Love not war

"Where I stood, I felt fear, for I faced an inner struggle. My resistance was softened by the tenderness of my naked hands. In accepting my desire, my lust, my longing for a mature connection I learned that making love means to embrace your vulnerability." LOVE NOT WAR is a series about the intimacy, fear, sexuality and love. About getting hurt and about healing by challenging your beliefs. It also deals with the fact that masculine sex often is portrayed as a sin, as hurtful and is not something that is openly talked about. Especially from the perspective of a masculine and heterosexual gender type. By portraying feelings like fear, desire, lust and love in a clear but not over-sexual way this series adds a mature and manly voice to the discussion of love and sex and how masculinity can be viewed upon. It is also a call to respect each other’s vulnerability and support everyone in their discovery of their sexuality, preferences and gender type. With this work Jelle ventures further into the direction he first explored with self-portraits under the title ‘Of dark & light’. By not using his face but his hands and arms the images become more generic yet more graphic and telling