“Such a hard question to answer! Tim Kruger was amazing, the blue eyes and intense sexuality, he was so accommodating, we took him to a huge cruising forest in Sitges, Barcelona, and photographed him among the trees. We love to shoot the super hung, and have had some great experiences, Fabio a stripper from Birmingham, fills his swimwear in the most magnificent way, and the body is unreal – and so handsome too!
Shooting LA boy Matthew for issue 1 was also a great experience, I couldn’t believe my eyes when the trunks got wet. For issue 2 we went to Australia and shot Maxx Pony at the Bondi Beach Hotel, super sweet, and brilliant conversation, desperately trying to fit his bulge into some skimpy swimming trunks, for the last shot he stopped trying, to our delight! Meeting old-school porn Icon Chad Hunt was also pretty epic.”
And finally, there are also dream collaborators he want to be in the publication.
“So many, the list is endless and constantly growing! – we love to hear from our readers who they would love to see – local lads or Onlyfans models breaking onto the scene. It’s also great to hear from guys that would love to be included, it’s great introducing new men to our audience. We photographed a beautiful lad called Rob a couple of years ago, at the time he had only 400 Instagram followers! Swedish lad Ruslan, is definitely on our radar, as well as Armond Rizzo, and my personal porn crush Rafael Alencar.”
Enjoy the celebration of men’s beautifully photographed physiques by grabbing the latest issue of Crotch Magazine. Now available in physical and digital formats.
