Photographer Jose Arroyo Adds a Gender-Bending Twist to the Iconic Tom of Finland Aesthetic.

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Los Angeles-based photographer Jose Arroyo’s mission is to empower anyone who views his work, including himself. “I grew up with an extremely poor self-image, so my first motivation was to focus on people that didn’t think of themselves as attractive or photogenic and capture the beauty in them. As I developed my identity as a gay man, I continue to use my images as a safe canvas in which to explore those feelings I’m still too afraid to express publicly,” said Arroyo in an interview with Out.

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In his latest series, the artist reimagines an aesthetic that is well-known in the gay community: the hyper-masculine and hyper-sexual artwork of Touko Valio Laaksonen aka Tom of Finland.  For his own take on the work, Arroyo adds a gender-bending twist to his photographs, which also experiment with capturing water through LED lights. “I was inspired to do an homage to the work of Tom of Finland, a master at showcasing hypermasculinity in his drawings, but with a gender-bender twist,” says Arroyo. “For the final touch, the images were edited in gritty black-and-white to emulate the feel/look of a drawing.”

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You can view more of Arroyo's work at JoseArroyo.photo, and be sure to follow him on Instagram.

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