Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

I have always found that the old model of what man should be is too restricted and often harmful. It inspired me to start this series and share my thoughts as images. “Toxic masculinity” term is used a lot nowadays and it was one of the things that made me think these issues more. I also think my history with depression shows in the images although it’s not so strongly present than in Dystopia series.

I do fine art images that are often a bit surreal. I think hiding the face often helps in getting the story more pronounced. If people see eyes they have more connection to a person in a photo. That is one of the reasons I like masks and I have a small collection of those. At the planning phase, I thought that for this series masks fit perfectly to the theme. I ended up using many different masks changing them in every picture. For me, the fabric and even the skull works like a mask from the perspective of the image.

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

Patched childhood

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

Background shadows

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

The scream

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

You do what I tell you

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

Bullies

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

The man and the rose

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

Leaving it behind

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

Animated photoshop edits

My home studio setup for the series

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

For this kind of series I usually do ‘good’ sketches before hand

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

I hand painted the background texture

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood

I made the cube from one 200x50cm sheet of wood

Masculinity: My Photo Series About Manhood