Daniel Cooney Fine Art is pleased to present New York City artist Benjamin Fredrickson’s (b.1980) debut exhibition of unique Polaroid photographs. Fredrickson’s images document his years as a sex worker in the Midwest, his private sexual life and his community of gay men both in the Midwest and New York City.

Fredrickson himself appears in many of the images as an active participant in the culture that he photographs. He is pictured sitting on the lap of a “John”, having intercourse in a dungeon and in various other sexual scenarios, sometimes exploring S/M and fetish. His photographs of other men are at once loving and honest and brimming with sexual desire and lust. Most of his subjects look directly at the camera, aware that they are being observed and presenting themselves for that purpose.

The consistent theme throughout Fredrickson’s images is the longing for and sometimes the event of human connection, either by sexual interaction or through the act of photographing and being photographed. He makes himself vulnerable and in turn other men reveal themselves for his camera and the viewer’s gaze.

Fredrickson’s work is at once shocking and familiar. While playing in the arena of sexuality he explores human instincts of attraction and danger, the thrill of risky behavior in the realm of bondage, S/M, exhibitionism, and role-play.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art, 526 West 26th St, Suite 9C, bet 10th & 11th Aves, NYC, 212-255-8158, through February 23