BINARIES by Matto Lucas

Photographer Matto Lucas explores the social issue of labeling and classifying gay men as either masculine or feminine with his photography project “BINARIES”.

Matt explains, “Presented with two options, strangers (sourced from queer-based social media platforms; ie; Grindr, Scruff - platforms used primarily for performed intimate interactions) participated in a social experiment; I was invited into the privacy and intimacy of their own homes and bedrooms, choosing a tee with either “MASC” or “FEM” (both loaded terms with within queer male culture”) printed on the front, photograph was captured during the moment of donning this label. Caught somewhere anonymously inside the action of the moment, the twisted and contorted bodies represent, for me, a transformative and contemplative ‘becoming.’ Not committed, or consumed fully, still in process, the bodies and identities become secondary to the garment, to the classification. Do we have to commit to one or the other? Can we embody both? Can we be neither?”