Decagon Gallery
photo: Michael Potts
p 1/3
Human Body
the art of seeing ourselves
The body is the most familiar form we know, and the least fully understood. It is structure and surface, architecture and evidence. In this exhibition, the body is not approached as spectacle or ideal, but as a site of tension — between strength and fragility, concealment and exposure, control and surrender. Some figures are presented with clarity and symmetry; others are marked, altered, fragmented, or obscured. Together, they remind us that the body is not a fixed image but a continually negotiated presence.
Across these works, the body becomes a ground for inscription. Light divides it. Gesture interrupts it. Objects rest upon it. Scars, musculature, pattern, and texture alter its surface. In some images, the body asserts itself through display; in others, it withdraws or folds inward. Pairings throughout the exhibition reveal how similar poses can carry radically different meanings depending on context, environment, and history. A spine illuminated becomes revelation in one frame and burden in another. Proximity becomes alignment in one image and longing in the next.
What emerges is not a single definition of the human body, but a widening of it. Strength appears in containment and in endurance. Vulnerability appears in silence and in testimony. Beauty resides in symmetry, in irregularity, in survival, and in transformation. The photographs gathered here do not resolve the body into symbol. They hold it as it is — shaped by memory, altered by experience, and always in dialogue with the world that surrounds it.
Concept by Teona Machavariani
Juried by Lynn Bianchi
February 2026
Przemysław Gawłowski
Wroclaw, Poland
All Eyes On Me #2
Przemysław Gawłowski is a photographer and designer whose work focuses on the human subject and the expression of the body. During photo sessions, he creates a space of freedom and trust, engaging in a creative dialogue with the photographed person. He specializes in portrait photography, creative
photography, and staged projects including bodypainting and fine art nude.
Ivana Dostálová
Prague, Czech Republic
Discourse with The Self (Selfportrait)
Our the self — our most intimate partner, our most intimate friend, our most intimate critic, guardian of our inner child and of the memories of fetus in the womb, each second of our lives we are in a deep discourse with him. What is the self? An immortal soul that transcends the physical being or complex system operating on molecular, neural, psychological, and social level?
Curator Note: As a diptych, these two works argue with each other through the same formal strategy: the body as a surface onto which “mind” is written. In the first photograph, inscription is literal and graphic. The repeated eye-motif turns skin into a patterned field — a design system. The lighting is controlled, the background neutral, the gaze returned. The body is not simply seen; it appears to *manage* being seen. Those drawn eyes operate like armor and invitation at once: they multiply attention, but they also flatten it into symbol. The effect is poised, stylized, and deliberately theatrical in its clarity. The second image also treats the body as a site of marking, but it refuses clarity. Instead of an emblem stamped onto skin, line becomes entanglement — a nest of threads that wraps, obscures, and compresses. The figure folds inward, face covered, posture contracted. Against the black ground, the white lines perform as both drawing and restraint, as if thought itself has become a material that clings to the body. Where the first work meets the viewer head-on, this one withdraws from the act of looking, making privacy the central form. Their similarity is structural: both convert the body into a page. Their difference is psychological: one stages visibility as control, the other stages it as burden. Together, they show the human body not as an object to be admired, but as a contested boundary — between being watched and being known, between surface display and interior discourse.
Nyx Mir
Ashland, OR
Spine
This was an image I'd had in my mind and wanted to make for the longest time and when I finally got access to the right tool to make it thanks to a friend, I was really thankful. I actually have aphantasia, meaning I don't think in images, which often surprises a lot of folks since all of my creative work is so visual, but I think that's actually why--I have ideas and I want to see how I can make them real and what they'd look like if they were! Anyway, that means I usually don't have a specific image in my mind for a photo concept, usually more ideas I want to explore and see what happens things come together with the camera, but for whatever reason -- this was one of the few images that I just knew exactly what I wanted it to be, and throughout the process it stayed quite similar to that concept.
Heather Stewart
Deland, FL
The Weight of Softness IV
The Weight of Softness embodies a search for inner peace amid the weight of pain, guilt, and shame. This series of self-portraits captures intimacy through the interaction of light, pattern, and texture upon the body's surface. Each image explores the tension between connection and rejection within oneself while tracing how an individual's responses to these experiences shape memory, self-perception, and interpersonal bonds. With echoes of nostalgia, this collection of work emits a yearning for growth in battle with the tender yet unrelenting forces of one's own mind. Through this process, softness is reclaimed as strength, and the body as a vessel for healing rather than harm.
Curator Note: Placed side by side, these two photographs hinge on the same axis: the exposed back, the spine marked by a vertical incision of light. The compositional structure is nearly identical — a seated or standing figure turned away, the body divided by illumination, the face withheld. In both works, light functions not as atmosphere but as architecture. It establishes a central line that organizes the frame and directs the eye downward along the vertebrae. Yet despite their formal kinship, the psychological registers diverge. In the first image, the line of light is clean, almost surgical — a precise, unwavering cut across warm skin. The body curves gently away from it, resisting the rigidity of that vertical beam. The surrounding space is minimal and dark, allowing the illuminated spine to read as an interior structure briefly revealed. The effect is controlled, contemplative. The body feels intact, self-contained, almost disciplined in its stillness. In the second photograph, the same vertical light fractures. It flickers across the skin in irregular patterns, disrupted by hair, movement, and environment. The setting is more present — a door, hardware, the proximity of a hand gripping shoulder. The body is no longer simply held within light; it appears pressed against it. Texture becomes pronounced: pores, marks, surface detail. Where the first image suggests interior revelation through restraint, this one acknowledges turbulence — the body bearing memory, tension, and the effort of self-contact. Both works use the spine as a visual and symbolic anchor, but they arrive at different understandings of exposure. One presents division as quiet illumination. The other renders it as a site of struggle and reclamation. In their pairing, the human body is not merely shown — it is split open by light, revealing two distinct negotiations between surface and self.
Colin Ward
Athens, GA
Shapely Bodies
Most of my photos include a human body, either in portrait or fine art form.
The human body can be shapely.
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Seth Cook
Atlanta, GA
Lams (touch)
Lams (Touch) is a black-and-white Polaroid taken for the photo book Hamdam.
Curator Note: Both works center on proximity. Neither offers the face. Meaning is carried entirely through alignment of bodies. In the first photograph, two nude figures sit side by side, backs to the viewer, shoulders nearly touching. The composition is symmetrical and frontal. The dark ground isolates them, while the reflective surface beneath produces a faint doubling. Their similarity is structural — paired spines, mirrored curves — yet small differences in hair texture and musculature prevent perfect symmetry. The image depends on adjacency: two separate bodies forming a shared silhouette without merging. The second photograph tightens that logic of proximity. Instead of full torsos, we are given a close view of hands suspended between thighs. The framing is vertical, intimate, and cropped within the white border of instant film. One hand is slightly larger, hair visible along the forearm; the other is smoother, narrower. The contact is minimal but decisive — fingers resting within reach, not fully interlocked. The soft focus and tonal compression reduce the scene to gesture. Formally, both works rely on pairing and physical closeness. The difference lies in scale and articulation. The first establishes duality through mirrored bodies and shared posture; the second reduces connection to a single point of touch. One presents relationship as structural alignment. The other locates it in a small, suspended contact between hands. Together, they suggest that the body is understood not only as an individual form, but as something defined by its distance — or nearness — to another.
Hardijanto Budiman
Tangerang, Indonesia
Blooming Paradise
The artist is a self taught Photographer, knowing Photography since early 2000. His life is overflowing with creating works of Art. Since a boy he really loved Drawing and Painting. Art gives him freedom to create anything he wants either in fantasy or reality! He also loves anything related to Surrealism! That's the reason lots my works
strongly influenced with Surrealism vibes.
Lance Pressl
Deerfield, IL
Heavy Burden
Lance Patrick Pressl is a self-taught fine art photographer. He explores the interplay of lines, shadows and form. Some have suggested he sees the material world differently than others, which gives him the special ability to capture unique and compelling images. Every image captured is done with the intent to tell a story or evoke an emotion. Among his many interests, he is fascinated by the human body and uses traditional and non-traditional representations to capture the curiosity of his audience. A common feature of his work is the juxtaposition of a human figure with a single object to reveal new and unexpected relationships.
Curator Note: Both works stage the nude back as a central vertical form, but they construct radically different environments around it. In the first image, the body is enclosed within foliage. Large, saturated leaves frame and cradle the figure, forming a symmetrical botanical surround. The spine runs cleanly down the center, echoed by the circular gradient behind it. The composition is ornamental and controlled. Nature here is not wild but arranged — a deliberate, almost emblematic setting in which the body appears integrated, even cultivated within its environment. The second photograph also presents a nude back viewed from behind, but the setting shifts from constructed paradise to exposed landscape. The tonal palette is restrained, the mountain range receding into mist. Instead of being surrounded, the figure sits at the edge of rock, confronting open space. A rectangular stone rests on the shoulders, interrupting the organic line of the body with blunt geometry. Where the first image uses leaves to harmonize the human form with its setting, this one inserts a foreign weight that disrupts it. Formally, both rely on the strong vertical of the spine and the rear-facing figure to anchor the composition. The difference lies in how the body relates to its surroundings. One situates it within a carefully ordered natural frame; the other positions it against a vast landscape while introducing a single, dense object that alters its balance. Together, they propose two distinct relationships between body and world — one integrated, one burdened — without departing from the same fundamental pose.
Tori Piscitelli
Phoenix, AZ
Untitled
Tori Piscitelli is a photographic based artist who has a concentration on self-portraiture. The work she creates explores mental health and the affects her emotions and past has affected her into adulthood. A predominate theme in her work is vulnerability and the focus on this is to spark a conversation on our health.
Tanya Flores Hodgson
Los Angeles, CA
Madre
This photograph deals with themes of memory, absence, identity, and longing as I navigate the complexities of being disconnected from both my family and my homeland. Through the use of photographs of my family specifically the women in my life and/or my maternal figures, and by drawing upon my catholic upbringing and incorporating religious symbolism such as the virgin de Guadalupe and the cross, I seek to reconnect to my roots. The placement of the pendants of my stomach draws a connection to the womb, symbolizing family lineage, ancestry and identity.
Curator Note: Both works rely on close cropping and the isolating power of the frame. The body is not shown in full; it is presented in fragments, tightly composed so that gesture and surface carry the meaning. In the first image, the lower half of the face and a single hand dominate the frame. Fingers partially cover the mouth, interrupting speech and obscuring expression. The palette is muted, the light soft, rendering skin texture with clarity. The tension lies in the small space between concealment and exposure — the lips visible yet restrained, the hand both protective and interruptive. The body becomes a site of hesitation. The second photograph shifts the focus downward to the abdomen. Here, the frame is equally tight, but the surface is activated by objects: religious medals and portrait pendants arranged across the stomach. Two hands anchor the composition — one across the chest, one below the navel — creating a contained vertical structure. The red fabric introduces intensity against the skin, while the pendants introduce narrative weight. Unlike the first image, where the body is interrupted by gesture, this one is overlaid with memory and symbol. Formally, both works treat the body as a ground for meaning. The difference lies in how that meaning is carried. One image relies on restraint and the interruption of voice; the other relies on accumulation — of iconography, lineage, and inherited imagery. Together, they suggest two ways the body registers interior life: through silence and through inscription.
Michael Quinn
Los Angeles, CA
In The Flesh #1
Photography, for Michael, begins with vulnerability, both within himself and the person(s) in front of the camera. Connecting with each subject is a crucial part of the process. When photographing people, he is deeply aware of the power he possesses, as trust is required by the individual to be seen, and the responsibility he carries in shaping their visibility, as that’s an important part of the process. Each image is an attempt to honor that exchange, allowing space for individuality, tenderness, and sincerity to move forward into light.
His practice is grounded in listening, patience, understanding, continual dialogue, and reflection with both subject and himself. Hw is less interested in controlling the situation, as connection and trust is paramount in creating imagery of those in front of the lens. Never forgetting that each photograph is a shared act of vulnerability, built on trust, consent and the courage to be observed by those with the privilege of viewing them in that precise moment in time, forever captured within a photograph.
Mari Saxon
Shrewsbury, MA
Burn Thriver
Marina is a girl who experienced a personal catastrophe at a still unconscious age, who almost doesn't remember herself looking like an average person, who has undergone over 60 surgeries and had to stay in the hospital several times a year. And she hasn't locked herself away, cursing her fate, quite the opposite, Marina found the strength and courage to become a model, to run a blog where she shares her personal stories about inclusion and diversity, and to help burn survivors around the world. And she thrives beyond the scars, pain, and insults.
Curator Note: Both works present the body against a dark ground, isolated from context and shaped by directional light. Each figure is partially withdrawn: one bows his head and crosses his arms over his chest; the other turns away, torso twisted, gaze cast back over the shoulder. In both, the face is either obscured or secondary. The body carries the image. In the first photograph, musculature is sharply defined by contrast. The crossed arms form an X across the torso, creating a contained structure. Light traces the shoulders, chest, and abdomen, emphasizing symmetry and controlled tension. The posture reads as self-contained — protective, but composed. The surface of the skin appears smooth, reflective, sculptural. The second image also relies on chiaroscuro, but the surface behaves differently. The skin is marked, textured, altered by injury and healing. The figure’s turn introduces asymmetry: one shoulder forward, one back, the spine subtly curved. The light does not simply define form; it reveals irregularity, depth, and history. Where the first body appears armored by posture, the second is exposed through texture. Formally, both images use darkness to concentrate attention on the human form. Their difference lies in how strength is articulated. One expresses it through muscular containment and compositional symmetry. The other expresses it through endurance made visible on the skin. Together, they expand the idea of the body as a site of power — not only through physical structure, but through the evidence of survival inscribed upon it.
Marijn Fidder
Harderwijk, Netherlands
Tamale Safalu
In 2020, competitive bodybuilder Tamale Safalu's life changed dramatically when he lost his leg after a terrible motorcycle accident. Despite the physical and emotional challenges, Safalu committed to rehabilitation and returned to the sport he loved, becoming the first disabled athlete in Uganda to compete against able-bodied athletes in a bodybuilding competition.
80% of all people with disabilities in the world live in developing countries, Uganda amongst them. In many Eastern and southern African countries people with disabilities are discriminated against. Today, Safalu’s goal is to become the first champion with a disability to win the prestigious Arnold Classic. For Safalu, competing as an athlete with a disability is not only about achieving personal goals, but also changing perceptions, raising self-esteem, combating stigma, and inspiring others around the world: “By competing as a bodybuilder on stage, I want to encourage other people with disabilities to recognize their own talents and never put their heads down. His strength and determination in the face of adversity challenges stereotypes and serves as an inspiration to people from all walks of life.
Oksana Kami (Fedoruk-Terleckyj)
Schaumburg, IL
Wikipedia III
Every Ukrainian defender I meet has a story that blows my mind… It’s hard to imagine what these people have been through, what they’ve seen and what they feel. However, their stories help us all to become at least a little braver, and clearly understand that we all can do a little bit more to help not only Ukraine and Ukrainians, but also help democracies stand up for themselves and survive against dictatorships. Most of these warriors came to the US for rehabilitation through “Revived Soldiers Ukraine”, a non-profit organization, which provides medical treatment to the wounded Ukrainian defenders. They take on the most difficult cases. However, even when bodies of our heroes are injured, they stay incredibly powerful, and if I may say - beautiful. Their beauty is filled with a complex of what they’ve been through, what they are still going through, their views, the way they think, their depth and inner feelings. I believe it’s important to help these brave, incredible people accept themselves, and their new reality, and make them believe they are powerful enough to continue building their life.
Curator Note: Both works center on a male figure with a prosthetic limb, but they construct strength through very different visual strategies. In the first image, the subject stands outdoors, back to the viewer, flexing against a vivid red cloth pinned to a wall. The scene retains traces of daily life — laundry, a plastic barrel, rough concrete. The red backdrop functions as an inserted stage within a lived environment. The pose is classical bodybuilding: symmetrical, elevated arms, muscular back fully displayed. The prosthetic leg is visible but integrated into the stance. The composition emphasizes assertion — the body framed, declared, presented. The second photograph moves indoors and into a more controlled tonal range. The palette is muted, nearly monochromatic. The subject sits in a wooden chair, one leg extended, prosthesis clearly visible beneath military-patterned clothing. Instead of flexing, he faces the camera directly. The composition relies on diagonal lines formed by limbs and furniture, creating a composed but less theatrical arrangement. The strength here is conveyed not through display but through steadiness — posture, gaze, and presence. Formally, both images insist on visibility. The difference lies in how that visibility is staged. One uses performance and saturated color to amplify physical power within an ordinary setting. The other uses restraint and direct engagement to foreground endurance and identity. Together, they expand the representation of the body altered by injury: not as absence, but as reconfigured presence — equally capable of occupying space, commanding attention, and defining its own form.
Ivan Wentland
Kailua, HA
3 Peak
Ivan Wentland is a Kailua Hawaii based photographer who is engaged in a multi year portrait project of his two boys, using natural light and local flora and fauna to explore the complexities of their relationship.
Susan Anderson
Colorado Springs, CO
Held By Gravity
My work explores the human body as a site of presence rather than performance. Through a series of black-and-white self-portraits, I study form, weight, and restraint-using light and shadow to trace what is often felt but rarely seen. These images are not about spectacle or idealization, but about inhabiting the body honestly, with attention and care. The Body Study collection centers on stillness, internal labor, and the subtle tension between control and surrender. By removing narrative excess, I invite the viewer to linger-to notice how the body holds experience, memory, and quiet endurance.
Curator Note: Both works treat the body as form before identity. Faces are withheld. What remains is structure — the rise of the neck, the slope of shoulders, the geometry created by limbs against negative space. In the first image, the back and neck are seen in extreme proximity. The head tilts backward into shadow, transforming the body into a single ascending shape. The background planes intersect in sharp angles, creating a stark, architectural frame around the organic curve of flesh. Light grazes the surface diagonally, turning skin into terrain. The body reads almost as landscape — a peak emerging from dark. The second image pulls back but intensifies symmetry. The seated figure is centered against a black ground, legs extended outward, arms raised and clasping the head. The composition relies on balance: mirrored limbs, a vertical fall of hair, a narrow shaft of light defining the torso. Where the first image abstracts the body through cropping and angle, this one abstracts it through formal control. The figure becomes a symmetrical construction of light and shadow, weight and containment. Together, these works approach the body not as narrative subject but as sculptural presence. One finds abstraction through closeness and fragmentation; the other through stillness and symmetry. In both, the body is reduced to essential form — held in tension between gravity and restraint, surface and void.
Fabio Moscatelli
Tor Bella Monaca, Italy
Sunjida
Sunjida is a blind girl from Bangladesch.
The artist took this photo during a specialist therapy.
Edward Olive
Madrid, Spain
Man and Tie
In Man and Tie, the artist explores the intersection of ritual and the physical self. For decades, the act of tying a tie is a gesture of preparation—a shedding of the private self to enter the public sphere of "the office." By stripping away the suit and presenting the subject in his natural, aging form, the tie is transformed from a professional requirement into a relic of a lifetime’s routine.
This minimalist, black-and-white study challenges traditional notions of the male gaze and the "ideal"
model. It captures a moment of quiet muscle memory, where the hands still know the rhythm of the knot even when the destination has changed. It is a portrait of a man standing between who he was for his career and who he is in the stillness of his own skin.
Curator Note: Both works hinge on the face, yet neither relies on conventional eye contact to establish presence. In the first image, a young girl sits in soft, directional light. Her glasses reflect the window, obscuring her gaze, while an older hand rests gently against her cheek. The composition is intimate and close, the color palette subdued. The light falls across her face unevenly, creating a quiet glow that contrasts with the texture of the hand beside her. Vision is present but inaccessible; touch becomes the dominant form of connection. The body is approached through proximity and care. The second portrait adopts a stark black-and-white palette and a frontal composition. An older man stands bare-chested, holding a tie at his collar. The gesture is deliberate, ritualistic. Here, the eyes meet the viewer directly. The lighting carves the face and torso into planes of shadow and highlight, emphasizing age and surface detail. The tie, suspended against bare skin, interrupts the expectation of formal attire and draws attention to the body beneath the social uniform. Formally, both images isolate a single figure and use light to concentrate attention on the face and hands. Their divergence lies in the relationship between the body and what surrounds it. In one, identity is mediated through touch and reflected light; in the other, it is negotiated through habit and symbolic clothing. Together, they suggest that the body is never separate from the rituals and relationships that shape it — whether through a guiding hand or a practiced knot tied by memory.
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