Human Nature
Flowers and furry men, for Canadian photographer Bill Pusztai, that’s what it’s all about
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Name: Bill Pusztai
Age: 60
Location: Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Day job: Photographer
Degrees/education:
4-year Graphic Design degree (Typography and Publication), OCAD University
Art medium/media: Photography
Primary subjects: People (mostly Queer-identified), plants, and places
Exhibitions: upcoming Louisville Photography Biennial
(see: billpusztai.com/david)
Bluesky: @3dbill.bsky.social
www.billpusztai.com
Photo by Lionsbalm Studio
Vancouver photographer Bill Pusztai has developed an open and minimalist way of capturing his gay male nude photo portraits.
You might say Bill Pusztai has seen some things. The photographer, now in Vancouver, Canada, was born and raised in Hamilton, a port city on the southern tip of Lake Ontario, and lived in Toronto for 30 years. He came of age during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, during which he worked for a nursing agency in a palliative care role. More recently, he’s worked with a friend, David, who was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer; their collaborative project will be featured at the Garner Narrative Gallery as part of the 2025 Louisville Photo Biennial in Kentucky this fall.
Whether his subject is a majestic mountain landscape or a man licking whipped cream off a black boot, Bill keeps the focus on his subjects in an expert fashion that both reveals the character behind the camera and invites us to see each subject as a sacred part of creation.
When did you first start messing around with art?
When I was very very young, my mother’s co-worker gave me a box of oil pastels. 50 colors! I was so excited. It took about a week to use them up. My mother was unenthused about my recolouring of the radiators.
How did you get into photography and what drew you to it?
I did my graphic design degree as a second career after I burned out on my first. I graduated just in time for the market to completely collapse, so I ended up doing small projects like newsletters and brochures. My clients couldn’t afford a photographer, so I started doing it for them as part of the project (early days of digital) and discovered I really loved the photography. My friends and family got together and bought me my first camera as a graduation present: a Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot. Tough as nails — it still works perfectly, more than 20 years later!
How has being a part of the LGBTQ+ community influenced you and your art?
When I started doing portraiture I concentrated on the community I knew and felt part of: bearish/leatherish. “Be the porn you want to see” was my pitch to models at the time. I felt like I was part of the project to bring a diversity of physical types into the public (spank)bank of images. With the advent of phone cameras that came to feel less urgent, but I still think there’s work to be done. Nowadays it’s more, “Hey look who/what I saw!”
Where do you usually draw inspiration?
My subjects are inspiring. My job is to communicate what I perceive about people — often after only a brief conversation, during a very short window of time. That’s plenty interesting. As for influences, there are so many: Yusuf Karsh, Endre Kertész, Karl Blossfeldt, Imogen Cunningham, May Ray, 1970s porn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Laurie Anderson ... but I like me a classical reference from time to time, too.
What do you hope viewers take away from your nude photography?
A sense of the person in the photos, which is different from commercial porn, which tends to try and fit the subject to an existing ideal or archetype or story. There’s plenty of overlap though, of course.
How do you find the right poses and connections with your subjects?
Poses: “borrow” from the best — classical art is a real treasure trove. But people also bring their own natural rhythms and gestures, and it helps a lot to work with that instead of trying to impose.
You also capture some REALLY spectacular flower and landscape photography. What drew you to those subjects? Are there any similarities with your nude figures?
Well it’s the same set of visual tools. New artists often worry about establishing a signature style for themselves, and it turns out to not be an issue. You can’t not be yourself for long, it just takes too much energy. I’ve worked with plants since a very young age, and I’m interested in botany and ethno-botany, so that’s another opportunity for “Hey look what I saw!” And landscape or architecture photography helps me actually see what I’m looking at in the moment; I’m very nearsighted IRL.
What camera and equipment do you use?
Nikon, but I’m not a zealot. If someone drops a pile of money on me someday (ow!) I’d like to try Hasselblad. In studio I try for absolutely minimal gear, ideally using the natural light from the windows in the studio, or using the white walls as a bounce flash. Apart from it being cheaper for me, I think it’s less intimidating for people. I use plain backdrops and minimal props/gear most of the time — the minimum needed to communicate an idea or put a model in the right frame of mind.
What is your favorite work you’ve created?
That’s always going to be “the most recent one.” I gather this is pretty common with artists.
What advice would you offer to other artists out there?
1. Your work is important, keep doing it. There are so many voices out there giving you shit about it. They’re wrong.
2. Hire an accountant.
Looking for more queer male nude art?
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