This article originally appeared on Broadly Denmark.Earlier this year, Danish photographer Marie Hyld participated in a workshop called “Feminine Purification.” In it, she and a group of other women worked on breaking down the barriers between their "feminine and masculine energies." The day included dancing (badly), shouting, and getting sweaty. They also walked circles around an imaginary bonfire, threw their figurative “masks” from everyday life into it, and watched any fixed perceptions they had about themselves go up in flames.
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“Human beings contain both masculine and feminine energies, regardless of gender. With that in mind, we worked as a group to make the boundaries between those energies more fluid. Since the group was exclusively women, this consisted primarily of unlocking and cultivating the masculine side in ourselves,” Hyld explained.These exercises gave birth to the idea for Hyld's latest photo series Tortuous. After the workshop, Hyld felt freed from unwritten rules about how she felt she was supposed behave as a woman. “I suddenly became aware that I’d been trudging along in the same old pattern—one that merely reflected what I thought other people wanted to see,” she told Broadly. So she decided to explore this epiphany through her photography.She found her models on Tinder, just like in her last photo series, Lifeconstruction, in which she pretended to be in long-term relationships with people she had recently matched with. This time, she visited her models’ homes and photographed them as their authentic, unstaged selves. After that, she photographed them as they started playing with feminine and masculine expressions.Broadly: You’ve chosen to have the models crossdress in this series. In a way, aren’t you reproducing common stereotypes about femininity and masculinity by doing this?
Marie Hyld: I came to the conclusion that in order to get my message across, I needed to create a sort of caricatured world where I used the same stereotypes about masculinity and femininity that I want to break with. It turned out that the crossdressing was also a huge help in getting my subjects to find those masculine and feminine qualities in themselves. It was as if the physical transformation helped them to get in touch with these different sides—it really made these qualities manifest on a psychic level.
Marie Hyld: I came to the conclusion that in order to get my message across, I needed to create a sort of caricatured world where I used the same stereotypes about masculinity and femininity that I want to break with. It turned out that the crossdressing was also a huge help in getting my subjects to find those masculine and feminine qualities in themselves. It was as if the physical transformation helped them to get in touch with these different sides—it really made these qualities manifest on a psychic level.
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What was it like shooting this series?
These meetings actually really got my heart racing. I shot the photos in their homes, so I was very much invading their space. I began by photographing them “as they are” under normal circumstances, and then we started playing around with the dressing-up, where I really tried to get them to draw on the feminine or masculine sides of themselves that they don’t normally express.Often they were nervous, so they would drink wine or smoke a joint. Because I wanted to create a sense of comfort and intimacy between us, I’d partake in their drug of choice as well. Little by little, as the words began to flow, we’d usually hit a sweet spot where they felt they could open up and explore themselves. I have massive respect for all of them; it takes strength and an ability to be vulnerable to lie around exploring your psyche for a stranger behind a lens.How about yourself? What did you get out of shooting these photos?
I’ve come to realize that I am free. That I have the opportunity to break from arbitrary ideas about how I’m supposed to act based on my gender. I also learned that I’m far from the only one who’s contended with these norms around masculinity and femininity. Lots of people blindly act out stereotypes and don’t tune into what’s buzzing beneath the surface.Below you can see Marie Hyld’s photo series and the brief interviews she did with each model:
These meetings actually really got my heart racing. I shot the photos in their homes, so I was very much invading their space. I began by photographing them “as they are” under normal circumstances, and then we started playing around with the dressing-up, where I really tried to get them to draw on the feminine or masculine sides of themselves that they don’t normally express.Often they were nervous, so they would drink wine or smoke a joint. Because I wanted to create a sense of comfort and intimacy between us, I’d partake in their drug of choice as well. Little by little, as the words began to flow, we’d usually hit a sweet spot where they felt they could open up and explore themselves. I have massive respect for all of them; it takes strength and an ability to be vulnerable to lie around exploring your psyche for a stranger behind a lens.How about yourself? What did you get out of shooting these photos?
I’ve come to realize that I am free. That I have the opportunity to break from arbitrary ideas about how I’m supposed to act based on my gender. I also learned that I’m far from the only one who’s contended with these norms around masculinity and femininity. Lots of people blindly act out stereotypes and don’t tune into what’s buzzing beneath the surface.Below you can see Marie Hyld’s photo series and the brief interviews she did with each model:
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Lærke
Josh
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It dawned on me that this voice in my head was an echo of my upbringing. It’s the voice that says not to stand out, that says that people will judge you. That feminine qualities in a man are a form of weakness. I realized I needed to rip all of that indoctrinated nonsense out of me. So I started to reprogram myself. I learned that I shouldn’t care what other people think. I learned that just because the way I express myself may bother someone, doesn’t mean it’s bad—it means that whoever’s judging me is the one who has a problem. I learned that femininity is beautiful and powerful. I changed my own patterns of thinking. For all of these reasons, I love this photo.”
Karoline
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Morten
Maja
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I tumble onto the couch and let my thoughts wander. I take pleasure in the fact that in this day and age, we have the freedom to play around with appearances. That we don’t have to fit into a specific box. Although there are still many things to get mad about and many fights to be taken up, I think it’s amazing that so many people rise to the occasion and stand by who, what, and how they are.”
Frederik
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Naomi
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