2nd Regiment of Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion, Corsica, France, May 1995
Fiona Morrow|Metro5 April 2012
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Giorgia Fiorio: Men

Giorgia Fiorio spent a decade hanging out with guys: toreadors, submariners, boxers, fishermen. Real men. Her camera gazes on their rippled torsos and machismo as a lover might, captivated by their strength and passion.

It's no surprise that her work is big in the gay community: from the Foreign Legion to the merchant navy, Fiorio's subject matter is the stuff of homoerotic fantasy.

Fiorio is interested in the codes and rituals that bind men together and drive them on.

In the striving for physical perfection and mental fitness, and the respect demanded from their peers, these men, Fiorio suggests, are unencumbered by modern social mores.

The photographer presents these men as icons of a bygone age, when masculinity, in and of itself, was seen as a valid purpose in life.

If one balks at such Hemingway-esque behaviour in your own home, on the wall it makes for strong, sensual, at times heavily exoticised imagery.

This is Fiorio's first solo UK show and collates 25 prints from the various monographs she has published over ten years.

Until Aug 9, Focus Gallery, 3-4 Percy Street W1, Tue to Sat 11am to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 7631 1150. www.focusgallery.co.uk Tube: Goodge Street

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