Bloody Grindr Never Works!... with Andre G

I arrived on a late Friday afternoon in Lisbon for shoot week. I went down into the metro station next to the airport and rode the twenty minutes or so to Rossio station. There I alighted, emerged to see a beautiful old European square, and crossed it to find my hotel, My Story Hotel Rossio. After check in, I unpacked, showered, gazed out at the beautiful view from my window, and then entered the hotel wifi code onto all my devices.

Andriy, my assistant, was coming on a later flight (he was travelling from Ukraine; I from London). Our first shoot was scheduled for the next morning (Daniel T at 9am), so I had some time to get out and explore the city. Yet all I wanted was to get to work (a good sign that I enjoy my job I suppose). So I turned on Grindr and messaged several people in case there'd be someone up for taking part and available immediately. Andre G answered that call.

He arrived in under fifteen minutes, and we got straight to it. But somehow I wasn't feeling the vibe. Even before I looked at the pictures I felt like they weren't going to work. But ultimately I never looked through the pictures 'cos Andre never submitted his Elska story. So it was only today before writing this that I had a quick glance through the reel to find an image for this page.

I've had this issue before. Bloody Grindr never works for Elska shoots! For the Lviv issue we found two lads via Grindr (Artur M and Sasha M) - both got cut from the issue. For Berlin we had Alessandro G, and he didn't make it into the main issue either. Perhaps it's the fact that these last minute arrangements don't allow for any rapport to be built before a shoot. Or perhaps it's just Grindr people themselves. Glenn W was a last minute find for the Reykjavík issue, but he worked out great. He however wasn't found on Grindr but via personal recommendation.

Maybe the real issue with Andre though was something that happened the next day. I was walking home from dinner and saw him coming up the street toward me. He was with another guy, both carrying McDonalds bags. I tried to say hello but was totally blanked. I messaged him later with a 'WTF' sort of message and he said he didn't see me. So maybe that's why there was awkwardness, why he didn't write his story, why I didn't even want to look through the pictures. I probably should take a lesson and just delete the app from my phone. Mind you, I have done that before, but somehow I end up reinstalling it time and time again.

Elska Boy: Andre G

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Photographer: Liam Campbell

Issue: N/A

#LisbonPortugal