(not) Naked with Masks - my 2nd NFT collection 👺

ellloooo!!! So this is the other thing I've been working on lately and I've been eager to share - introducing: (not) Naked with Masks
My new and 2nd NFT photography collection; 16 Censorship-Resistant Portraits 🥳👺

This collection is dropping on Aug 4 but I wanted to share it with you personally before! The photos were taken between 2010-2016, and there's more information about everything below.

Also, you can find all of the info about the series, images as well as the private and public sale on this new gallery I made on my website TODAY: 

therealbenhopper.com/Projects/not-Naked-with-Masks 

If you really want to dig in, you can download the Press Kit, it's linked at the bottom there 😎

In short, this is all of the basic info to know:

• Private sale Tue-Wed, Aug 2nd-3rd. Sign up to be notified by email: bit.ly/3Q0nKSc. Join my Discord (same updates there): discord.gg/vXtcwE7spn
• Public sale Thursday, Aug 4th at 10am LA (PDT) / 1pm NYC (EDT) / 6pm LDN (BST) on sloika.xyz 
• Sloika’s Twitter Spaces Drop Party: Thursday, Aug 4th at 1pm NYC (EDT) on @sloikaxyz 

That's it, for now. I'm really excited about it!! If you know anyone else who might enjoy this project, pls feel free to forward any of these links to them. If you're free on Aug 4th for the Spaces Drop Party, PLEASE JOIN US! I'd LOVE to hear from ya!

Thank you, and more soon ;) Ben x

(not) Naked with Masks

Why do we display our faces but cover our bodies? Walk around fully clothed and no one gives it a second thought, but walk down the street naked and you may be arrested for ‘indecent exposure’.
In 2010, Ben Hopper started work on ‘Naked with Masks’, a portrait series that parodied self-censorship and unlawful exposure by photographing anonymous models in public locations – nude except for their eye-catching masks. Each unauthorised shoot was carefully planned and tightly executed. Quick set-up, rapid getaway.
In the end, the police never arrived, but censorship soon came from another source: social media. Shortly after going viral, images from Naked with Masks led to a ban on the newly founded Instagram. It was the first of many strikes against Hopper’s work, and an early sign of how online platforms would grow to police both artists and the human body.

‘(not) Naked with Masks’ is a companion series to Hopper’s iconic original project which resonates with its themes of censorship, identity and acceptance. Each shot captures the seconds before a final picture was taken, with models posing to fix the framing and light exposure before the big reveal – and before escaping the scene.
Ironically, this covered-up collection is the one that can finally pass the ‘no entry’ signs of social media and society at large. Masked, discreet, anonymous – disguised and unreal.

All portraits for ‘(not) Naked with Masks’ were taken between 2010 and 2016 in London, Montreal, and the Israeli desert.
The larger 'Naked with Masks' series collects some of Hopper’s most memetic images and will be released in the near future as one of his genesis NFT collections.