‘I’ve chased an idea of what being a man is all my life.’

Those words were spoken by one of the 100 men I photographed in the nude. But they could almost have been my own. You see, I have been chasing what it is to be a woman - and a man - for the last few years.

For my 2015 book Bare Reality, I photographed and interviewed 100 women about their breasts. From a 101 year-old woman who had fled the Nazis to a Buddhist nun and streaker, all spoke honestly and openly about their bodies. It was a revelation and the experience made me feel connected to my own sense of womanhood. Yet, to my surprise, at the end of the project I felt out of balance. Simply, I wanted to know men better, too. What stories would they tell?

I think that talking about ourselves can be very healing. Of course, the stereotype around men is that they don't open up about their feelings. Men's magazines might now feature cosmetics, but heartfelt emotional confessions are rare. For so long they have been taught to keep a ‘stiff upper lip’, to be ‘strong and silent’. Enough. I felt it was time to hear from men themselves.