Extraordinary men do extraordinary things; some of them create beauty where there was none. Terry J Cyr creates images … images of men, images that foster the beauty of the male form that will live on well beyond the the artist’s lifetime. Terry’s tools-of-the-trade: a camera of course, but that’s perhaps the least on the list. There is his mastery of light, a skill way beyond the average photographer that is so critical to the final result. There is his imagination, which reminds us the male form is one of Mother Nature’s finest endeavors. But the most important tool of all in Terry’s arsenal is his sensitivity … his love of life, his vision, all of which are pleasantly evident in his body of work.

In Terry’s own words:

This article gives you only a glimpse of this remarkable man, his work, his thoughts and his life’s experiences. For more see Terry’s two websites:

The Naked Man Project and Cyr Photo Blogspot

Prints are available at both locations.

One man’s exploration in finding himself and his search for light, beauty, desire and art.

by Terry L Cyr

I recently turned my creative eye to the nude male form and began a personal exploration of what it stirred within myself as an aging gay man and the impact it had on my life. The Naked Man Project is a twelve-month endeavor to expose that raw, sensual, and often sexual side of naked men. Not just a study on homoerotic art, it involves beautiful men of all kinds, often featuring straight men exposed as reflections of themselves in artistic nudes. Though the writing [accompanying the images] becomes a meditation on sexuality and desire and how it’s revealed in gay art, the images strive to defy boundaries of erotic photography and reveal what we face at the core of ourselves when we are naked, exposed and at our most vulnerable. The two become a personal history of my life. my dreams and aspirations, friendships, inspiration; a delving into my own gay sexuality that is a journey of discovery and illumination as a gay artist. It is an in-depth look into the heart and soul of my artistic expression, drawing from my background in theater lighting design and a life-long fascination with art. My images are inspired by the classic works of Caravaggio, Mapplethorpe and Fred Holland Day.

“I often wonder how many people create works in a vacuum that nobody sees. How many people feel unworthy of the creative process? How many people never begin the dream because it seems impossible? How many people live lives stuck, without a means of expression? Stuck in a job? Stuck in a relationship? Stuck in their own limitations?”

“My advice now is: don’t be so judgmental of yourself, create the dream, name it, and follow it. Somehow empower yourself with what you do. I have made a lot of mistakes and created lots of truly bad images, but it is the process of growing so allow yourself to fail. Allow that dream to extend beyond what you know and expand the vision to a limitless possibility. Go for it; don’t wait until you become a middle-aged man to realize your potential. But most important believe in it and work toward it every single day.”

“I have barely been out of the studio for almost a year now and there is a part of myself that feels it has stagnated. I know for sure I have lived far too much in my head and not enough in my physical self and my body is now screaming out for some physical activity. The possibilities of making money with all this doesn’t seem to occupy my thoughts as much anymore, but the focus now seems to be on doing what feels right and creating a sense of collaboration and sharing quality ideals. This is where I actually began the process and it’s where I need continue the process. I feel the overall integrity will outshine anything else and perhaps this is what will endure long beyond myself.”

“I know I still have self-doubt about my own self-image but recently I have begun looking at myself differently in the mirror. I am seeing something I had not recognized before, a different version of myself, this time not middle-aged, with wrinkles, who has gained a little weight, but now with a vibrant vitality. It’s almost like the winkles have almost erased themselves, as all the things that I saw as negative now seem comforting.”

“It is now 5 years since I was diagnosed with Lymphoma and I have survived. In a sense it has made me more aware of my on mortality in those 5 years I have accomplished more then the rest of my years combined driven I believe mostly by fear and doubt. In a sense this year has really been about stability and pushing beyond all conceivable boundaries. I have felt more of a vitality this year then I have felt in the past 49 years I have lived. So why does it take us so long to actually find out who we are and now at that point of accomplishment and discovery am I opening new possibilities to feed that anxiety.”

“I wrote [on my blog] about a young boy who killed himself because he could not find acceptance and my heart aches deeply as I morn not only the loss of a kid not able to live a miraculous existence, but the ignorance with others that fed his doubt. I still see the internalized homophobia within our own communities that becomes judgmental, condescending, and harmful. I think THIS IS perhaps is the real limitation from us feeling what’s in our hearts and recognizing our potential. Perhaps this is my gift as a photographer because I am willing to look beyond the difference with compassion and empathy and search for that truth within myself and my subjects and the culture that surrounds me. After all, we are not made of stone.”

“I remember saying we are all different and express who we are in different ways. I embrace this difference and it’s what I love about being gay. Living in Montana we experience the extreme. We have fabulous drag queens, who are wickedly funny and rather amusing, and we have many a gay cowboys. I photograph both! I love both and see the best of myself in either direction of that spectrum. In fact have seen cowboys swap their heels of a boot to a pump and transform themselves within an hour or so from one to the other. These are the ones I admire the most. I have often thought about putting together a show about Cowboys and Drag Queens, the backstage life of a rodeo or a drag show. There are so many similarities as they are not that far apart as they are perceived.”

“I have often pondered how a young ranch kid like myself was so drawn to work in arts and entertainment. Last night that connection became clear watching [the movie] Red River, the magic, the beauty, the sexual allure of the American west, my west, stirred my emotions , presented in the flicker of a film and watching Montgomery Cliff enter my universe. I identified with a feeling where anything was possible and knew it was a place I could coexist and where I would be understood and accepted for my difference. Where the tormented soul can reveal itself and become the basis of artistic expression.”

“Why is it as a gay culture we are just naturally conditioned to reject football and pass it off as a brutal collision of masculinity? It seems ironic that the very archetypes of athletes, which many gay men oppose, become the object of their deepest desire. Yet we are more drawn to the arts of theater and dance. I recently watched the episode from the television series Glee, first season, episode 4, where these two worlds collide into one of the funniest moments I have ever seen. Kurt the “out” gay member of the cast joins the football team to become their kicker. But the only way he can kick is to the Beyoncé Knowles’ song “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” in which he prances and dances across the field to kick a perfect field goal. Somehow the rest of the football team must enroll in dance classes to help improve their performance on the field and in the finally moment, when the team is down all have to dance to “Put a Ring on It” at the line of scrimmage to psych the other team out. I about rolled on the floor with laughter seeing these two unseeingly non interchangeable world’s of football and musical theater collide into a brilliant, hysterical moment of harmony. To me this is the perfection I seek in the world where there are no barriers and only see there is grace and beauty in both.”

“I’ve had many great loves in my life, most of them ending so badly that I learned to put up a protective barrier around myself in which I could contain my emotions. It doesn’t mean that I gave up on loving it just become more cautious with it. I am a person who leaps with all of his might and I still believe in the magical power of romance. I have always believed in loving hard and when it was over recognize the differences and move on.”

“[When I was younger] I fell in love with a fraternity boy who was a student from North Dakota. This was sensational and this time I utterly fell head over heels. Neither of us had a place to go so we had to find public places to engage each other so Missoula and it’s surrounding mountains become a dreamy paradise. When school ended for the semester he returned to North Dakota to work for the summer on a construction job. We wrote and called each other every day making plans to actually move in together when he returned in the fall for school. Then three weeks before he was supposed to return, I called one night and his mother told me he had been killed in an accident on the site where he worked, crushed by a bulldozer blade. My body and mind went numb for months afterwards. I thought I would never recover that feeling.”

 See more or buy a print at Terry’s website.

Subscribe to Enlightened Male2000 by Email

To leave a comment, click the symbol in the upper right hand corner

Related posts:

1. Philip Gladstone’s Extraordinary Art
2. Tuomo Railo, Choreographer and Artist
3. Jim Ferringer, Digital Artist Extraordinaire