After ten years of shooting male nudes, Mok finally had enough material for a book, and decided to publish one. The 120-page Liberate contains his selection of male nudes from his body of work, chosen because they are the most beautiful pieces and because they hold together as a collection. You will see, for example, a very painterly photograph of a naked man lying in long grass; shrouded in a net; crouching like a sprinter about to run; hanging on to a tree branch, posing full frontal. The photos are all extremely artistic, aesthetically pleasing and the models are fit, defined and well proportioned.
“This book is all about bodies, so the form is very important, especially muscle and definition because they capture light and shadow very well,” explains Mok. “Other things I look out for in a model are interesting embellishments on their bodies like piercings and tattoos. Anything that will make a photograph interesting I will shoot.”
Mok himself is in the book. “I look like an orange striped zebra,” he says cryptically.
But don’t label this book of male nudes ‘gay’ or ‘homoerotic.’ “I wanted to portray the male form as artistically as I could,” says Mok. “And these photos are a celebration of the understated male form, not gay sexuality—I mean you don’t have two men in compromising positions in the book.”
“I also wanted to explore a subject that was tricky, and in Singapore nudity books, both male and female, were quite taboo 10 years ago,” he continues. “Plus it was much harder to find females who were comfortable posing nude, especially with a male photographer, back then.”
Mok's own journey to photography was a long and winding one. “My parents had zero education and my dad died when I was 17 years old,” says Mok. “Neither he nor mum were able to advise me on education so I pretty much had to rely on myself and my best friends. I ended up studying estate management at NUS—I didn’t know anything about the course, I took it because it was new and there was nothing in the arts faculty that intrigued me. While studying, I modeled part time and started taking photos of other models, which I really enjoyed. After graduation that stopped, and I worked for five years in office space leasing. I really hated my job. I realized then that photography was what I liked to do [and I] found my path.”
After becoming a photographer, Mok travelled extensively and lived in Australia for some years. It was during this time that he was able to shoot nudes outdoors, where here in Singapore it is of course almost impossible. “I am still able to find nude models in Singapore, but I am more constrained to the studio and I am getting a bit tired of that. I want to shoot the great outdoors with my nudes,” says Mok. “People are more open minded about posing nude in some other countries and outdoor locations are more abundant, so my work might evolve a bit more if I were overseas. But in Singapore I feel very comfortable, I’m in my own skin, it’s my home and everything is so convenient.”
Besides shooting nudes, Mok will also shoot other interesting human subjects—but not politicians, he says. “A journalist once asked me, if you were to shoot a Singapore politician, who would you choose? And I said, I don’t care if I never shoot a politician. I like things that are edgy, and I’m not sure I can do edgy stuff with a politician. It wouldn’t fit in with their image, not in Singapore at least!” Mok exclaims. “I would rather shoot a fantastic gymnast who can do graceful jumps in the great outdoors, a singer or an actor. Anything but a boring politician.”
Liberate can be purchased at http://www.marcusart.net .
