25 Wallpaper Saints by Frank Mullaney

Pictured: Brian With Beard

"Wallpaper Saints" was inspired by my memory of the Holy Prayer cards that I collected during my Irish Catholic youth. As an altar boy, I used them to pray against the dawning awareness of my homosexuality. Yet the homoeroticism of many of the religious images only exacerbated my confusion, causing me to careen from shame to lust and back again. With this project, I'm photographing gay and trans men and women, as each is seemingly lost in a moment of transcendence. I'm working to reject the self-shaming associations I had with these religious images while simultaneously acknowledging their erotic charge. While each subject has a uniquely different background, chosen specifically for each person, the repetitive use of nudity puts everyone on equal footing, alone, vulnerable, and unprotected." -- Frank Mullaney

Frank Mullaney grew up outside Boston and moved to New York City the same week that Elvis died, and the Son of Sam was caught. His aesthetic he learned from watching Hammer horror films. The rest he learned at International Center for Photography. His work has been exhibited in New York City, Provincetown, Ft. Collins, CO, Los Angeles and the Catskills. He divides his time between Manhattan and Livingston Manor, NY.

See more on Frank's web site, Instagram, or email him directly.