From May to December 2019, I photographed campus parties thrown by the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity chapter at Florida International University. After sitting on the work for a few years, I compiled it into an exhibition and photo book titled “APPETITE” which explores and deconstructs masculinity through the lens of American fraternity culture. Its name is based on Plato’s tripartite theory of the soul, a hierarchical division where appetite, the lowest part of the soul, is categorized by bodily desire: hunger, thirst, and pleasure.

“APPETITE” probes at the link between gender and sexuality, queering a heteronormative space as a subversive act. Homoeroticism becomes a critical tool to disrupt a system that reproduces and reinforces a culture of patriarchy, misogyny, domination, substance abuse, and hypersexuality.