Men-Up! by Rion Sabean

I’ve always dreamt that one day David LaChapelle will approach me to beg me to be his pinup model. Unfortunately,  I think those days lay ahead in the not so near future. Unlike Christopher Schulz’ furry teddybear Pinups, Rion’s models cary the spirit of the old-school pinups – which makes the collection look a bit kitschy tho.

Rion Sabean (26) was born and raised in Tampa, Florida, and is currently finishing up his time at the University of South Florida, where he is receiving his BFA in photography. Post graduation sees endless avenues, but the most important thing to him is ‘to get out of Florida’.

He states, ‘My work tends to be either an overt social commentary, or rooted in deeply personal subjects relating directly to myself. With the Men-ups! series, it was definitely the former that was more so embraced and the issue of gender roles was my target. It has always interested me how the sexes have been pitted against one another and taught to believe that gender roles/identities and biologically assigned sexes were one in the same, especially since that couldn’t be further from the truth. How can color have a sex? How can a pose be acceptable (and even provocative) for one, and not the other? From these ideas, and many, many more, was born the series, one in which I hope breeds thought and insight on just how ridiculous and restrictive the socially created gender roles are from their very inception’.