NÆS Magazine

Elska is proud to present a special edition zine series full of næs pics and næs boys called NÆS (it's pronounced ‘nice’).

Coming from the same universe as Elska, this limited edition project shares images and stories that don't quite fit within the ‘rules’ of Elska… i.e. that we can't shoot the same person twice, that we can't shoot in the same city twice, or that we can't publish something that's not actually about a city!

We're not sure exactly now many issues will be produced or where the concept will go. NÆS is all about following the whims of inspiration, so who knows?

About NÆS 01:

Official title: “Restless Relentlessly”

Alternate title: “I got stuck in southwest Iceland because of a winter storm so I decided to take a holiday consisting of soaking in geothermal swimming pools, relaxing in cosy cafés and bingeing on a podcast about vikings, but then I just couldn’t resist trying to meet a few Icelandic guys and doing a naked photoshoot with them, so I did that as well.”

This issue focuses on three beautiful Icelandic men: Haukur G (Seltjarnarnes and Reykjavík) Sveinn S (Hafnarfjörður) and Guðjón B (Vatnsleysuströnd). With Haukur, Liam tried to recreate the magic of a photoshoot they did ten years earlier, only to be confronted with atrocious weather and a struggle to make Haukur feel as gorgeous as the man Liam saw before his lens. With Sveinn, Liam drank a lot of coffee and got intimidated by oodles of intelligence, artistic talent and the kindness exemplified by a love for cats. And with Guðjón, Liam melted as he gradually saw this specimen of physical strength and masculinity dissolve into a soft, gentle and tender spirit. And all three men caused Liam to drift into Viking-era fantasies that exposed a cold loneliness which he allowed these men to quell.

About NÆS 02:

Official title: “He Believes in Beauty”

Alternate title: “If my cabin crew colleagues hadn’t been such fucking bores, then I probably never would have ditched them to do photoshoots with random boys around the world, which eventually led me to quit my job at at that fucking airline and make a living from my camera.”

This issue calls back to Elska founder Liam Campbell's origins as a photographer, starting with a teenage dream to be a music video director, moving to a desire to become a fashion photographer, and finally solidifying into some sort of career that would express his passion for travelling and men. Elska's origins were born during a brief career as a flight attendant, which enabled his first shoots to take place… There was Diego R and Scotty P who he met during layovers in LAX; there was Danny N, who he met on a trip to Costa Rica; and there were Alan M and Marco R who he found in London. Each of these men allowed Liam to explore his photographic style, capturing a piece of their essences by documenting their bodies and homes.

Elska is a bi-monthly photography and culture publication dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of gay communities all over the world. Each issue is made in a different city where readers get to know to several local gay guys through honest photography and personal storytelling. One article described Elska as "part intellectual queer pin-up mag and part sexy anthropology journal", and another as "probably the nicest, most sincere magazine ever". We quite like that!