Love and sex

Photographer Andrea Blanch asks Italian men to sit still, then asks them the hard questions.

By Karen Croft

Oct 12, 2001 | Fashion photographer Andrea Blanch gave herself a very difficult assignment a few years ago: Go to Italy, find gorgeous men, photograph them and interview them about love and sex.

The results of her arduous task are in the book "Italian Men: Love & Sex." In it, she asks some famous men -- from designer Giorgio Armani to director Franco Zeffirelli -- impudent questions such as "Do you consider youself a generous lover?" and "Do you consider your sexual endowment to be small, medium or large?" and "How many times have you been in love?"

The answers are candid, egotistical, charming, sometimes humorous and often poetic. Count Roffredo Gaetani d'Aragona Lovatelli (described as "Ferrari dealer/former boxer") says to Blanch about the importance of love: "Like Dante used to say, it is love that moves art ... Love moves everything, moves stars, moves the moon, moves the earth." Then he adds, "If a woman loves you it means you did something good, so if many women love you it means you did a lot of good."

Salon talked to Blanch by phone at her home in New York.

What was the genesis of this book?

I watched a Passolini documentary where he, in the 1960s, went around interviewing Italians and was sanctioned by the church for his films. I think it was called "Love Meetings." He talked to Moravia, and church men, so that was an inspiration. Plus, I wanted to be over there. I thought it was time to do a book. Plus, I love men.

It took about five years, with some time off, between 1992 and 1997. I moved to Paris for a couple of years and then moved to Rome to finish the book. I couldn't find a publisher at first so I gave up. Then I read in the International Herald Tribune that a Swiss sociologist did a study on the most erotic men in Europe and she concluded that the Italian men were. I thought, I'm on the right track here. So I went to Rizzoli and they said yes.

You say in your introduction to the book that every photo you take, of a man or a woman, contains an erotic connection. Do you think that's true of all photography or just when fashion or beauty or sex is the subject?

I think it's true of every photo. My best photos have that connection. Even when I'm taking a still life. It touches something. You feel it in your gut, it's very visceral. I know that it's a good photo when I feel that.

You also write that the interviews were more fascinating than the photo sessions. Can you explain that?

That's because I'd never done an interview before. I have always been a curious person, and this was an outlet for my curiosity -- which I wouldn't have been able to do with just the photographs. About 98 percent went easily. The ones that weren't ready to talk didn't make the book -- mostly politicians, industrialists, [cinematographer] Vittorio Storaro was difficult. I didn't usually tell them the name of the book. I just said it was about Italian men. I interviewed over 100 men and most were very cooperative. One of the reasons they're so great is they're so narcissistic!

Next Page: When they're seducing you, they are totally present

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