Milan is universally celebrated for pristine tailoring, luxury runways, and manicured sophistication. But behind the glossy façades, what does the city feel like through the everyday realities of the queer men who inhabit it? That honest curiosity sits at the core of Elska Milan, the 61st issue of the acclaimed independent photography and storytelling publication. Returning to Italy for its second-ever Italian dispatch, Elska deliberately strips back the city’s high-fashion armour to document vulnerability, intimacy, and unfiltered queer identity.
True to the publication’s ethos, editor and chief photographer Liam Campbell works exclusively with non-models, inviting locals into their own apartments, streets, and skin, often posing in raw, tender nudes accompanied by personal, self-penned vignettes.
“Milan has such a particular reputation,” Campbell explains. “It’s a city that the world associates with beauty, elegance, and fashion. We became interested in what would happen if we approached it from the opposite direction—not looking for the most stylish or glamorous men, but simply for people willing to let us into their lives. Fashion is about curating an image of yourself, but I’ve always been more interested in what happens when people let that image drop away. I did things differently here, allowing fashion to play a vital role, but always queering it.”
Marking only the second time in the magazine’s history that an issue has been executed as a full collaboration, Campbell shares lens duty with Milan-based photographer Mauro Padula. Each lensman took on half of the shoots and narrative profiles, creating a compelling dialogue between an insider’s intimacy and an outsider’s curiosity.
The issue spotlights local guys including Dano, Berry, Sergio, Davide, Squalo, Federico, Alessandro, and Simone. For most, this was their first time in front of a lens without clothes, resulting in images that subvert traditional fashion campaign tropes—playfully queering the city’s commercial obsession with irreverent, erotic wit.
Elska Milan (Issue 61) and its accompanying companion zine, Ekstra Milan, are available now via elskamagazine.com and select independent bookshops globally.
