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Third Place Winner: Hugo Fernandes |
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Hugo Fernandes Statement: Intimate Strangers is a series of photographs about momentary intimacy between anonymous men. The classic portrait encounter between artist and subject is modified to incorporate the protocol of internet sex hookups. After meeting online, one man arrives at the other’s place, but the usual outcome of anonymous sex is suspended, replaced instead by a shared contemplative act: the photographing of one by the other in an atmosphere of heightened vulnerability. A large-format photographic portrait session occurs, portraying the disrobed subject in a moment that is both foreign and familiar, the photographer and subject brought together by a shared bond: their sexuality, and a desire to explore it through a creative act. The resulting images eschew the usual tropes of still photography about gay male sexuality; the explicit, frontal, trophy nudity of that genre is replaced by a cinematic and atmospheric approach that uses real locations and low light to create a mood that is nuanced and ambiguous, melancholic yet seductive, tense but intimate. Bio: Hugo Fernandes was born in New York in 1985 and received his BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in NYC in 2007. Hugo’s photographs focus on his own unique experiences with random men and intimate relationships he has had with the relatively few who have been able to garner a spot of respect and trust in his world. Inspired by his inability to fit into any particular community, his work deals with his relationships with two very different groups of people: those he knows intimately and those with whom he has just met. Both types of relationships have had a profound influence on the person Hugo has become and thus on the art he creates. Hugo’s photographs reflect on and aim to capture these moments of impact. Hugo’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including organizations such as Humble Arts, Aperture, GLAAD, Camera Club of New York, Visual Arts Gallery and Galleria San Ludovico. His work has been published in Abercrombie and Fitch, OUT Magazine, Starved Magazine and ETA. Hugo currently resides and works in NYC. Artist’s Website |
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