“I think sports is a very voyeuristic pleasure,” Buzzalino tells RANGE, caveating that the viewing of female athletes is the more widely accepted example. “That kind of voyeurism as pleasure is understood within the patriarchy. There’s less space for the behaviour and emotional attachment of watching masculine body moves,” he says. The intention of his newest exhibition is to create space for that pleasure to be had and shared, and to prompt viewers to reconsider how masculinity is portrayed in sport.

Buzzalino picked up photography 15 years ago–when on route to NXNE in 2010, his publisher pressed a point-and-shoot camera into his hands and told him, “Good luck.” Barely aware of how to use it, and without a photo pass, Buzzalino still managed to crowd surf his way to the front of Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas Square and get a photo of headliner Iggy Pop. “It’s a real crappy photo,” he laughs, but the existence of it proves that he had the instincts of a photographer from the get-go.

Having documented the Canadian music scene all this time (he’s shot album covers, live concert images and portraits for artists including Daniel Romano, Mariel Buckley, The Velveteins, Too Attached and Cartel Madras), Buzzalino recently shifted to a more explorative form of visual art, aimed at deconstructing binaries. 

“A lot of [this work] explores ideas around identity, in particular masculinity and how it tends to operate in heteronormative spaces defined heavily by patriarchal boundaries,” he says. He first approached this in 2019 with his gaze-subverting series Unmanned, which featured nude male musicians. Then again in 2021 with Little Deaths, a long-exposure, black-and-white photo project capturing single frames of couples having sex.

“This is all kind of a continuation of that work,” says Buzzalino of his new series. “Using the language of whatever structure I’m examining, I like to interrogate how it is that we really look at it.”

I Am Emotionally Attached to These Men finds its necessity in the conservative, misogynistic reputation of professional hockey, as seen in recent controversies like the Hockey Canada sexual assault lawsuit unearthed in 2022, which placed several instances of sexual assault and homophobic hazing in the news, and the NHL’s short-lived ban on Pride tape in 2023–both indicative of the limited space for diverse identities within hockey culture. In general, there aren’t many openly gay athletes competing in the major sports leagues, and the NHL only has one currently even aspiring to get there–Edmonton-born Luke Prokop, who plays for the Nashville Predators’ minor-league affiliate and became the NHL’s first openly queer prospect player in 2021. 

Buzzalino’s fantasy team imagines another reality altogether, in which male models of diverse sexual identities and body types are posed in various states of undress, both on the rink and in the locker room. Styled by Émilie Gagnon, they wear traditional hockey attire imbued with queer elements. The accompanying broadcast quotes, severed from their original context, range from tongue-in-cheek to sexually suggestive, like that of a card featuring a model in a jockstrap that reads “A young guy just trying to find the time to show off his hands.” 

“This is the third time I’ve done a project where I ask my friends to put themselves in a trusting, vulnerable position. It’s really cool to see how people come in with their own energies and their own ideas,” says Buzzalino of the shoot. “I just hope this opens up a conversation.” 

I Am Emotionally Attached to These Men opens on March 14 at Roadrunner Vintage (1006 Macleod Trail SE in Calgary, Alberta). It will be on display until April 15, 2025.