mindo cikanavicius’ stoic portraits bear bubble beards made from soap

mindo cikanavicius’ stoic portraits bear bubble beards made from soap
all images © mindo cikanavicius

beards have clearly become somewhat of a ‘thing’ in recent years — on designboom, we’ve featured the ‘alphabeard’ by michael allen, a typeface shaved away from facial hair; ‘beard baubles’ to decorate your face like a festive tree; and photos from a moustache championship in portland, oregon.

as a visual narration of modern man’s obsession with facial hair, new york city-based photographer mindo cikanavicius turns beards’ synonymous theme of masculinity on its head through the series ‘bubbleissimo’. a hybrid between the english word ‘bubble’ and the italian suffix ‘issimo’ — meaning extremely, or a lot — the very foamy series sees stoic portraits of smartly-dressed men sporting stubble made of soap. ‘the bubble soap beards and mustaches were applied to show how fragile manliness can be in today’s society,’ cikanavicius explains. 

a mustache is made using sculpted foamy soap suds

a style of beard known as the ‘fu manchu’ is positioned on the man’s face  

this ‘franz joseph’ beard has been applied from bubbles to comment on the fragility of masculinity 

a burly beard bubbles up around the figure’s face 

a smartly-dressed man sports stubble made of soap