Brian Finke | Bodybuilding

Artist, Brian Finke, spent nearly two years photographing male and female bodybuilders at both professional and amateur competitions. As with his earlier work, Finke transforms what might be a standard photojournalistic project into something much more complex and wholly unique. In many ways, Bodybuilding is a direct continuation of the artist’s earlier interest in and exploration of athleticism — the pageantry and ritual, in addition to the artifice and irony of diversity within uniformity. At its most fundamental, this project comments upon our society’s obvious obsession with the body and appearances. Finke’s subjects have taken cultural standards of beauty to heart, and then pushed them beyond all comprehensible limits. Yet, without judgement or reproof (and instead with lighthearted humor), Finke opens our eyes to the inanity of our own obsessions.