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Press picture "Masculinities"
Photo:
Collection T. Dworzak / Magnum Photos
This book is full of pictures and wisdom, a kind of modern, large-format poetry album - and it is exclusively dedicated to men.
The cover makes a sensational promise to them: "Liberation through photography" is written there.
The actual title, however, is "Masculinities".
And precisely therein, in the plural, lies the prospect of liberation.
Nobody has to be a typical man anymore.
The matching exhibition, which was first shown in London, will soon be a guest at the Gropius Bau in Berlin.
The book says that this time is exactly the right time to dedicate yourself to being a man.
The debate about #Metoo and sexual harassment has brought the man as such into disrepute, at the same time a younger generation is bothered by the idea of the man who only fills out templates.
Photography also initially contributed to the stereotype - and eventually broke with it.
The book and exhibition illustrate this development.
The young colossus Schwarzenegger
There are funny, sad and naked elements in the pictures taken by both male and female photographers.
In the history of photography, physique played a major role for a long time.
The muscles of Arnold Schwarzenegger from 1976, which photographer Robert Mapplethorpe captured for eternity, are exemplary.
Despite his strength, the young colossus Schwarzenegger looks anything but threatening in the picture, but rather almost cute.
To mark a villain, however, a certain look is enough.
This is shown in the collage by a Polish artist with well over 100 faces of actors who each play a Nazi and who - usually ice cold or grim-looking - illustrate an aggressive idea of being a man.
A common thesis in feminism is that women behave in a certain way, mainly due to external influences, which is considered feminine.
The "Masculinities" project is a provocation for those who do not believe in it.
Because here this thinking model is transferred to men.
One of the central questions in the book is: Is the man just a product of his surroundings, of all the expectations placed on him?
The answers are hidden in the pictures.
Many roles that men assume are touched upon: the man as a soldier, cowboy, torero, as Taliban in makeup, as a racist, as a victim.
Not patriarch, but human
And then there is the father figure.
Kalen Na'il Roach is a young American artist, born in 1992. He processes old photographs of his family, including those showing his own father, as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult - as someone who had many formative experiences, before he became a father.
Many were painful because, as a young black man of his generation, he had to struggle with the prejudices of society, with daily pressure and constant oppression.
For Roach, a father is not a patriarch, not a mythical figure, but a person.
The old cliché required men to be broad-shouldered, and the image that equates the man with a claim to power is still the most dominant.
Images can help change perception.
In what way?
Men may dominate a lot in the world, they come to the fore - and, unlike women, are not constantly questioned.
For the authors, and this is an interesting thought, this state of affairs is not only positive, but also leads to men, masculinity, not being seen.
You speak of the invisibility of men.
Now they are made visible.
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