Macho
Risk Hazekamp
(2006)
When you look at this series of analogue photos by Risk Hazekamp, you initially see portraits of young men. They are hanging about and looking around, a little curious and expectant. There is something ambiguous about their gaze. The graffiti in the background uses words about sexuality, desire and freedom. It is a possible reference to the themes that interest these characters, located at the frayed edges of the big city.
However, the photographs were not taken in a suburb, but inside, in what was then the artist's studio in Rotterdam. The urban backgrounds are slides taken by Hazekamp himself and projected onto a large screen. These works play with the self-evident nature of our looking: are we seeing men cruising, or women in drag, or perhaps something else? The works explore the relationship between truth and fiction, and the influence of perception and imagination on how our dynamic way of looking is formed.