THE EMBARRASSEMENT OF BEING HUMAN

The Embarrassment of Being Human considers mortality by examining our private discomforts and the detachment that humans have with their most primal self. Presented in a way that allows for examination of who we are, the photographs explore the disconnect between our physical and mental selves. By offering up the parts, secretions, and behaviors of our bodies that we would prefer to avoid making public, we are forced to acknowledge the irony of living inside a vessel that is at once miraculous and magnificent and at the same time makes us uncomfortable by the connection to our carnal self.

Over the course of history, man has considered his physical self in a myriad of ways, not just in the reflection of his physique, but also in mechanics of how his body operates. Societal and cultural norms define how we consider our bodies and our bodily functions, and those definitions range from acceptance to repulsion. Covered up and puritanical in nature, we in the western world have a level of embarrassment with our natural selves.