MASCULINE

Shot around 2004 – 2007

Growing tired and frustrated with the deluge of rope bondage imagery featuring bound young white women in cliche poses, and the predominance of the het male gaze, I started the Masculine project. In the creative process between the photographer and the subjects, their demographics, intersectional identity, and perceived social position changes the collaboration, and therefore the image produced from it. Plenty of older men who sex with women photograph younger women. Plenty of men who have sex with men photograph younger men. Sometimes women who sex with women photograph women. In these cases, the power dynamic was often (I don’t know the stats on non-binary people photo shooting and modeling.) I wanted to flip the script. What could be created between a young queer woman and gay/bisexual/queer men? Having come into my adulthood and sexual selfhood surrounded by gay leather culture iconography, I also recognize that I’ve created stylized internal imagery of kink masculinity. I work with the men to discover their own internal images of the iconic self. It’s interesting that my work with women are very different. I didn’t realize this until I had amassed a considerable portfolio of each. With the men, I feel like a sculptor. My photos of women, with their bodies and faces in emotionally ambiguous expressions, or in unsettling composition, are not that of a sculptor, nor am I predating upon them. It’s likely I’m projecting facets and inner truths of myself onto photos through their bodies.