In 1924 Man Ray made a photograph of a woman’s back look like a cello in his most famous image “Le Violon D’Ingres”. He applied the curvy f-hole shapes of the instrument to her image, conjuring in our minds a likeness of the female form with an object. It was certainly not the first time women had been objectified, nor would it be the last.

From Edward Weston, through Playboy, to modern billboards we’ve celebrated – and ogled at – the female form. Weston fans will point out he shot as many men as women in the 1930′s, which is true, but his female poses are arguably more famous and copied. So, I ask: What makes a nude woman more beautiful than a nude man?

Even in art school I heard it said women’s bodies are more beautiful, that they make better models for drawing and photographing. For sure they tend to have less body hair than men. They also tend to be more flexible, perhaps making them more posable… I wonder, though, how much of this view is natural and how much is constructed by our culture? What would it look like to see, and how would we react to, men posing as women have posed? The answer is, we would laugh.

Think about this, the American Film Institute’s top two comedies of all time (as of 2000) are Some Like It Hot and Tootsie. There are plenty of other comedies and humor where men dress and act as women, but women who dress and act as men tend to be less funny. That kind of role play is more often used as a sexual turn on for men. It is rare, I think, for a man to be considered sexy or beautiful when he acts as a woman unless he’s scored as a woman.

This series of photographs is an examination of what makes beauty. Can a man’s body be treated like a woman’s without being funny? Can we look at it and see the beauty of his form. Can we de-objectify his role as a model and see the beauty of his character?

Can a man be a cello?