No man is an island

Now showing in Stone Soup, part of Massey University’s The Final Fix exhibition, 2025. Open October 16–25, 12–5pm.

No Man is an island draws from colonial ideals of masculinity explored by writers such as Jock Phillips and Matthew L. Basso, reflecting on how these have shaped Aotearoa’s cultural framing of masculine identity. The archetype of “the man alone” framed masculinity as self-reliant, stoic, and measured by silence; an identity sustained through distance from others and repression of the self.

Shot on 35mm film across studio and Wellington’s coastline, the work follows a man burdened by a heavy suitcase as he walks toward the sea. The suitcase acts a metaphor for the weight of inherited ideals; what he feels must be carried like a weight, and to escape this feeling, he believes it must be either hidden or let go.

As the sequence unfolds, he drags the suitcase into the water, contents spilling out, only to return and recover the bright, silky items as the case sinks. These colours (vivid reds, oranges, pinks and blues) become symbols of softness and emotion, qualities deemed too fragile for the myth of the man alone.

Across the images, the man never meets the camera’s gaze until that final moment in the water, clutching the fabrics and confronting the viewer directly. With that gesture there's a shift where the act of retrieval becomes reclamation.

The series closes with a single large-format image, also shot on film, in which the same man stands surrounded by blurred, blooming colour. It isn’t resolution so much as the suspension of a moment where strength and tenderness coexist and the performance of societally constructed masculinity makes space for something less defined.

It invites the question: if men were historically given the social allowance to exist within this space, what would masculinity and its codes look like for us now?

Explore images from the exhibition below:

If you’ve connected with this work, you can see more of my projects, behind-the-scenes process, and new work via fructosephoto.com or on Instagram @fructosephoto.