This Naked Incident

This Naked Incident is a deep dive in search of the place that 'masculinity' holds in the lives of young people today. Alexander van der Heide and Sander Coers spoke with five peers; all assigned male at birth and all with very different experiences of masculinity and equally different gender expressions. Because what is masculinity? Where it sometimes seems that we have no more than stereotypes to resort to in our efforts to make this tangible, it turns out there are specific moments, charged by the people around you, and the places where you are, that suddenly allow for room to modify the way you express yourself.

The book is designed as an exploration in image and text. Through this journey Alexander van der Heide and Sander Coers come to the conclusion that if masculinity is anything at all, it is fluid. And ultimately they cannot avoid to reveal their own masculinity.

The images were shot over a period of three months, in which the makers successively asked their peers to bring an object they associate with masculinity to the shoot, take them along to places where the interviewees feel most at ease, and finally resulting into a portrait that captures the subjects experience of fluidity of their masculinity.

The book begins with a personal introduction by the makers and includes an in-depth essay exploring notions of masculinity, a short story about a visit to a place that is the epitome of 'masculinity': the Barbershop, and an epilogue by Nathalie Hartjes, director MAMA.