What makes a man a man?

I grew up gay in the midwest in the 80s and 90s, terrified, lonely, and constantly reminded that gay was an “abomination.” It wasn’t until I lived and worked in Japan in the early 2000s that I discovered that the rest of the world wasn’t as unaccepting as Oklahoma, and that the men of Japan navigated a completely unique set of rules by which their society judged their “manliness.” I also made friends with openminded people from around the world and they affirmed in me that being unique and true to yourself was not only acceptable, but wonderful.

When I returned to the US in 2004, I had been accepted to Columbia University in New York for graduate school, but fate and some familial identity theft kept me in Oklahoma. I took a job at a local high school and taught theatre, Japanese, yearbook, and swimming for 12 years until 2017, when I quit teaching and started doing photography full time.

Even after learning to love myself and to fully accept that I was a gay man, I kept my feelings hidden away so as not to disrespect or burden others. After all, this was Oklahoma and that sort of thing is still very much frowned upon here. As a teacher, I tried even harder to keep myself to myself so as not to anger parents. But one day I was talking with a student who was troubled about his sexuality and it became clear to me that by hiding who I am I was putting the very people who destroyed my childhood and early psyche above the people who were like me. If I wasn’t a beacon of self acceptance and love to the younger gay generation, then I was emphasizing the opposite message. From that day on I have decided to be unapologetically myself and I’m so glad that my photography is also an expression of that.

Josh New is a commercial freelance photographer from Oklahoma specializing in portraiture and conceptual art. He received his MFA in Photography from the University of Tulsa in 2011 focusing on a thesis critically exploring modern American masculinity, both in gay and straight cultures. He continues to create work showcasing the male form in hopes that one day nudity, both male and female, will cease to be feared and brutally censored.

The XY Experiment came out a desire to be able to work on Queer Culture projects and to explore his love for male physique photography separate from his commercial presence as a portrait photographer.