What Being A Man Means And Looks Like

A new generation of young artists in Singapore is exploring and dissecting masculinity with inclusivity and tenderness. Keng Yang Shuen spotlights five who are redefining what being a man means and looks like.

- Keng Yang Shuen

AADITYA SUNDAR

Last month, this fashion and fine art photographer debuted Can You Show Me Your Drawer Of Drawers? - a 266-page photography book produced in collaboration with freelance creative director/stylist Nicholas See - at Singapore Art Book Fair. Long-time friends who are in their early 20s, the duo had spent a year capturing 15 individuals - some friends; others strangers found through social media - for the self-published work, with Aaditya behind the camera and See on creative direction.

Throughout the publication, the subjects are seen in various states of undress (all had provided consent to be photographed this way) - the idea was to explore the different facets of masculinity through the bodies of young Singapore males not unlike the book's creators themselves. Says Aaditya, It was important that the images present the male body beyond how it's normally portrayed in the media.

It explains the diversity of body types represented, as well as the choice of each subject's home for the setting. One picture, for instance, depicts a burly, tattooed male resting in a child's pose on his bed with a fuzzy teddy bear perched on his back. There's another of a youth doing a headstand on his living room couch while his mother sits beside him, smoking away nonchalantly. Contrasting these snapshots of irreverent yet tender moments in one's everyday life are those of a more poetic and enigmatic nature, such as that of a pair of legs dressed in fishnet stockings criss-crossed on a bed. Overall, it's a uniquely intimate, unguarded look at the inner lives of men here.