Skin Capture Exposure
I had my nipple pierced for a joke in 1997. I bled a lot and it was quite a painful experience – also quite funny at the time. I like it now, there is something quite surprising about it – it surprises me that I had it done.I didn’t like my nipples when I was younger, they are quite large for a man and quite dark. Looking at them now, that doesn’t bother me at all. My male-breast size is quite a bit smaller now than it was and I prefer that, I didn’t ever feel that I was a fat person even though, for most of my life, I have been overweight.
Armpit photographed partly for the slight unusualness and unease. Its almost like photographing the pubic area but, for men, its not unusual (yet) to have hair. I don’t have lots and its quite soft. Arm pits, on others whom I have been sexually attracted to, are a part of the body that I am attracted to. I love the gentle curves and soft skin and I am interested that for women they are a place of slight unease, not forbidden from exposure like a vagina but almost so – places one is not invited to look. So, being able to see is a little like being voyeuristic of something that is readily on display.
A close up of armpit hair. Only taken really as a challenge to my sense of exposure, a warm up, bravery building before moving on and downwards.
Phil Pool - Art and Protest 