Sensitif sat down with Fred Goudon to talk about his new book and they were kind enough to share the interview with Charmants.com, along with more pictures excerpted from Virility — the first batch with models Erwan, Marc, Antoine and Sylvain is there.

When did you shoot the 180 pages of Virility?
Most of the pictures were taken in early 2007, while I was on a trip around the world, and later that year, during a two-month summer tour in the south of France, with a dozen stops between Biarritz and Cannes.

Can you tell us about the two photos in this collection that matter most to you?
One touches me deeper than the others, the one with Baptiste, I can’t really explain why; all I know is that it definitely moves me. And there’s the one with Gilles [Marini] under the shower. In December 2008, when he learned that he’d get to play the shower scene in Sex and The City, he asked me to take a few pictures so that he’d feel more comfortable with the situation. We did a session at Hotel 3.14 in Cannes, and took a lot of pictures — that was kind of a rehearsal. Later, Gilles told me that when he filmed that famous scene naked under the shower in front of all the crew, he somehow recreated our session in his mind, and it actually helped him!

Some photos were taken in unexpected settings.
While I was touring the south of France, I went to meet the models, in their home. Every time, it was a surprise for me to discover them in their environment. I wanted to photograph them in a way that was both intimate and natural, in their context, drinking coffee in the morning or coming out of the bathroom. I very much wanted this candid approach.

Have you ever told a model that he was not virile enough?
Yes! (laughs) I must say that the metrosexual style, the plucked eyebrows and the waxed bodies can hamper the creation of an image, they just don’t look natural. I like them masculine; Virility is not a random title. But you have to take people as they are, and what matters is the final result on the picture.

What’s the typical workday of Fred Goudon?
[Fred starts to imitate French singer Claude François] “I get up, and I bump into you…” (laughs) Lots of emails, meetings with the models, networking, lots of pictures.

When you don’t work, where do you like to hang out?
It’s quite simple, I like the small restaurants in the Abbesses neighborhood, the occasional shows, and the pub crawls on rugby nights.

[All pictures excerpted from Virility published by Bruno Gmünder - copyright ©2008 Fred Goudon all rights reserved - no material herein may be reproduced in any form by any means without the express written consent of Fred Goudon.]

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Virility - Bruno Gmünder
Fred Goudon photography