Men, masculinities, conflict and love — images of stereotypes rejected

In 2022, world military expenditure reached its highest level to date – $2.240-billion – a number that’s hard to comprehend. That’s two and a quarter trillion dollars.

Inextricably connected to this number is another set of numbers: at least 237,000 people died in organised violence in 2022, a 97% increase over the previous year, and the highest number since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

To understand those, it is helpful to know that there were 55 different conflicts across the world in which a state was involved on one or both sides during 2022, and 82 conflicts in which rebel groups or other armed organised actors fought each other, both among the highest levels yet recorded.

Men represent the vast majority of these in militaries and armed groups.

Violence and conflict, of course, affect everyone, not just combatants. Recent data shows that about 600 million women – 15% of women in the world – lived within 50km of armed conflict in 2022, more than double the levels in the 1990s.

During these times of escalating and increasingly intractable conflicts, we are inundated with images of men in war, soldiers and mercenaries, men in political office preening and posturing to appear determined and unwilling to compromise.

Ghulam Qamber and Dil Pasand, two pilgrim friends, meeting and embracing. The 180km pilgrim journey is called Lahoot and stretches from Sehwan Sharif in Sindh province to Noorani in Baluchistan province in Pakistan. (Photo: Matthieu Paley, France)

Hassan Mohseni (39) tries to comfort his youngest daughter, Nazanin Zainab Mohseni (3) in an abandoned house in Bosanska Bojna, Bosnia and Herzegovina, just next to the EU border to Croatia. Nazanin suffers from a toothache. In 1979, Hassan fled Afghanistan with his parents. "Poverty, suffering and pain are what I remember from Afghanistan. We could not cope anymore, so we fled to Iran”. (Photograph: Mikkel Horlyck)

Left: The Mohseni family (left), with Ahmed and Hossin (right), are on their way to another border town to try an escape attempt. Bosanska Bojna, Bosnia-Herzegovina. 20 February 2021. Atefeh Mohseni (left) is 10 years old, but already an adult. ‘Yesterday we walked 25km and then we were sent back by the police,’ says Atefeh in English. ‘I got tears in my eyes when I looked at Atefeh during the trip. I thought: why should my little girl go through all these pains and problems?’ says her father Hassan (behind). Ahmed and Hossin’s (right) wives are also in Croatia, as is Hassan’s. They are all determined to reunite with them. It is a reportage photograph; nothing is staged. (Photo: Mikkel Hørlyck, Denmark)

Arley Murillo (16) is an urban dancer. Apart from attending secondary school, he is also studying to become a systems technician. His mother was the age he is now when he was born, and she has told him they were displaced from their town because of violence. In his neighbourbood there were houses where human bodies were cut up. Screams mixed with chainsaw noises could be heard from there. Murillo does not remember any of that any more, but he knows his mother has given him everything and that is why he wants to give her a better life once he is a professional dancer. They now live over the sea in a squatter district, in a beautiful pink stilt house. (Photo: Carolina Navas Gutiérrez, Colombia)

This series explores the range of emotions felt by men on Syria's frontlines and the mixed legacy being passed on to the next generation after a decade of war. These images were taken during my years of reporting inside the country, beginning in 2012. They were taken in various locations throughout Idlib province and the city of Aleppo. (Photograph: Tracey Shelton)

This series explores the range of emotions felt by men on Syria's frontlines and the mixed legacy being passed on to the next generation after a decade of war. These images were taken during my years of reporting inside the country, beginning in 2012. They were taken in various locations throughout Idlib province and the city of Aleppo. (Photograph: Tracey Shelton)

 A father plays with his son in a refugee camp on the Syrian border. Despite limited shelter, freezing nights, low supplies and thick mud, these parents still strive to give their children the best life they can. (Photo: Tracey Shelton, Australia)

Yehor H (left) (20) and his boyfriend Andrew (24) normally live in Kyiv, but fled to Lviv in western Ukraine during the first weeks of the Russian invasion. Andrew is currently writing his doctoral thesis in film directing. Yehor just started the same studies last year. (Photo: Sitara Thalia Ambrosio, Germany)

Marathon with my brother. Lata is participating in the Airtel Delhi half-marathon with other differently-abled persons. Her brother is pushing the wheelchair from behind in an enthusiastic mood to help his sister. (Photo: Sourav Karmakar, India)

Trimming the Hedges, 2019, from the ongoing series Walking with Julien. This series is an ongoing visual meditation on our walks through “Northeast,” our multi-faceted, working-class Minneapolis neighbourhood (Photograph: Andy Richter)

Intertidal Series: Intertidal is an investigation into the delicate balance that exists between the heroic idea of masculinity and the true reality of men. This is a self-portrait of Jesse Burke taken in Rhode Island, USA. (Photograph: Jesse Burke)

Leon Jason Fester, Cape Town, 2014. "Who am I in the world: I know who I am and I am comfortable in my own skin," says Leon Jason Fester in Cape Town, 2014. Quiet is a portrait series of men in South Africa, in their homes, stripped down to their underwear, sometimes confronting the viewer, in other instances finding comfort or restraint in directing their gaze elsewhere. (Photograph: Jodi Bieber)

"Who am I in the world: I am a facilitator, Psychology student and an advocate for Youth Development and empowerment in South Africa. I am a lover of learning and socialising, and I spend ninety percent of time thinking and writing down my thoughts," says Sabelo Kabelo Mnukwa in Johannesburg, 2014. Quiet is a portrait series of men in South Africa, in their homes, stripped down to their underwear, sometimes confronting the viewer, in other instances finding comfort or restraint in directing their gaze elsewhere. (Photograph: Jodi Bieber)

Members of the Chiben Wakayama Baseball team stand at attention at a pep assembly before the Summer Koshien National High School Baseball tournament. The National High School Baseball Championship of Japan, known simply as Koshien, is the biggest amateur sporting event in the country. Each August 52 teams —one from each of Japan's prefectures — partake in the summer Koshien tournament. In 2018 I was given permission to photograph Chiben Wakayama High School's baseball team during an unsuccessful tournament bid. During my time with the team, I witnessed fraternity, conformity, and hints of Japan's militant past. (Photograph: Lance Robert Henderstein)

'Guns in a Classroom'. I worked as a humanitarian aid worker for both the Canadian and the New Zealand Governments from 2002 to 2010 and visited Afghanistan on various missions where I worked as an aid worker but I carried my camera with me everywhere as I love photography and believe strongly that art in all forms is a powerful tool to fight against war and violence. (Photograph: Pedram Pirnia) DM