“In Rennt’s photography, the body becomes an abstraction of itself in its extremity. It’s without delay gendered and genderless, dominant and submissive, aroused and inert. We, the viewers, are held captive on this balancing act,” Maia Kenney writes in her foreword to Corporeal, Spyros Rennt’s latest, self-published book. On this publication, the Athens-born, Berlin-based photographer explores queer desire through moments of joy, intimacy and excess.

Following the discharge of One other Excess (2018) and Last Give up (2020), Rennt’s third monograph takes his insider’s view of the LGBTQ+ community into recent territory. If his previous books testified to his uncompromisingly raw, unstaged approach to image-making, Corporeal holds up a mirror to the evolution of Rennt’s creative practice by bringing together a series of images characterised by a more refined approach.

Here, the body takes centre stage. Whether documented against the breathtaking natural fantastic thing about Rennt’s native Greece or within the sweat-drenched underground nightclubs recurring throughout his photographic work, a “corporeal” energy pervades each page.

“The primary image that involves mind after I close my eyes and consider Corporeal is definitely the one on its cover,” Rennt tells Dazed in an intensive conversation over email. “The names I give to my projects – especially to my monographs – are quite essential to me. And, on this case, the inspiration got here from experimental, electronic British band Broadcast – one in all my all-time favourites – and their 2005 track ‘Corporeal’, so the melody of the song all the time plays in my head every time I look at the pictures on this book.” Sung by Trish Keenan, the lyrics of the track hint at our humanity in addition to the more animalistic sides of our nature; an concept that sits at the center of Rennt’s deeply instinctual photography.

Other than just a few exceptions dating from pre-Covid times, the pictures mostly span from the beginning of 2020 until the current day, capturing different sides to the queer experience. “Queer people set themselves other than the mainstream precisely for the way in which during which we approach self-expression and defy the norms surrounding appearance and sexual behaviour,” Rennt says. “Documenting these patterns comes naturally to me because I’m an energetic a part of the scenes I immortalise, yet my goal is to present these instances to the outer world, contributing to the visibility of the community in my very own personal way.”

Nevertheless he’s photographing them, Rennt’s subjects are, at the start, his safety net, his closest friends. “Corporeal may be very much an autobiographical book,” he says. “It’s a visible diary detailing the highlights of those past three years: the various moments of joy, the brand new faces that entered my life, the nights out and excesses, the quiet moments with my partner.”

Out of the 150 photographs featured within the book, three are especially significant for the photographer. “There’s this image of a very messy kitchen table from the primary house party I went to in the summertime of 2020, when Covid restrictions had just begun to loosen up but clubs were still shut down; I carry a lot of lovely memories from that day, including the undeniable fact that I met my partner at that party – definitely a case of ‘finding love in a hopeless place,’” Rennt says. The 2 other images he is especially attached to face for warmth, community and connection. “The primary one is a photograph I shot of my friends Thanos and Aimilios swimming within the Amorgos sublime, gorgeous waters, while the second is a flashed-out picture of my friends Elliott and Antigone on a dark, Athenian balcony looking like Nineteen Eighties goth icons.”

Speaking concerning the vision behind his recent monograph, the Berlin-based image-maker explains that every one that mattered to him was that queer people could see themselves and their lives reflected in his photographs. “There’s a certain universality to the queer experience today,” he says. “Intimacy, sexual thirst and excess are consumed in similar ways across all continents, and I wish to think that’s the explanation why my work resonates with people the way in which it does.”

Corporeal by Spyros Rennt is self-published and is out now.

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