Birmingham photographer and student James Carrillo is examining no-strings-attached culture at Cranbrook Academy of Art. A piece from Carrillo's project.
James Carrillo is watching himself masturbate. In a photo, anyway – part of a series that the 26-year-old has been working on since September as part of a photography course at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Birmingham. The out photographer, who's included the photos on his Web site http://www.jamescarrillo.com, is documenting hook-up culture in the gay community. He spoke with us about the project, including his attraction to it and how he actually hates pictures of himself.
Why did this project attract you?
The work I did prior to this project dealt with sexuality, consumption and most recently with domesticity. So, the concept of gender roles and homosexuality were an underlying issue. I felt at this stage in my work and personal growth it was time to address issues dealing with homosexuality and hook-up culture head on instead of skirting the issues.
What are you trying to convey with the photographs?
I'm interested in the area between fantasy and reality. I want to investigate the disconnect that exists within hook-up culture. The disconnect being the antisocial database of Craigslist and ManHunt, etc., and the intimate scenarios they conjure and whatever level of intimacy they bring to the situation, however impersonal it may be. I don't wish to make images that are pejorative or make heroes with my images, just illuminations.
How did you go about finding subjects for it? What were the challenges?
The photos were initially intended to be a documentation of sorts. I began the project by trying to avoid my previous working method of using self-portraiture and figurative image. I soon realized that it was not going to happen with great success. I began using sites that are geared to no-strings-attached relationships as a point of research – sites basically to "get off." The ideas of not using the figure soon fell by the wayside; I needed models, people, bodies, in order to address this NSA culture.
In trying to create a documentation of people engaged in this phenomenon – I being one of them – the project morphed and shifted slightly. I was not making documents of events; I was creating a narrative from Web site to physicality, cyber to reality.
What's the trick to photographing yourself in these shots?
Self-portraiture is a space where the maker of the image has to address one's appearance and internal self. I honestly hate photos taken of me. Using myself as a model has allowed me to cope with stigmas of self-image.
Photographing myself in these shots is a challenge all its own. By using myself in multiple in some of the images, it shifts the images from the external to the internal. The images start to address fantasy – even that of narcissism and masturbation – more directly. I believe fantasy exists in the space of the mind; the internal sexual fantasies are masturbatory thoughts till they come to fruition. I would like to continue the use of the multiplied persons possibly with other models.
