The Edge of Desire

"What strikes one first about Howard Roffman's images is their sheer transparency. The eroticism of his subjects, his men, seems to speak to the viewer directly, without the intervention of the photographer."

"Moreover, to say that Roffman is not trying to "sell" one particular segment of the gay community does not mean that his work is not identified with one particular type of man. There are no "bears" here, no beards, not even a mustache; no one has shoulder legnth hair, nor with a Marine "white sidewall". His men are young, smooth, convincingly natural and average. They are not the denizens of gyms, mounments posed in monumental spaces, but found on streets, in gardens, in the countryside. They have been chosen not because of what they should be, but because of who they are, not because they conform to some standard, but because their eroticism appealed to Roffman's own eros."