INTERVIEW Alexia Alexandropoulou
PUBLISHED 7. FEB 2025
Max Grund is a Bremen-based photographer and film director whose work explores queer identity, masculinity, and power structures within the working class. Blending photography and film, his practice delves into themes of exclusion, vulnerability, and self-protection. Through meticulously staged imagery, he constructs alternative realities that challenge traditional gender norms. In this interview, we discuss his latest project, its symbolic depth, and the broader social energies it seeks to activate.
// Your work creates an utopian world where traditional power dynamics break down. How do you envision this alternative reality influencing contemporary discussions on masculinity and gender identity?
In my staged photos, I draw references to the ideas of important thinkers in the discourse. The greatest inspiration came from ‚Männlichkeit verraten!’ by Kim Posster and ‘The will to change. Men, Masculinity and Love’ by bell hooks. Of course, I interpreted these thoughts in my own way and also incorporated my own experiences. Through my photos, I hope to give an emotional access to already existing aspects of the discourse. Scientific debate often takes place in very exclusive bubbles. However, I can only recommend the two books. bell hooks is very conciliatory towards men. She explains what patriarchy is and how it sustains itself. She describes, for example, how boys are conditioned to suppress their emotions with the help of love deprivation or the use of shame by their parents. Kim Posster starts with men who are already trying to critically scrutinize the position that their gender assigns them in society. In doing so, he emphasizes that men may learn to use feminist language or feel guilty, but still fail to take responsibility.
// In your statement, you mention that arrogance can serve as a form of self-protection. How does this theme manifest in your photographic series, and what role does vulnerability play in challenging these protective mechanisms?
This motif of arrogance is strongly drawn from my experience as a teenager where I often felt like an outsider (or became an accomplice) to the dynamics between the boys in my school. At a certain age boys developed really the stereotypical character traits to be loud, violent and feared of weakness. At times where I coudn’t adapt I was judged and bullied for being different. To protect myself for a phase in my life I developed an arrogance. Meaning I felt superior to those kind of boys. I think it’s a typical process a lot of young gay men go through. But at the same time any person who is excluded from a community can easily develop this form of resentment. Later in my life and still today I am learning that this mechanism makes you very isolated. I feel so much stronger and connected when I allow myself to be vulnerable. And I see more and more that other men also appreciate this kind of emotionality.
// Your project engages with the complexities of growing up as a man in a patriarchal society. How do your personal experiences shape the way you stage and construct the visual language of your photographs?
Through schoolmates, friends and my father, I strongly felt the expectations placed on me as a man in a patriarchal society. At the same time, I grew up mainly with my mother and sister and also socially surrounded myself mainly with women in my youth. This has given me enough distance to recognise the origin of my unease. Maybe the outside perspective helps me in my practice in which I meticulously stage my images: I use the photo studio as a controlled space in which I consciously exaggerate, deconstruct or place images of masculinity in an unfamiliar context. But my love for staging images in the first place comes from growing up with a lot of popcultural influences. I didn’t
grow up in a surrounding where people consumed abstract art. Today I like to consciously use pop and kitsch aesthetic as a tool to make art more accessible and emotional.
// You express hesitation in redefining masculinity, suggesting that human qualities shouldn’t be assigned to gender at all. How do you see your practice as contributing to a broader cultural shift in how masculinity is
perceived?
Yes, in reality I think defining some sort of ‚good’ masculinity would just be a new construct to somehow preserve the idea of social gender. Of course I would love for men to be more social, more responsible, more caring and more empathetic but that quickly raises the question why these are not just good ‚human‘ traits. Would new traits of masculinity only be masculine because they are performed by men? Nevertheless I see some value in keeping the term for now. In our society gender and identity are so intervened that it would lead to identity crises if we would tell men that masculinity no longer exists. Also from another perspective it’s valuable to have the term of masculinity. We need to remain able to talk about the behaviourisms. If all men shirk responsibility by saying that they are no longer men, it will be very difficult for us to continue the discourse. In my utopia everyone would be somewhat androgynous and have whatever character traits they please but not based on the physics of their body. But it still needs quite some time until social gender can vanish. In my work I rather wanna point at specific phenomenons and problems of patriarchal masculinity rather than creating a specific image of it. That would only lead to new stereotypes anyway.
// In a world increasingly shaped by crises and shifts in social structures, how do you think your work contributes to generating new energies—whether emotional, societal, or conceptual—that challenge traditional norms and inspire change?
I want to generate new energies by looking at the origin of why we are facing so many energy draining societal shifts at the first place. What we call a time of multi crises means that we are dealing with climate change, wars, the gaping abyss between rich and poor and the increasing comeback of fascist ideologies all at the same time – to name just a few. For me, many of the crises of our time are closely linked to traditional images of masculinity – the desire to dominate, the claim to power and the suppression of emotions. Also on a personal level, we all invest a lot of energy by having to deal with patriarchal men – From unequal distribution of care work to domestic
violence. The negative influence that this prevailing idea of masculinity has in our lives is so complex and nuanced that it’s hard to put it all in a short answer, but to me the connection is just so obvious. To unlearn these outdated rules of gender would save us so much time and energy. Of course, it also takes energy to rethink, recognise structures and discard patterns. I will never be fully done with that myself. Nevertheless, this is a much more sustainable use of energy.