Gianfranco Briceño

Gianfranco Briceño is a Brazilian artist using the theme of masculinity or lack thereof as a foundation for his photography, particularly in his project 'Snaps Fanzine', a side project to his fashion photography in which he has been doing for 10 years. He says “It was free shooting – free of hard thinking, free of clothing, free of any prejudice about the nude body”. To me, when even looking at his work there's a sense of relief and freedom of judgement about the extent of the subject's masculinity.

Like myself, Briceño uses subjects who are not models, but people he knows personally, particularly young gay men who go against this stereotypical masculine power.

Dazed said that "Introducing the publication to help challenge expectations of male sexuality, Briceño hopes to show it’s not all about a mainstream macho image."

This image in particular has a bit theme of sex and loving. He looks as if he is in bliss, sexual heaven. He bites his finger but it does not appear to be negative or painful; softly raised eyebrows, softly closed eyes and little pressure on his finger suggests he is being pleasured. He is in a pose we'd generally expect a woman to be in for the man's gaze, for his pleasure, however the tables have turned. Now the gaze is upon the man, who would usually be seen as strong and dominant, yet in this image all barriers appear to be gone and he takes the role of the woman. He is now the vulnerable one, he is in somebody else's hands and he is not aware of his surroundings, perhaps including the camera (his eyes are closed), and he appears to be completely okay with that, however we the viewer become the voyeur.

The theme of masculinity and lack of it is very interesting for my own work; I am not a man and so I have not lived the experience of being a teenager and turning into a man. I have no experiences the exact social expectations as men have, and so it's also a learning experience for myself.
Seeing work like this is liberating because it breaks away from what is traditional to believe about the traits of men and women. Women do not have to conform and no do men, and art is a way of showing others that people who do not conform exist.

"I see Snaps as a piece of that movement, that fight. They are pictures that say ‘hey, I want to be free! Let me be free, with my naked body, without tabus or any kind of shame.” - Gianfranco Briceño