THE DANDY COLLECTION
2003-2008
In 2003, I began a series of male portraits, entitled The Dandy Collection. Landscape, human gesture and the figure in nature are at the core of this project. This set of images is informed by the sublime aesthetics traditionally employed by Romanticist painters, such as Caspar David Friedrich. Seascapes, ravines, forests, parks, and gardens are the backdrops used to create photographs of posed lone male figures that gaze intensely at us. These images serve as vignettes depicting masculine behaviour and all its complexities. In an attempt to understand how male identity is negotiated, I seek to challenge the notion that men, masculinity and male gender identity are homogenous categories.
