Safe Sex Great Sex

Desire does not retreat. Despite the fear, political infighting, finger-pointing and ignorance that mark the second decade of an AIDS epidemic, our bodies are still here: Skin is eager for intimacy, lips yearn for contact. We feel the way people have always felt, wishing for the same sexual fulfillment and for passion to transform our days with magic, even as we work through a dilemma that is unique to our times.

Our society worships bodies. We are obsessive about sex. But right now, ignorance of AIDS is an invitation to death. In the face of it all, intimacy must continue. The immediate solution? Education mixed with a heady dose of imagination. If you can imagine hot sex, then you can imagine--and have--hot safe sex.

Into the continuum that links imagination and education comes Michel Comte, a Swiss-born photographer who is a household name in both haute couture and art galleries. He seeks to cut through the rhetoric about safe sex and to raise our awareness--both of the consequences of our acts and of the glorious possibilities--through the photographs that you see on these pages.

"I have lost a lot of friends to AIDS," says Comte, a friendly, soft-spoken man whose face is worn from shooting more than 200 days on this project since 1992. "It's a hard thing to talk about. But with all the things that are not being done about AIDS worldwide, I thought it would be important to start reaching people with a project that goes a little farther than just next door."

Playboy sparked Comte's photographic work by offering a donation to the the American Foundation for AIDS Research--a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency that channels charitable donations to research projects all over the U.S.--in exchange for a first look at the photo essay.

"I've been thinking about this project for a long time," says Comte. "Playboy is an ideal place to launch it because it's a magazine about sex that is presentable in everybody's living room, Playboy was a good partner to start this with."

This was precisely the working arrangement Comte had sought, and he has since duplicated it in other ways. He donates his time to create intimate portraits that comment on safe sex. The photos are then auctioned, sold, featured in magazines or put on exhibit--all in return for donations to AIDS foundations, pediatric AIDS programs and hospices worldwide.

Many of those who worked on the project with Comte point out that this is more than a feel-good exercise, more than a chance to raise awareness, more than art. People with AIDS and those who have tested positive for HIV need hands-on care, and the entire global community is searching for a cure. Both of these things will take money, and Comte's project is designed to put resources directly into the hands of scientists and doctors, so they won't have to waste precious time screaming at deaf bureaucracies.

"The most important thing right now is to support AIDS research," says Brazilian actress Sonia Braga, best known for her star turn in the movie Kiss of the Spider Woman. She was an eager enlistee for Comte's cause. "I hope the scientists know we totally depend on them and support them. They are so focused, they must be in the labs 24 hours a day. I wish there were a scientist whose neck I could rub once in a while.

"Since I'm not a scientist," the actress continues, "all I can do is help raise money and raise consciousness, to make sure that the politicians become involved. Everyone should be participating in this cause as a part of day-today life, because it affects men, women and children. We all want to make love, we want to feel good, and we all want to help our friends, so AIDS is a big threat."

What started as a shoot for Playboy has blossomed into a project almost bigger than Comte can grasp. Once word got out, people were enthusiastic about getting involved. To date, he has photographed more than 190 men and women, about half of them celebrities. The rest were found through friends or through chance encounters or were recruited from schools and even gangs from East L.A.

The model Jenny Shimizu, whose career was launched through her participation in Comte's project, was one such recruit. "The minute I walked into his studio, it was just spontaneous. Within five minutes, we started shooting. He made me feel very comfortable in all of the pictures. It was the first roll of film I had ever posed for."

Asked what she hopes to achieve through the project, she says: "I hope to change people's perceptions about AIDS. The disease is horrible, and it is ravaging physical human bodies. But at the same time, we need to remember that there are so many people who care about what's going on, who are striving to help find the cure. Once people see all the others who are involved, then they are all going to jump on the bandwagon."

"I've tried not to make it a campaign about death," says Comte. "I've tried to make it positive. It encourages people to have sex and to be safe. Some of the pictures are very hard-core."

The result has been a contemporary portrait of the sexual reaction to AIDS and an overwhelming affirmation of deeper and more satisfying sex.

"Life is still rich, and sex should be abundant and sensitive," says Jeff Koons, a painter and sculptor who worked for several weeks on portraits with Comte. "It is important that people don't feel that practicing safe sex restricts pleasure."

No one needs to convince actress and comedian Sandra Bernhard that this is the case. "I actually have always equated eroticism with condoms," she says. "I had three older brothers and they always had them hidden in their desk drawers. I doubt they used them very much, but they had them. So there was something very erotic about rubbers. I don't find it a turnoff. In a way, it eroticizes sex for me. I think condoms are sexy."

"I ask people what they think about safe sex, and about sex," says Comte. "I offer my ideas, if I know the people. Everybody has his or her own fantasy about the pictures we should do."

This safe-sex project will be hard to miss in 1994. Comte plans to issue two books of the photos and to host "big events" in major cities in the U.S. and Europe, at which photos will be auctioned. Tina Turner and Boy George, among other notables, are doing music to support the effort, and designers are fashioning clothes. The potential millions in proceeds will help pay for the fight against AIDS. The entire project is being filmed, and four TV spots have been produced. The photographs will also be shown in a series of exhibitions in Europe.

"I am going to Havana to photograph people," Comte says. "Then I'll go to Brazil. I'm not going to stop. I'm going to continue for the next couple years full-time. All for safe sex."

Desire does not retreat, and neither, yet, has the virus. Still, there is a way out: through research, through safe sex, through imagination unbound. And that's what Michel Comte's project is all about. --Dean Kuipers

"Everybody has his or her own fantasy about the pictures we should do."--Michel Comte

"The most important thing is to support AIDS research. I wish there were a scientist whose neck I could rub once in a while."--Sonia Braga

"There's nothing I enjoy more than buying condoms"--Sandra Bernhard

"Love yourself first, the rest will follow." --Mimi Rogers

"If you practice safe sex, you can have great sex and enjoy life."--Jenny Shimizu

"I'am going to continue for the next couple years full-time. All for safe sex."--Michel Comte