I entered at 8th and Folsom, taking off my shirt and tucking it into my back-right jeans pocket. Yes: If you know, you know.
I replaced it with my camera harness — which is leather and kinky — and slid my purple-and-black neoprene puppy hood over my head, covering my glasses-clad face. Now no one would know who I was and I could walk the streets relatively calmly. I’m a bigger person and insecure as I am, I never remove my shirt in public.
On a sunny day at the perfect temperature, I walked shirtless and pup-hooded down Folsom, taking in the sights of the kink and BDSM festival, “Up Your Alley.” Countless shirtless people, fit to fat, flat-chested to breast-baring, walked down the street, many exposing their rears wearing jockstraps and thongs. Many were outright naked, letting everything hang out for all to see.
And all looked.
A large group saw my camera and asked me to take a photo. I asked consent to run my hand along the furry chest of a member of the group. “Sure. It’s payment for taking the photo,” he said with a smile.
I continued down the street: Couples were having oral and anal sex, and then I met a very cute man donning a massive hat, a purple cape and leather harness, legstraps and jock. I asked to take his photo and he posed, whipping his cape out in front of him. And then we made out, kissing for all to see, before going our separate ways. I kept walking.
Immediately I saw a group gathered around a few naked men, including a couple holding hands, and a few artists on the ground below them drawing their penises. One artist even wore a shirt that read “I will draw ur dick for free.”
As I photographed the wild sex in the streets and the BDSM taking place in a fenced-off area, I searched for non-sexual intimacy. Many men lack intimacy in their lives and only look for it through sex, as Trevor Noah aptly said in a Between the Scenes segment when he hosted The Daily Show.
I’ve tried to search for it and have mainly found that gay men follow the suit of straight men and near-solely find their intimacy in sex.
But then I passed by a tented, fenced-off pup play area, where pups of all genders played in puppy hoods — more or less clothed — as puppies. They would chew on toys, pass balls back and forth with their pup-hood noses, and play, sniffing and wagging their arms, legs and butts all around.
I’ll admit, I was curious and had been looking forward to playing there before I even came to the festival.
And I must say, it was wonderful. I played with several pups, sniffing noses before rubbing my pup hood against other pup hooded faces. I felt very free to play without insecurity or remorse as I “Arf!”ed and growled along with fellow pups. I got atop one pup, lying on their back, and shook my butt against their belly to the booming music playing down the street.
I bit and squeezed squeaker toys and knotted ropes, moving around on all fours happily. I had never done anything like that before, far less in public, that just jolted me with excitement and elation. Here I was, acting zoomorphic in nature, in an outdoor space playing intimately with those who sought similar situations.
But then, I found an older pup, who was slower and closer to my size. We sniffed one another, hugging gently and firmly. We lay down together, hands inching up and down one another with calm and ease. All time and space seemed to vanish and the two of us focused on our joint intimacy.
We must have laid with one another for thirty minutes, maybe more, before a puppy “handler” gently nudged us to let us know that it was 6pm and Up Your Alley had ended.
As I made my way back, I was relaxed and calm. The puppy play I had experienced was innocent, tender and assuring. In such a highly sex-charged space, it was amazing to feel such kindness through intimate play.
Aaron Levy-Wolins is a San Francisco-based photojournalist and writer.
More photos from the day
Written by Aaron Levy-Wolins. The Bold Italic is a non-profit media organization, and we publish first-person perspectives about San Francisco and the Bay Area. Donate to us today.
