In the tension between expectation and lived experience, masculinity is often framed as conflict. But is this conflict still relevant today – or are we repeating a narrative that has begun to crumble? The series begins not with answers, but with doubt: do young men still feel pressure to be strong, dominant, and unshakeable – or have these expectations shifted, and for whom do they still apply?
Between digital role models and cultural counter-narratives, contradictory ideas of masculinity emerge. Figures such as Andrew Tate promote codes of power and status, while voices like Caitlin Moran articulate more fluid concepts of gender and identity. In between, young men navigate these influences as a spectrum of individual positions.
The portraits were created through a female gaze, shifting what becomes visible: uncertainty, intimacy, and quiet rituals come forward, while performative masculinity recedes. Closeness, trust, and ambivalence emerge.
Photographed in private living spaces – simultaneously refuge and stage – the subjects reveal negotiations between expectation and self-image. Conversations about pressure, freedom, and identity remain fragmented and sometimes contradictory.
The series makes no claim to a singular truth, but brings together perspectives that resist a unified image. Perhaps its core lies in questioning whether this idea of masculinity still holds – and what new questions emerge when the gaze itself becomes an intervention.
(The series is currently in progress)