the act of looking.

While presenting my work at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, I became an object of curiosity. My body was photographed repeatedly by strangers. Initially, I intended to document this experience through a 360-degree camera. Instead, I shifted my approach. I invited each image maker into the frame with me. The act transformed extraction into collaboration. Curiosity softened into laughter. Distance became proximity. I produced 227 shared selfies that document not spectacle, but encounter. The project examines how the selfie can function as relational architecture, disrupting exoticization and reshaping the digital imagination of Blackness through mutual presence.

Black and white photo of a shirtless young man flexing his right arm, displaying his bicep, with a serious facial expression, against a plain white background.
Close-up of a person's lower torso wearing white underwear with black waistband embroidered with 'BUTTUEBOY', and a hand hanging by their side.
A young man wearing a gray bathrobe and white boxer briefs standing indoors near a white textured wall, with large windows in the background.
A muscular man with tattoos on his arm and shoulder, wearing black underwear, stands topless in a bedroom, looking over his shoulder at the camera while holding a smartphone.
A shirtless man with tattoos lying on a bed in red underwear, looking at the camera.
Close-up of a man's muscular arm and chest in black and white, wearing black briefs, with a focus on the upper body.
A shirtless man with a muscular physique wearing black underwear standing against a plain light gray background.
A shirtless man sitting on a bed in a hotel room with a serious expression, in black and white.
A nude person with a soccer ball resting on their lap, lounging on a dark sofa in a room with a black wall and green plant in the background.
Two shirtless young men standing side by side wearing underwear against a plain background.
A shirtless man with tattoos on his arms and chest, wearing red briefs, standing in front of a window, holding his head with one hand and touching his hair with the other.
Close-up of a man wearing black sheer underwear with a wide waistband that reads 'COUTUREBOY'. The background is plain and white.
A shirtless young man standing against a plain white background, wearing black underwear.
A young man with long braided hair posing shirtless in red COUTUREBOX underwear against a plain white background.
COUTUREBOY model Michael Wilcher, Jr. against a plain background, wearing COUTUREBOY white underwear with a black waistband.
A Polaroid photograph of a COUTUREBOY male model wearing white underwear, hanging on a textured beige wall.
Close-up of a man wearing white FUTUREBOY underwear, with his right hand clenched into a fist.
A smiling man in red underwear standing outdoors on a cobblestone street with trees and buildings in the background.
Close-up of actor and artist King Noire feet and lower legs resting on a dark furry surface.
A person wearing white COUTUREBOY underwear standing near a window with city buildings visible outside.
Close-up of a person wearing red COUTUREBOY underwear, viewed from the back
A muscular man with dark hair, beard, sunglasses, and wearing white underwear with a black waistband labeled 'COUTUREBOX'.