‘Someone once told me muscle is just another form of drag’: Photographer Charles Moriarty’s most striking portraits, celebrating masculinity and more
“Robert Mappelthorpe, Irving Penn, Peter Hujar, Marcus Leatherdale – these are some of my teachers," Moriarty tells Attitude Uncut in a new interview
Since shooting the cover for Amy Winehouse’s 2003 LP Frank, Charles has won acclaim for his striking portraits of men, including his 2025 monograph of actor-bodybuilder Brock Yurich, BROCK. Here, Uncut takes a look at his hottest work – from a photograph called Cumface to a nude portrait of The Traitors’ Matty Hyndman
“I still have my copy of Taschen’s The Male Nude, which I got for £15 as a teen! It was my introduction to what male nude photography could be.
“I spent my youth in the back of bookshops in Ireland hunting down photos like the ones below. I was trying to find my people, whilst admittedly probably also being a horny gay teenager.
“Robert Mappelthorpe was shall we say, enlightening. I like to hope through my own work and photography books I’m able to maybe give a vision of our community to a new generation.
“Mappelthorpe, Irving Penn, Peter Hujar, Marcus Leatherdale – these are some of my teachers. Great photographers of the 20th century. I actually got to do a book with Marcus before he died in 2022.
“I got into photography by stealing my dad’s Olympus OM-2. He wasn’t using it! I’d take photos of friends and events at school and use the darkroom – no pun intended – to figure out how to develop.
“I came to London at 18 to study art history and English at Goldsmiths, got an understanding of composition, colour and light. I was a pretty shy guy at the time. When I say that now, people say: ‘Whatever!’”
“The camera was an instrument I used to connect with people at house parties. I kind of became known for having it round my neck. One day, I got a call from a friend, Tyler James, who’d gone to school with Amy Winehouse. ‘Hey! Would you mind taking some pictures of a friend?’ ‘Yeah, of course.’ I didn’t think much of it.
“Amy came to mine; we shot a roll of film… That’s where it all kicked off, really. It sparked joy inside me and I ran with the madness.
“Most of the time, I had no fucking clue what I was doing. But that was part of the excitement. I did little bits for Island Records. A couple managers liked my vibe, how I interacted with the artists themselves. Half of them I was friends with – we’d all go partying and to gigs!
“I was so young. I was just part of this group of young people trying to create. It’s that wonderful time when every path is still an option, and life is pretty glorious.”
To read this interview in full, check out Attitude Uncut: The Heat Issue on Apple News+ and the Attitude app.
You can catch a public, outdoor exhibition of Charles’s photos of Amy at Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross in London from September-October 2026