Overview
This project is an evolving series of fine art photographs blending male nudes with a suburban cinematic settings. The work explores identity, intimacy, and the intersection between character and environment, drawing on both personal and shared queer experiences. The final images are intended for exhibition and publication (e.g., photo books).
Please note: This series features tasteful nudity and queer themes. All participants must be comfortable with these elements and supportive of a queer-friendly, respectful creative environment.
Core Concept
- Standalone Stories: Each photograph is a narrative moment, but together they form a tapestry of suburban queer life.
- Cinematic Suburbia: Domestic interiors, streetscapes, backyards, and liminal spaces serve as backdrops.
- Male Nudes: Presented with sensitivity, emphasizing vulnerability, strength, and narrative—nudity as a tool for exploring character.
Guiding Principles
- Diversity: All ages, body types, and backgrounds are welcome, to reflect the complexity of the queer male experience.
- Open Communication & Consent: It’s important that everyone feels comfortable and safe.
- Collaboration: Models are encouraged to contribute ideas for poses, expressions, and even locations.
- Character Over Physique: Selection is based on emotional resonance and narrative potential, not just aesthetics.
Location Selection
- Atmosphere: Spaces with strong visual character—moody lighting, interesting textures, evocative suburban details.
Props & Wardrobe
- Wardrobe as Narrative: While primarily nude, partial clothing, draped fabrics, and accessories suggest context and character.
- Colour & Texture: Props and wardrobe enhance the cinematic palette with muted tones and rich textures.
Visual & Conceptual Consistency
- Lighting: Use of studio lighting, and practical lighting for dramatic effects.
- Composition: Subjects are framed to emphasize their relationship to the environment.
- Narrative and Emotion Take Precedence
Themes Explored
Themes explored within the series are as diverse as the characters it focuses on, however covers themes such as:
- Identity & Self Discovery: Coming of age, queer experience, masculinity
- Isolation & Connection: Suburban alienation, intimacy, community
- The Everyday Made Strange: The uncanny, rituals, domesticity
- Nature & Artificiality: Boundaries, fabricated environments
- Vulnerability & Strength: The nude as narrative, exposure, power dynamics
- Memory & Nostalgia: Personal history, objects as triggers, temporal layers
- Belonging & Otherness: Outsider status, acceptance, transformation
- Other Motifs: Religion/mythology, athleticism, everyday heroism, escapism
Example Scenes
- Figure on a couch, illuminated by TV glow.
- Model at an open doorway, half in shadow, half in light.
- Subject in a fogged bathroom mirror, reflection blurred.
- Early morning tea, sunlight through blinds, domestic clutter.
- Model draped in freshly washed sheets.
- Model reclined in overgrown grass, enclosed by suburban fences.
- Figure on porch step, watching rain, wrapped in towel.
- Two figures together, not touching, each in their own world.
Participation
- Seeking: Models, collaborators, and location partners who are comfortable with tasteful nudity and queer themes.
- Environment: Respectful, open, and artistically driven—everyone’s comfort and consent are paramount.
- Outcome: Finished works for exhibition and publication; all collaborators will be credited and involved in the creative process.
If you’re interested in being part of this project—as a model, location partner, or creative collaborator—please reach out for more details or to discuss your ideas.
Below are some samples of my work from previous projects that represent a similar visual aesthetic.
Steven Sumpton 