The Festival of New Masculinity closed last night with an event called ‘Looking for Men’ in which the sensational photographer Dean Chalkley shot 100 people in one day at The Book Club. 106 in fact, an a marathon 10 and a half hours of photography. Even more astonishing than the feat itself was the fact Dean was still as chipper as ever at the end of it. The man is a legend.

The reason for this feat was to turn the focus onto ‘the people’ to conclude the festival and show the array of men all taking positive steps in the world and engaging with the issues we have discussed at our events.

As such we put a social media call out for men to come down the shoot, which resulted in people from all around the country making the effort (and one guy straight off the plane from Australia). On the day we also recruited everyone who came within drinking distance of The Book Club, including the builders working over the road. The 106 – as they will forever be called – were all absolute gents as Dean shot them on instant film using a Lomography camera, with the hard copies then put up on the wall to form an ‘instant exhibition’. The amazing shoots with everyone – and trust us, the shots are amazing – will be put up in a special gallery on The Book of Man very soon…

In the evening we dragged Dean from the shoot room to join a special live podcast, the first in The Book of Man’s New Masculinity series in partnership with Harry’s (who were also our partners for the day and made the whole thing possible – heroes). Also on the panel were Oscar from Acid Jazz Records, ‘Bare Reality’ photographer Laura Dodsworth, Simon Gunning the CEO of CALM and Matt Hiscock from Harry’s. In front of a brilliantly engaged crowd they honestly and touchingly discussed images of masculinity – including their earliest memories of the men in their lives – and what responsibility artists, brands and the media have in depicting men today. The pressures on men to behave in certain ways are huge, and can lead to mental health problems and even suicide, as those same behavioural pressures lead to them being unable to speak up and seek help.

As with every festival event we’ve done it felt like a truly groundbreaking night where a diverse group of people can meet and connect, and the release of discussing issues which are normally taboo was palpable.

As if that wasn’t enough, afterwards we were treated to a set by DJ and producer legend Justin Robertson, who got the party going as the guests enjoyed a special installation put together by Dean from his incredible archive.

As with all our events, ticket proceeds are going to male suicide prevention charity CALM to do our bit to support the important work they do.

What a day and night to finish on!

Thanks to Marian Paterson for the shoot production, Domizia Salusest and Joseph Conway for assisting Dean, Tomomi McMaster for production assistance, the superstars at Lomography for the camera and film, JJ Media for the lighting and photography gear (seriously, thank you!), and Sonny Evans for the amazing visual displays.

And thank you to everyone who attended and helped with the festival. Particular thanks to SuperCulture for making it all happen for us, and Kara McDougall for her genius event management. Freedom Brewery were our partners for the whole thing, supplying oceans of vegan Helles for many grateful people.

But it doesn’t end here…we will be returning to events in April with our first BOM Workshop. Watch this space…

In the meantime here’s some images from the event by Emilie Bailey. Full shoot gallery coming soon: