Fluid Elegance

by Kathryn Phillips, Staff Photographer

In Fluid Elegance, MVMENT Staff Photographer Kathryn Phillips explores the theme of breaking gender roles through six individual and personal pieces broken up into three distinct pairs: Bare and Blank, Heavy and Ashamed and Bold and Proud.

Bare and Blank

We each come from a blank canvas covered in black lines determining the vague shape of our future selves.

We have been taught the importance of being your own individual person with your mind, thoughts, and passions. Although, this culture we have been exposed to for our entire lives tells us something different.

Heavy and Ashamed

Men in our culture have been taught that the word “man” means and looks like one thing. Anything that colors outside the lines of our societies expected vision of what it means to be a man is perceived as gay, wimpy, or pathetic.

As a photographer, most of the men I ask to model refuse, because of the fear of straying away from being the accepted version of masculinity. They are ashamed to be a part of something bigger than what is expected of them, because of the fear of being bullied or harassed.

Bold and Proud

Here is where that changes. Here is where we redefine what masculinity and femininity really mean. It isn’t just about makeup or clothing, but about being able to live the life you want to live without fear of scrutiny.

It is about the kind of lives people get to live.