1 6

BODY COPY

BODY COPY

by Mitchell Moreno

£50.00 GBP
£50.00 GBP
Sale Sold out
Tax included for domestic orders. Customs duty and import tax may apply to international orders.

Pre-order. Expected September 2025 .

BODY COPY is a photo-text series by artist Mitchell Moreno (they/them) exploring the performance of queer masculinities in digital culture. Moreno began the project by collating a thousand lines of text from apps and websites where men (mostly) were looking to meet other men (mostly) for sex or dates. From these texts Moreno selected 43 adverts and created ‘ideal’ visual responses in the form of self-portraits to the desires expressed in each.

More about this book

To create the self-portraits in their London flat Moreno, whose day job is as a builder and decorator, took on the roles of set maker, stylist, model, and photographer. They worked alone using a tripod-mounted camera and cable shutter release. The DIY ethos extended to costumes and props, which were largely sourced from charity shops and recycling sites on a shoe-string budget.

‘Part of the project was about redirecting energies of the labouring, working-class body into something creative, for me, rather than the benefit of a wealthy client. I also took great pleasure in pilfering paint and materials from jobs to use in my series’.

The one thousand lines of text are ordered alphabetically throughout the book, reading like an experimental poem. The project was made over a four year period, providing an ethnography of sorts on the archetypes, kinks, prejudices and preoccupations of
non-straight masculine desire at a particular point in time and space.

‘I began the project while in recovery from body dysmorphic disorder, as a means of addressing the crisis of how I saw myself and felt I was seen by others. Beyond the therapeutic, I hope the work provides an opportunity to reflect on themes including identity politics, neoliberal digital culture, and the performance of masculinities. I also hope it will entertain.​’

BODY COPY has been exhibited at Encontros da Imagem, Portugal; Copenhagen Photo Festival; Singapore International Photo Festival; Ballarat International Foto Biennale and Head On, Australia; Photofusion,UK; Preus National Museum of Photography, Norway and Bibliothèque Levi Strauss and Circulation(s), France.

Published September 2025
215 x 294 mm
196pp, 44 images
Hardback
ISBN 978-1-915423-49-8

View full details

From the author

  • Mitchell Moreno is a working-class, genderqueer artist from Leicester, UK. Their work explores the queer gaze, the performance of masculinities, and art-as-therapy, and has been widely exhibited internationally. Moreno studied at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, before working for over a decade in theatre, opera, and circus, as a performer and director. After a hiatus from work due to a major mental health crisis, they began to reengage with creative practice via photography, in which they are self taught. They live in London and support themselves by working as a builder and decorator.

  • ‘I began the project while in recovery from body dysmorphic disorder, as a means of addressing the crisis of how I saw myself and felt I was seen by others. Beyond the therapeutic, I hope the work provides an opportunity to reflect on themes including identity politics, neoliberal digital culture, and the performance of masculinities. I also hope it will entertain.'

    - Mitchell Moreno