Men of Action

A CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER IS JOINING FORCES WITH PROMINENT AUSTRALIAN MEN TO TAKE A STAND FOR MENTAL HEALTH

In his career as one of Australia’s most acclaimed celebrity portrait photographers, Peter Brew-Bevan has spent many years capturing the world’s beautiful people in their best light. With his latest project, a striking men’s mental health campaign called the 2020 MEN-tality project (2020mentality.com.au), Bevan is on a mission to shine a light into the deeper – and at times darker – inner lives of his subjects.

The work features portraits of notable figures accompanied by heartfelt messages celebrating the strength that can be found in vulnerability. “This project came to fruition after my personal experiences last year of learning about the loss of a couple of men within my wider social circle to suicide,” says Brew-Bevan. “Men that, on the outside, seemed completely OK.”

Looks can be deceiving. According to Beyond Blue, on average, one in eight men will experience depression and one in five men will experience anxiety at some stage in their lives. And the consequences can be dire. The number of men who die by suicide in Australia every year is nearly double the national road toll.

After seeking help to deal with feelings of anxiety and bouts of depression, Brew-Bevan discovered the dangers of “soldiering on”, particularly for men, who account for an average six out of every eight suicides every single day in Australia, reports Beyond Blue.

“I quickly came to realise, even though I thought I was a pretty open person, I actually wasn’t,” he says. “I couldn’t talk, and I certainly wasn’t listening. As a result of my experience, I have become passionate about getting the message out there. To hear and be heard. To help encourage other men to talk, but also to listen to each other. As I have come to realise, we all have issues that need to be lightened.”