The portraits of Vania Toledo: artistic representations of the male nude body

Abstract

This essay analyzes the representation of the male nude body through Vania Toledo’s photographic series Homens, focusing on the perspective of the female gaze. It aims to understand how the photographer subverts the dominant male gaze historically present in art and photography, portraying the male body as a site of vulnerability, contemplation, and desire. The study employs an interdisciplinary theoretical approach grounded in photography theory, desire, gender studies, and visual culture. The methodology includes a critical analysis of the photographic series and bibliographic research. It concludes that Toledo’s work represents a symbolic rupture in the norms of gender representation, asserting the female right to gaze, desire, and produce images that challenge the patriarchal visual hegemony.