Masculinities: Liberation through Photography

Interesting exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery looking at how masculinity has been considered in photography and art film since the 1960s.

The show was divided into six sections;  the archetype;  power and patriarchy; fatherhood and family; Queer masculinity; Black masculinity and women on men revising the male gaze. It built an artistic and sociological view of the subject and opened up many ideas to continue thinking about.

There were some stunning pictures and I’d highlight Rineke Dijkstra’s pictures of matador straight from the ring partly because I’d seen more work by her a few days earlier, Michael Subotzky startlingly heartless images of prisoners in South Africa and Peter Hujar’s pictures of gay men hanging out at the St Christopher Street pier, one of which is shown here.

The photographer that stood out for me though was Hans Eijleboon with two series of pictures partially using versions of himself in the images. In one set he posed convincingly in the father role in other people’s family photographs. He had knocked on doors in the afternoon, when men were at work, and asked to take the pictures. In another set he asked women to describe their ideal man from facial features to clothes and then posed as them, taking a self-portrait and also being photographing the woman’s reaction.

The show though did highlight some post-Covid exhibition issues. These couldn’t be helped as the show had been set up in the pre-Covid world but some lessons could be learnt from it. The labels needed to be a lot bigger and not in cramped corners or it might help the flow to give out booklets with them in. There were good markings on the floor but the dense hang meant you could not stand in front of each picture. You were encouraged to view two or three from one point. Also the show made good use of divided space to show different aspects of each section but this meant the gallery space was a bit of a labyrinth with too many crossing points as you went round.

Closes 23 August 2020

Reviews

Times

Guardian

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Evening Standard

https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/arts/masculinities-liberation-through-photography-review-barbican-a4365931.html

 


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