Chelsea, March 2007

Here's a cute Chelsea Boy, stencilled onto a postal relay box near Ninth Avenue and 21st Street, looking a bit mischievous with his t-shirt riding up. The Chelsea Boy is New York's version of the modern gay clone: a muscly guy with neat, close-cut hair and the perfect tan. It can be a disparaging name, and the stereotype is that Chelsea Boys often love themselves above all else.

I wonder, then, whether this Chelsea Boy is being lovable? Or is he loving himself? He seems to be hugging himself, anyway.