Light-Dark

The purpose of this project is to further explore the various ways in which the male form is shown, and how light changes the shape and accentuates different muscles, the skin and any other minute differences of the male body. The use of dynamic poses and body motions are also used to show off the form and physicality of the black male form. This project works towards criticizing and opposing the standard of the ideal form as posed by the Greeks long ago through the exploration of the shape and size of my own body. Many artists have looked into the general male form, sometimes solely from the formal perspective and sometimes in some sort of political or social type of commentary. These specific pieces showed off the power of poses and how it changes the light and its effect on different parts of the body at various angles. Each pose gives off a different tone and highlights specific areas of the body. The male body isn’t always the first thought when it comes to representations of humans, but shares a different set of qualities that the female counterpart doesn’t exemplify in the way that it has different tells that speak louder than words. By focusing on aesthetics primarily , the viewer is subjected to the desire of the black body while looking at different abstractions of my body through a pleasing aesthetic.

Bio

Shamier Ricketts-Samuel was born in Toronto and has moved throughout the GTA, focusing on developing different styles of photography throughout his university and personal experiences. Although very comfortable with portraits, Shamier recently decided to work on self-portraiture in order to further understand himself while also diversifying his subject matter.