14 Photos of Friendly Guys in Stockholm by Elska Magazine

Elska Magazine, the gay photography and culture project that travels around the world meeting everyday men from diverse LGBTQ communities, releases its latest issue. This time they headed to Stockholm, Sweden where readers are invited to get to know the city and some of its gay residents through honest photography and personal storytelling.

Stockholm is an incredibly beautiful city, set on a series of islands and full of grand old buildings, cute bridges and, pretty streets. Each of the men who participated were photographed both out in the wintry landscape of the city and in their homes, giving a selection of some of the coolest outdoor photography and cosiest indoor photography ever published in Elska. It's also one of the most surprising issues, revealing the notoriously shy and reserved Swedes in a most intimate way.

"Stockholm is our third issue set in the Nordic region (following our top-selling issue to date, Elska Reykjavik) and there are definitely some similarities" says Elska editor and chief photographer Liam Campbell. "It's not just about the men having a certain Scandinavian look but also about similarities in their attitudes, which are revealed in stories that are sometimes tentative or even maudlin. Perhaps this was due to the fact that we met during the cold and dark winter, which affected the aesthetics of the images as well as the attitudes of the participants, who required more time than usual to get comfortable with the camera. It meant that shooting this issue involved a fair bit of drinking coffee, chatting, and relaxing together. But rather than feeling like a burden, the result is that I feel like I got to know these guys more than participants in many of our previous issues, and hopefully this will be part to the reader experience as well."

Elska Stockholm is 200 pages. It the first in the publication's new format which includes a larger size, more pages, more luxe paper, and a more spacious and artful design. It is available in a classic collectible print version or in a downloadable e-version. A companion zine called Elska Ekstra Stockholm which contains outtakes and behind the scenes tales is also available. A list of stockists and details of how to order online can be found on the Elska website.