"M" (2012/2023)

"M" explore from the Mediterranean basin to Trump's America, and France, new masculinities and the younger generations determination to really be themselves. The aim is of introducing into the collective imagination these singular, yet shared experiences.

For men today, to show and share their vulnerability is an act of rebellion. My work exists to fuel this rebellion. This project is a celebration of openness, adaptability and audacity, and it is also a call for empathy, acceptance, and freedom.

The trilogy, titled “M ”, was begun in 2012 to support and highlight a generation who, for more than a decade, have shaken the structure of gender and transformed the world's vision of it. At a time when the desire for authenticity, or self-definition, has become a societal issue and the notion of "toxic masculinity" is subverting stereotypical representations, this body of work seeks to shatter the myths and compel us to rethink notions of gender and identity beyond our usual cultural and geographical boundaries.  

These photographs are an exploration through a reverse perspective : a female gaze on men (assigned as such at birth) who are sowing trouble in gender and freeing themselves from the constraints and pressures of the traditional model ; men who are rethinking the notion of identity and redefining masculinity in new and diverse ways.

Mectoub (2012/2016) was begun during the "Arab Spring" uprisings. I traveled to North Africa and the Middle East (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan) to explore, in the context of these protests, the emergence of new masculinities in societies where the expression of individual freedom is an act of transgression.

I began Plan Américain (2017/2019) just after the election of President Trump. His encouragement of a hard and retro virility convinced me of the importance of showing the presence of an uninhibited masculinity in an America in crisis where a masculinist nationalism was on the rise.

La Disparition de James Bond (2022/2023) is the third and final chapter of this journey that has taken me to three continents and brought me back to my native country, France. In view of the growing resistance to gender fluidity and social diversity that we are witnessing across Europe, I believed it was important to add this series to reinforce the acknowledgement of these issues as reflected in the young male generation in the France of today.