Male nude photographer faces censorship on Instagram

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The representation of bodies is one of the hallmarks of the work developed by photographer and journalist Eberson Theodoro. The native of Santa Catarina is the creator of the project “Foto de Homem“, which aims to naturalize male nudity, presented in an artistic way. However, the photographer reports that he has been experiencing problems with his professional profile on Instagram, his main network for promoting his work. Even following the social network’s best practices, Eberson comments that the social network is banning his images on the grounds that they violate the platform’s guidelines.

This month, Eberson had his professional profile banned from the social network. According to the photographer, this is not the first time that the platform has taken this attitude and, since the beginning of his project, about two years ago, this is one of the biggest difficulties in relation to his work and Instagram.

After the social network deleted the profile with more than 7 thousand followers, Eberson created the account (now under username @fotodehomem1) for the fourth time. Another professional profile of the photographer, banned last year, had around 10,000 followers. According to him, all the work dedicated to publicizing his work on the social network disappears in seconds when the account is banned from the platform.

Like Eberson, other photographers who work with artistic nudes also face problems with Instagram. In 2019, the photographer Pamela Facco, who portrays groups of naked men and women, in non-erotic poses, sued the social network in the Justice of São Paulo and managed to recover the account, after more than eight months off the air.

According to the website Uol, the sentence, by the First Civil Court of Santo Amaro, forced the social network to recover Pamela’s account, which had more than 6,000 followers when it was overthrown. In the decision, Judge Carolina Nabarro Munhoz Rossi, states that, in the case of Pamela, “it is observed that there was an incorrect analysis of the content published by the author” by Instagram.

In 2018, another similar case took place in the United States. A college rowing team, made famous for their nude rehearsals on charity calendars, was banned from Instagram “for no reason”, according to the website Metro.. Account Warwick Rowers’s was “permanently disabled” from the platform, as announced by the team at the time. After the backlash, a representative of the social network said: “This account was removed by mistake. We have since reactivated @Warwick_rowers and apologize for any inconvenience caused.”.

Project Foto de Homem

The diversity of the “Foto de Homem” project is presented by the images of men with common to “standardized” bodies.. There are no preferences for ethnicities or sexual orientations, everyone has space on the Santa Catarina professional’s website.

Eberson follows a weekly periodicity in its publications on the site, which is available to subscribers from R$18 per month. For the creator, “Foto de Homem” goes far beyond a common nudity platform: “In the era of Only Fans and free pornography spread over the internet, my work proposes an artistic veneer to explore male beauty”, points out the photographer. .

“I need to have a very big planning: keep in touch with the public through Instagram, look for new models, research locations, schedule trips, see tickets, budget for accommodation. I do everything myself, but the love of work reduces the physical and mental fatigue that it sometimes causes me”, says the photographer who has already held photoshoots at Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and in other parts of the country.