\u201cA photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.\u201d The witty remark, attributed to Diane Arbus, succinctly captures the twofold code at work in Erich H\u00f6rtnagl\u2019s (b. Innsbruck, 1950) pictures. Aesthetically appealing photographs, mostly in black and white, show men (and women) in a wide variety of cultural, social, and religious contexts: from Swedish bikers and drag queens to monks in Myanmar, from Turkish belly dancers to Tyrolean performers in traditional attire. What looks at first glance like a conventional photobook soon reveals itself to be a brilliantly staged interactive riddle around clich\u00e9d notions of masculinity with positive and negative connotations, around gender roles and persistent stereotypes. With the deftly composed visual meta-narrative in to be a man<\/em>, H\u00f6rtnagl, a seasoned theater and film director, lures us into a trap, and the only way out is by taking the challenge head-on: by engaging in self-reflection and questioning our own prejudices and ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cA photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.\u201d The witty remark, attributed to Diane Arbus, succinctly captures the twofold code at work in Erich H\u00f6rtnagl\u2019s (b. Innsbruck, 1950) pictures. Aesthetically appealing photographs, mostly in black and white, show men (and women) in a wide variety of cultural, social, and religious contexts: from Swedish bikers and drag queens to monks in Myanmar, from Turkish belly dancers to Tyrolean performers in traditional attire. What looks at first glance like a conventional photobook soon reveals itself to be a brilliantly staged interactive riddle around clich\u00e9d notions of masculinity with positive and negative connotations, around gender roles and persistent stereotypes. With the deftly composed visual meta-narrative in to be a man<\/em>, H\u00f6rtnagl, a seasoned theater and film director, lures us into a trap, and the only way out is by taking the challenge head-on: by engaging in self-reflection and questioning our own prejudices and ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":19776,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[2208,2211],"product_tag":[4299],"class_list":{"0":"post-19556","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-all-books","7":"product_cat-photography","8":"product_tag-erich-hoertnagl-en","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"taxable","13":"shipping-taxable","14":"purchasable","15":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n