Draško Bogdanović is a Toronto-based Portraitist and Photographer who has quickly gained respect in the local Arts community for his body (no pun intended) of work, focusing on the concepts of Masculinity and Homoeroticism. His work on an immediate level serves one main purpose - to arouse anyone who appreciates a beautiful man. Bogdanović utilizes physically correct male subjects often flaunting their erect members or just capturing them in playfully suggestive poses. His photographs consistently have a naturally lit aesthetic and cooler tones - not at all over-processed.
On a deeper level though, he challenges social norms by pushing us to ask why it is as a society we experience an unsaid wave of awkwardness at the sight of male nudity. If you've ever watched comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, these films play on this notion, purposefully prolonging scenes of male nudity enough to generate a feeling of unease in the audience and even the characters in the scene. Also, through his collection, we examine social ideals of what defines Male Beauty and how Art and Media dictate what we perceive as "beautiful" in men; such is PERVasive Influence - the theme of the festival.
