His Body is a Language (WIP)

Photography + Illustration
+ Creative Direction

May - August 2022

- Work developed for residency ‘H- The Notion of Humanist Photography’, funded by CNA, Luxembourg.

- Branched to Master thesis, presented at Junior Research Design Conference 2022, Basel, CH

Mentors: Emma Bowkett, Naoise O’Keeffe

Model: Tristan Bartolini, Ashwin Vinod
Lighting: Ali Mohamed
Text: Nandini Tripathy
Support: Camille Bellmas
Location: Swiss Photo Club, Geneva

PRESS: Luxemburger Wort newspaper (19.01.2023)

The primary objective of a profile image, on a dating app, is to project a favourable impression within a very short span of time – a few seconds, or less. Whether or not one succeeds is determined by two factors primarily: the degree of attractiveness presented, and the degree of attractiveness perceived. 

What makes an individual attractive in a photograph? For both the individual and the spectator, it is most often a combination of physical attributes, grooming, and visual context. How a person looks, what they are wearing, how they are posing, and where they are located – all of these become broad brushstrokes that paint a picture that asks to be judged. It is a picture that tends to vary from region to region, and culture to culture, as witnessed in the dialectic between the profile images that follow, located in two cities situated more than 6,000 km apart – New Delhi, India and Geneva, Switzerland.

Capturing poses struck outdoors, at a gym, at a restaurant, and at a wedding, they focus in particular on the notion of attractive masculinity. They bear witness to how it is articulated differently against the two distinct socio-cultural backdrops, and how it is performative as much as it is internalised. In doing so, they ask you, the viewer, another question: How do you adjudge an individual attractive, based on a pose?