SKIN, and Under is a 252-page monograph revealing the raw emotional complexity of young men caught between strength and fragility.
Through unguarded, natural nudity and intimate stillness, Igor Mattio redefines masculinity as honesty rather than armor.
In an age of rising intolerance, the work stands as a quiet act of resistance—celebrating visibility, empathy, and queer resilience.
Title: SKIN, And Under. Evolving Young Machos, or Not.
ISBN: 9798218666606
Author: Igor Mattio
Edited by: Artineline
Publication Year: 2025
Artfineline is pleased to announce the preparation of New York Sound & Light, a forthcoming photo book dedicated to the work of Raymond Ross. Drawing from four decades of photography made between 1950 and 1990, the project presents an intimate visual chronicle of New York’s jazz and downtown music scenes. Through Ross’s lens, sound becomes gesture and light becomes memory, tracing a city heard before it is seen—captured from within the clubs, rehearsal rooms, and backstage spaces where the music was lived.
Skin and Grace is a long-term photographic and documentary project developed in two episodes, following the lives of professional Cuban dancers navigating a society shaped by deeply rooted machismo. Through still images and film, the project explores discipline, physical rigor, emotional restraint, and the quiet resilience required to pursue dance in an environment where vulnerability and artistic sensitivity are often met with suspicion or resistance.
Developed through extended, multi-day journeys across Cuba, the work was produced in close proximity with the dancers, combining staged and observational photography with documentary footage captured alongside the crew. The project examines the tension between strength and fragility, public performance and private struggle, and the complex negotiation of identity within a highly codified cultural framework.
The first episode of Skin and Grace will be released as a photobook accompanied by a 60-minute documentary film, scheduled for Fall 2026.
The second episode follows four final-year students from the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Ballet, continuing to document their evolution over a two-year period.
Publication of the second photobook and accompanying film is anticipated for late 2027.