Abigail Ekue Photography

Bare Men Pop-Up Exhibit

Thursday, May 19, 2016
 
The Living Gallery
Brooklyn, NY

PRESS RELEASE
 
 
The Bare Men Pop-Up Exhibit is the first exhibit to promote the ongoing Bare Men series and subvert the censorship of male nude photography. Bare Men features art, editorial and erotic nude photographs that capture moments of joy, angst, self-care and self-love, playfulness, doubt and reflection.

Previously unreleased images alongside photographs included in the Bare Men book were exhibited. Exhibit Catalog
 

Artist Statement

Bare Men celebrates the inherent beauty, sensuality, sexuality and vulnerability of the everyday man. The images share moments of joy, angst, self-care and self-love, playfulness, doubt and reflection through each man’s own filter of masculinity.

The belief that women don’t want to see men naked or that there is no interest in male nudity outside of the gay market is false. The message that “naked men are ugly” has been fed to women and internalized by many men. Men have expressed their desire to objectified and to finally be seen.

Not only was I interested in creating a series of natural, candid, voyeuristic nude images of men; I wanted them to include full-frontal nudity. Male nudity in art perpetuates the marble-carved bodies with minuscule, flaccid penises or penises not visible at all. Because nudity and sex are often erroneously coupled together, the penis is considered threatening or taboo and thereby concealed and left out.

I'm working to showcase men in a personal light. By participating in Bare Men, men have offered me and by extension, the viewer a front-row seat to moments usually experienced alone or with intimate relations. As a result we are privy to two relationships: the man and the photographer and the man and himself while in some instances is invited to join in. 

For more information on the Bare Men series, visit www.baremen.net