Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Commercialism Part 2






















Last February I posted several images from fashion spreads and advertisements that featured near to completely nude black male models under the title Commercialism.  A recent article in the Toronto Star featured the model shown above, Paolo Roldan who is from Toronto.   The image was part of a shoot for Paris Vogue in 2010.  “It’s the first and only time I posed nude,” says Roldan, “I was nervous, and the only thing going through my head was, ‘I hope I don’t come across looking nervous in the pictures.’”    Still the image and exposure (no pun intended) sent his modeling career into the stratosphere! It was a calculated choice by the model for sure, the image is artistic in nature and his Philippines background does not come with the same weight of history as perhaps the images below to sell woman's fashions... The use of nude black male images is disturbing.  What is being sold here?  It was not uncommon for black slaves to be featured in this way on the auction block once they arrived in the new world, here they are again to sell dresses.   Am I over thinking this connection?  Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section.















Note: All images and text (not specified) is copyrighted by Christopher Cushman. This site does not specify or denote the sexual orientation of any model and as such please post your comments accordingly.

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