Social pressures are relentless. They dictate norms, they deny our base instincts, they tell us to sit down and shut up. And we obey, perhaps because we have always obeyed. But what happens when the pace and pressure are unbearable?That's when we release the primal.

Georg
I’ve traveled constantly since reading this and a large part of my practice has become documenting the trials and tribulations in the lives of the people I meet.
I look at the way modern-day identities seem to be built around a visual reality where the events of actually having friends, adventures and experiences are replaced by imitating the occurrences on the Internet or watching them on television.
This phenomenon interests me and makes me want to draw my subject matter as real living things, narrated in a world where all segments of society and reality can cross over and play out our long forgotten impulses in a hyper primal state.

Joshua Levi
Social pressures are relentless. They dictate norms, they deny our base instincts, they tell us to sit down and shut up. And we obey, perhaps because we have always obeyed. But what happens when the pace and pressure are unbearable? That’s when we release the primal.

In my photos and installations I have tried to capture the influences affecting the way people act and live in ‘the now’ – the present moment at its purest. I’m inviting a willing act of exhibitionism that gets the primal fear thrumming, and in this work there is also an opportunity to commit a figurative act of nakedness and reflection on the self and the soul. I am asking what will happen if we allow our essential drives and desires to be squashed by rules and regulations. Will those base instincts rear up with more power than if we had given them some room in the first place? What happens when social pressure succumbs to primal need?

Using tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs, I found my photographic subjects. From the disenfranchised homeless to those who run our country, and from men’s magazine models to my closest friends, everyone is affected by the fast pace at which our lives are forced to move. Perhaps this is why so many people were keen to be involved in this project. When I asked for nude models, I received responses from people I had never met! This may be a reflection on the way that the social media revolution has created a new way for us to be comforted in times of stress, because it allows us to connect on a mass scale.

I use photography to convey meaning because it is instantaneous, particularly in this digital generation. Everything happens right now and there is no time to waste, which may be why social media is so popular. The combination of photography and social media is therefore a very powerful form of expression. I’m also very passionate about life, and photography allows me to use the high energy my passion generates. It keeps me fully focused and in a way it is my own method of channelling my primal desire to create.

— Minimise