The Boyfriend Casting by Rosie Harriet Ellis

The Boyfriend Casting is a photographic publication by Rosie Harriet Ellis, published by Libraryman in 2025. Developed over five years, the book examines intimacy, consent, authorship and the representation of male bodies through a long-term photographic process.

The project begins with a rupture: the withdrawal of consent by a former partner involved in an earlier body of work. From this event, Ellis reconsiders the relation between photographer and subject, private experience and image production, desire and control.

PHOTOGRAPHY, INTIMACY AND CONSENT

The Boyfriend Casting studies how intimacy changes when it is recorded by a camera. Ellis photographs partners, substitutes and lovers, placing the male body within a visual structure shaped by affection, distance and analysis.

The camera becomes both an emotional instrument and an operational tool. It organizes encounters, measures proximity and records the shifting conditions of trust, exposure and negotiated participation.

OBJECTIFICATION AND THE FEMALE GAZE

The book addresses objectification as a reversible process. In Ellis’ work, the male subject is not treated as a neutral figure: he is observed, directed, repeated and positioned within a photographic system.

Through this reversal, The Boyfriend Casting questions the conventions of the male gaze and examines how authorship changes when a woman photographs men through desire, anger, vulnerability and control.

IMAGE SEQUENCE AND WRITTEN REFLECTIONS

The publication combines photographs with diary-like written fragments. The images move between domestic intimacy, constructed repetition and direct observation, building a visual record of relationships as they evolve over time.

Rather than resolving the tension between private life and artistic production, the book keeps that tension visible. Love, consent, performance and representation become part of the same photographic inquiry.

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PRODUCT DETAILS

title: The Boyfriend Casting
artist: Rosie Harriet Ellis
publisher: Libraryman
publication year: 2025
format: 29,7 × 24 cm
pages: 160
language: english
binding: hard cover / clothbound hardcover
subject: photography, intimacy, consent, representation, male bodies, female gaze

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