Despite Chinese photographer Yushi Li’s gentle staging, her title for the photograph, “The Smothering Dream,” suggests something more sinister is at play.
Although a canon of male nudes does exist, it largely comprises images shot by gay male photographers.
When Li began the series in 2017, she noticed a lack of images depicting naked men as objects of desire from a woman’s perspective.
She brings these ideas into “Paintings, Dreams and Love,” an ongoing project to which “The Smothering Dream” belongs.
“There’s also the gaze from the algorithm, and the gaze from the screen that reflects yourself when you look at it… the internet (means) we’re subjected to the gaze more, in a way.”
Persons:
Yushi, Lawrence Alma, “, ”, gazes, Li, Henry Fuseli’s, Yushi Li, Titian’s, Diana, reinterpretations, There’s
Organizations:
CNN, Shanghai
Locations:
London, China’s Hunan, Swiss