Michael Stokes

Michael Stokes (born 1963) is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of veterans who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and male figure photographs. He has published several coffee table books of his fine art nude photography and from his large collection of vintage photographs.

Early life

Stokes grew up in Berkeley, California and graduated with a Fine Art degree through the film department at California State University, Long Beach. He wrote and directed the short film, Alien (1992).

Career

In 2012, Stokes published his first hardcover male figure study book, Masculinity, which included photographs of the late French singer, actor, and model Quentin Elias.

While working on Always Loyal, Stokes told The Huffington Post that his interest in war veterans came about after meeting United States Marine Corps veteran and amputee-turned-fitness model Alex Minsky. "I had already studied as many amputee photos that I could find. I noticed that most of them emphasized the lost limb, and that the mood was often sorrowful. That was not the vibe I was getting from him, so I decided to simply photograph him as if he were not an amputee, photograph him exactly the same way I would any of my fitness models."

In 2014, a special signed limited edition printing of Bare Strength helped raise $20,000 for the Semper Fi Fund, a charity that assists injured veterans and their families.

Facebook controversy

Stokes challenged Facebook's moderation policy after a photo was removed from his public page. The photo in question, of Minsky nude but covering his penis with an athletic cup, was deleted in February 2013 by the social network, who claimed it violated their ban on nudity. In protest, more than 4,000 of Stokes' followers shared the photograph and made it their profile picture. After Stokes questioned the photo's removal in various media outlets, the photo was reinstated and Stokes received an apology stating that the removal was an error.

In December 2013, Facebook again removed the same photo of Minsky from Stokes' page, saying it violated their Community Standards, and banned the photographer's page for 30 days.

In January 2015, Stokes was locked out of his Facebook account and told that his personal page and his professional one were to be merged for violating the network's policy of discussing work on his personal page, a claim Stokes adamantly denied. After an appeal, Stokes' two pages were not merged and he was once again granted access to both.

Stokes believed the sudden reversal was prompted by a media request from The Independent UK, who had asked Facebook to publicly comment on the removal.

Published works Masculinity (2012). Bruno Gmünder. Bare strength (2014). Bruno Gmünder.