Paal Henrik Ekern

Manscapes is an exploration of my own male identity, or more specifically, what it means to be a man in contemporary Western society. Feminists and female photographers have commonly explored issues of identity and gendered roles, however the role of the heterosexual male within patriarchal culture is often overlooked.

This series of self-portraits attempts to interrogate the representation of the male body in photography, and contemporary culture. By physically reconstructing the negative to place myself within the image I become both actor and spectator, creating an impossible situation. This altered context reveals the vulnerability of patriarchy by disrupting the notion of the gaze.