PROJECT COUTUREBOY

https://www.noorderlicht.com/en/programma/noorderlicht-fotofestival-2021/

(Noorderlicht International Photo Festival 2021: The Makeable Mind)

Project COUTUREBOY began as an art project born from Gene Tolan's desire to decode the powerful intersections of photography, desire, advertising, and identity politics as a lived experience influenced by his uncles during childhood. His uncles, both hyper-masculine yet embodying soft undertones, shaped the nuances of his photographic approach. Each photo session within the project serves as a meditation and exploration of the forces that shape our individual and collective aspirational identities. With funding from a Facebook (now Meta) small business grant awarded during the 2020 pandemic, Tolan embarked on a journey to uncover how deeply the language of advertising shapes our aspirations and self-perceptions.

In every shoot, Tolan transforms the studio into a reflective space where images not just capture a subject but explore the nuanced power dynamics behind branding ideologies. Each photograph studies how we align with or resist commercial narratives that define beauty, masculinity, and selfhood. In this way, COUTUREBOY is more than a series of images—it's an ongoing visual discourse on masculinity as both actor and muse. It prompts those interested in this tribe's aesthetic form and physicality to see themselves anew in the mirror of culture, commerce, and desire.

Artist: Gene Tolan https://www.genetolan.com/makeable-mind