We recently connected with Noah Fodor and have shared our conversation below.

Noah, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

For me, this has to be my projected titled Play Glamorous. I made this work, which incorporates self-portraiture, collage elements, and a video work, as part of my graduate school residency at Columbia College Chicago.

Play Glamorous, explores the contradictions of masculinity through my experience playing ice hockey as a closeted ice hockey player for over a decade. In hockey, a particularly violent and hyper-masculine sport, the possibility of queerness is denied and even feared, perpetuating a toxic environment that forces queer players to closet themselves. Performative acts of masculinity such as punching, hitting, and slamming reinforce idealized versions of what it means to be a man. Sports also set the conditions in which men can touch and become vulnerable with one another, leading to softer and more homoerotic interactions, but when this emotional or physical closeness falls outside of the locker room or on the ice, it is questioned and attacked. These blatant contradictions come in the form of roughhousing, staring, admiring each other’s bodies, ass slapping, and playful flirting. These behaviors that are seemingly the antithesis of men’s sports are welcomed into these spaces under the guise of an assumed straightness by those involved. A complex psychological state is created in which queer individuals witness a homoeroticism that is born from these actions, while listening to homophobic language that devalues queerness in the process.

The video that accompanies this work, titled No Greater Theater, depicts the blatant homoeroticism that is often present on the ice and in the locker room. Athletes grapple, straddle, hug, kiss, and engage in other intimate moments with one another throughout the game. This single-channel video takes the form of a montage aesthetic that reflects on our contemporary intake of media. Video clips that have been taken from VHS tapes, and modern social media reveal what has been hidden in plain sight. Clips of the intense fighting amongst players that is so common in hockey are intertwined with those intensely intimate moments to consider the similarities between the two. I reflect on this intimacy that is created through the sport because of how hypocritical it is compared to how these sports deny queerness any visibility. These moments of intimacy are also what brought me the most confusion and frustration as I was grappling with my sexual identity because of their contradictory nature. The audio that complements the video features multilayered breath sounds that are precisely timed to match the moments that coincide it. The breathing creates a tension that is at once sexual and full of fear. The two can’t be distinguished from each other and leads to a climax that is never reached, while recreating an uncomfortableness I felt so physically in these moments.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I originally started to take photography seriously around 2016 after I was encouraged and supported by my high school art teacher at the time. This led me to my first camera a Nikon D3400 in which I used to make pictures at any chance I got, whether that be landscapes around my hometown, portraits of friends and family, sporting events, etc. When I first got a camera in my hand it felt right at home, I felt a connection to it immediately.

As of today I refer to myself as a queer lens-based artist, and I’m currently residing in Chicago, IL. My work focuses on themes such as notions of history, membership, power, masculinity, and queerness. My practice ranges from the use of analog and digital photography to the archive, collage, text work, and video; often using them as a strategy to subvert my subject matter. My work has been featured by Photo-Emphasis, The Darkside Collective, F-Stop Magazine, and Fifth Wheel Press in their hazey Vol. 3 publication. I obtained my B.F.A. from Point Park University and my M.F.A. in Photography from Columbia College Chicago.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The ability to help inspire change, and new ways of thinking has always been an aspect of art making that I look to as most rewarding. Not everyone has access to art and/or the ability to create, so I know that to do so is an extreme privilege. I have always aspired for my practice to be a space where new dialogue around subject matter can happen, and have always taken time to approach concepts from every direction in order to make that happen. In regard to my work Play Glamorous and the challenges faced by queer men in the world of sports, I hope this work can help facilitate at least some change in thinking, as well as be a source for queer athletes to see themselves and gain a sense of power in a place that has historically oppressed us and tried to keep us out of. Not everyone can speak out against homophobia / transphobia in sports, and I know that as someone who was once closeted in the insular world of ice hockey. I don’t by any means mean to speak on behalf of anyone’s specific experiences except my own in these spaces and the contradictions that I witnessed when it comes to defining and displaying masculinity in these spaces. However, I hope this work can be a space where other queer athletes, closeted or out, can come and find themselves, and be acknowledged, and hopefully inspire those who are not queer to become better allies as you never know what one might be going through in a space like this. Not everyone makes it out, and we owe it to them and ourselves to pave a path forwards and fight against the unnecessary homophobia/transphobia that still exists in todays sports unfortunately. Queer people have always and will always be apart of sports, end of story.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Similarly to what I find most rewarding, the drive for my practice and what has fueled my passion over the years is to teach and educate others. Being an artist has allowed me to find the resources to do so. I was lucky enough to work as an Education Assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) while attending graduate school, where this desire was fulfilled. I had the opportunity work with a wide range of individuals, from middle and high school students, up to other graduate students and art groups who came by the MoCP, many of whom were visiting an art museum for the first time. I know how intimidating these spaces can be for those who feel like their on the outside of it, and my goal has always been to make these spaces accessible to those individuals. The concepts that much of the work in these spaces deal with is heavy and complex, so I would always try my best to break it down, make it digestible for all to be able to appreciate, not just a select few who can break through the conceptual barrier.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://noahfodor.com
• Instagram: noah.fodor

Image Credits

Noah Fodor