Shame is a tired currency, and Christopher Sherman treats it exactly that way. His first solo exhibition, Your Shame Bores Me, presented by Yabu Pushelberg in Toronto, builds a visual language that refuses the predictable script of restraint. Sherman pushes desire, vulnerability, and human messiness into full view. His portraits move through intimacy, performance, and power with an unapologetic directness, exposing how much of our emotional lives get shaped by fear of being seen. The tension between horniness, honesty, and the cultural machinery that polices both becomes the ground his work stands on.
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In this conversation with DSCENE Magazine’s Borislav Utjesinovic, Sherman speaks about horniness as an artistic practice, the exhaustion of shame, and the delicate work of building trust in front of a camera. He talks about photographing cultural icons without feeding their mythology, creating space where discomfort becomes productive, and why imperfection remains the most political stance available to an artist working inside systems obsessed with polish. The result is a portrait of someone intent on stripping away the inherited rules around desire and image-making, choosing instead to build a world where honesty is allowed to exist without apology.
Your first solo exhibition is titled Your Shame Bores Me. What is it about shame that feels so repetitive, so tedious, that you’ve decided to dismiss it outright? – Shame is often this repetitive, exhausting loop that keeps us from moving forward in our lives, holding us back from our dreams and desires. I see it as a social construct that’s been overused to control and silence us. Dismissing it outright is my way of reclaiming my life, refusing to let shame dictate my story or inhibit my human expression. We’re on a giant rock called earth rotating in the universe; I’m here to experience it all.
Shame is often this repetitive, exhausting loop that keeps us from moving forward in our lives.
You’ve built a whole body of work around horniness. Why do you see horniness as radical rather than frivolous? – Because horniness disrupts the sanitized, polished versions of desire we’re often fed. It’s a raw, honest force inside us that challenges societal expectations and creates space for real power over our bodies and feelings. In that way, it’s inherently radical, an act of rebellion against repression. Looking around at the world today, I think we all could use a little more radical honesty in how we live as humans.
Fashion, art, and eroticism often orbit each other. How do you navigate the line between commerce and intimacy in your photography? – I see these worlds as intertwined rather than separate. What are fashion and art often selling? … SEX. My goal is to create images that feel both desirable and authentic – bridging the superficial and the vulnerable. It’s about building trust and respect, so intimacy isn’t manufactured but emerges naturally, even within commercial contexts.
Vulnerability and performance collide in your portraits. How do you convince your subjects to lean into discomfort? Is it about creating space where they no longer feel judged? – Exactly. It’s about building a relationship rooted in honesty and understanding. I always tell my subjects we have two priorities on set: 1. Protect their personal energy, and 2. Make great images, and it has to be in that order.
I create a space where discomfort is seen as part of growth, not a failure. When subjects trust that judgment has no place here, they’re more willing to lean into those uncomfortable edges. I also put my full name on all things horny to lead by example and inspire others to explore different parts of themselves.
Your Shame Bores Me includes portraits of cultural icons like David Cronenberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Adam Driver, and Vivek Shraya. How do you balance celebrity myth with your own insistence on honesty? – One of my favorite quotes from Geri Halliwell’s “Look at Me” video is “Image is often our imagination, reality is rarely revealed.” Hollywood, fashion, and celebrity are all about illusion and dream-making. The celebrities I’ve photographed are all real human beings with real human baggage.
I embrace their mythic status but strip away the veneer to reveal their humanity. Honesty comes from acknowledging complexity, celebrity isn’t about perfection; it’s vulnerability in disguise. My portraits aim to peel back those layers and show the authentic selves beneath the myth.
Horniness disrupts the sanitized, polished versions of desire we’re often fed.
Your work resists polish, even when it’s commercial. Is imperfection a political act for you? – Definitely. I worked as a Creative Director for over 10 years before choosing to follow my own artistic path. In the commercial world, perfection is king, but in perfection, you strip an image or idea of its soul. You end up serving your audience nothing but superficiality.
Perfect images often reinforce these shallow standards. Embracing imperfection challenges that norm and affirms that authenticity, messiness, and vulnerability have real value, politically, personally, and artistically. Honestly, I’d rather have a horny day than a perfect one.
You’ve described horniness as an “artistic and cultural practice.” What do you think culture would look like if we embraced horniness without stigma? – My motto is “Have A Horny Day.” I want people to embrace the things that make them horny in their lives. To me, pursuing what makes you horny is about self-love and saying no to the fears and shame that hold us back.
A sex-positive, horny world would be a freer, more honest place, less ashamed of desire as a natural part of human experience. Without stigma, we could build a culture that celebrates pleasure, consent, and intimacy as essential parts of a healthy, balanced life.
What happens after shame? – We reclaim ourselves. The selves behind the masks we all wear. After shame, there’s space for authenticity, joy, and messy humanity. It’s about embracing what was once hidden and transforming it into our strengths.
Which everyday object do you secretly find erotic? – I believe books are the most erotic objects in the world. They hold countless radical, horny ideas, no wonder people have always tried to ban them. But beyond the words and images, I find books erotic because of their touch and feel, the texture of pages, the way they invite you to linger, to explore, and to get lost in their sensory richness. That’s why a horny book is my next focus.
After shame, there’s space for authenticity, joy, and messy humanity.
This issue of DSCENE is The New Disorder. Do you see your practice as creating disorder, or simply exposing the mess that was always there beneath the surface? – I see it as exposing the truthful mess that is being human. Disorder isn’t necessarily chaos, sometimes it’s just revealing truths that have been hidden or ignored, making space for a more honest, unfiltered identity to emerge. Living a horny life unabashedly is about embracing pleasure and desire as vital parts of my happiness, because when we honour what makes us feel alive, we find joy that’s truly good for us.
