Photographer from Santa Catarina portrays the sensuality of a person with disabilities

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When you think of a male nude site, a common beauty to this type of publication probably comes to mind: healed and sculpted bodies in a gym. But if you were asked if a person with a disability would have space on a website like this, what would go through your mind?

That’s what happened weeks ago on the Foto de Homem website. The Santa Catarina photographer Eberson Theodoro, 36, published a frontal nu essay with his friend Henrique Mota, 30, made in São Paulo.

For the photographer, having a essay with PCD (disabled person) was the fulfillment of a great desire. “Photographing a person within a standard of beauty is not necessarily difficult, because before being a photographer I am a human being, who also grew up receiving this type of influence from society. The challenge really occurs when you have someone outside this standard in front of your lens and can show that everyone has their beauty”, explains Eberson. According to him, that’s what happened to Henry. “I simply loved the result of the photos, I proved to myself that there is beauty even where people are used to seeing only one disability” he ponders.

An incident that changed his life

Henry took a while to find out, but he had neurofibromatosis and scoliosis is one of the causes of this disease, which is rare. And it was at the age of seven, on a crash cart at an amusement park that his spine bent irreversibly.

His childhood has since been traumatizing, being bullied constantly at school. In adolescence, a phase in which we are all affected by crises of insecurity with our own bodies, for him, this situation was certainly much more intense. “They locked me in the bathroom and beat me, cut my hair, tore up all my books and notebooks, threw me in the trash can”, he recalls.

Being gay and a person with disability

And yet at this stage, with the hormones thrilling and the first loves, Henry felt helpless in the face of everything. “The phase where I never had a kiss, while seeing all my colleagues having their first loves! It’s as if I have no right to be interested in someone and to be reciprocated”, he laments.

The way out was to fend himself. If he was beaten, he learned to hit. If they called him names, he would learn to call them names, too. This whole series of violence was undermining his strength, to the point of wanting to give up everything, including his own life.

Ten years later, with the death of his mother, Henry went to live in a republic in São Paulo. He began to going to the nightlife of São Paulo and, even aware of the attacks he could receive for his appearance, he managed to loosen up, make friends and even become famous in the clubs he frequented.

In the dark of dawn, Henrique recalls that he would take the first one who appeared and gave him some attention. “I couldn’t choose, because I knew that for me it would be almost impossible to arouse attraction in someone”.

His dream is to become a photographer and portray other people with disabilities. Why? By the simple fact that, feeling prejudice in his skin, he knows that giving other people the opportunity to love and accept each other as they are is a matter of survival.

I invite you to look at all the photos with a welcoming look. In this way, you will be able to find beauty in bodies that we are not used to seeing, especially on this site.
Hugs to everyone!!!

Text and photos: Eberson Theodoro

Webite: www.fotodehomem.com/henrique
Instagram: www.instagram.com/fotodehomem1
Twitter: www.twitter.com/fotodehomem