Elska Magazine Gets Up Close and Personal With Toronto’s LGBTQ Community

Elska magazine, my publication dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of everyday men from LGBTQ communities around the world, today introduces its latest release — Elska Toronto — where it puts the spotlight on Canada’s biggest city.

Toronto is a city famed for its multiculturalism, which makes it the perfect city for Elska, a project known for its diversity. Inside the issue readers can get to know a dozen ordinary local gay, bi, queer and trans men, presented through an intimate and honest brand of photography.

Each of them were shot in their homes and in their city’s streets, a geography with a huge mix of architecture as diverse as its population. Some of the iconic sights make cameos in the photos capturing these men, like the iconic skyline and the CN tower, plus some fun and frivolous signs of Canadiana like Tim Hortons doughnut shops and even one guy photographed in a T-shirt revealing Justin Trudeau riding a moose while fully exposed down below. It’s an image that is reason enough
to get your hands on this issue!

I originally shot this Toronto issue in late 2016, and all copies soon went out of print, but earlier this year we asked our readers to choose one past edition to bring back, and Toronto was the winner. I was really excited to see Toronto win, in part because we’d been trying repeatedly to make a second issue in Canada, but the pandemic and the consequential travel restrictions kept forcing us to cancel.

I was also excited to see Toronto come back because I don’t feel that the issue got enough attention the first time. When we first released it I thought of it like an exemplar Elska, with the perfect blend of bold photography, thoughtful storytelling and diversity. But perhaps people didn’t find the idea of Canada exciting enough, and sales were low. But the fact that Toronto won our vote suggests that interest has at last arrived and that maybe people are ready to give Toronto the attention it deserves as a great and compelling city.”

Inside Elska Toronto readers will meet 12 Toronto locals. Each gets their own chapter, full of photos and a personal story that enables readers to get to know them at an even more intimate level.

Some of the stories in Elska Toronto include:

– Richard W’s recollection of plucking up the courage to walk naked at a Toronto Pride march

– Tate S’s piece on those little micro-moments of recognition that affirmed his gender

– Milan C’s touching tale of losing a keepsake that was meaningful to him but seemed so meaningless to others

– Daniel C’s internal monologue over which one of his two great loves he’d want to invite back into his life if he could

– Adam Z’s text that contemplates how the person others see in him differs from the person he see inside of himself.

Elska Toronto is 180 pages and is available in a classic print ‘bookazine’ or in a downloadable e-version. Also available is a companion e-zine called Elska Ekstra Toronto, which contains over 350 pages of bonus content, including outtakes, behind-the-scenes tales and an additional five guys who there weren’t enough pages for in the main mag.

Elska Toronto is available from select shops around the world as well as from the Elska website,
where you can also find details of the subscription service.