F.I.N. Arts is proud to open our fall season with Lucien Samaha's SEVEN BOYS.

A curatorial experiment exploring identity through visual media, specifically photography in all its evolutions, SEVEN BOYS involves the work of seven Brazilian young men who utilize manipulated digital autoportraits to present themselves to an exploding virtual community known as Fotolog.

There are currently 43,140 Fotologgers, with the number growing exponentially. Brazilians comprise 40% of the total number of members. Their input accounts for almost three times that of their US counterparts, and 1.5 times more participants than the next seven countries together. Through Fotolog, users can post photographs of their choice (within certain limitations required to control potentially offensive material).

SEVEN BOYS showcases images of and by seven young men from Brazil who stood apart by exhibiting a unique ability to portray themselves creatively and seductively without relying on wearisome stereotypes, marking their departure from the customary practices of the overwhelming majority of masculine Internet interlocutors. The images range from lo-tech webcam and camphone originals to masterfully manipulated digital compositions. In keeping with the spirit of the technology, the photographs are displayed as digital prints and via monitors. The work of other young Brazilian men and women will be exhibited in the form of a digital slide show.

The names of the SEVEN BOYS are being withheld until a day before the opening in an effort to create orchestrated suspense and excitement within the Fotolog community. During the opening, photographs from the event itself will be uploaded to Samaha's Fotolog so that the artists and spectators worldwide can actively participate from their own computers, not only by simply viewing, but by posting their "Guest Signatures" in real time to the respective artists through the ingeniously built-in Fotolog Comments system.

A native of Lebanon, Lucien Samaha is an international photographer and DJ living in New York City. He has recently been published in Shift.de (Berlin), K48 (New York) and OK Fred (Tokyo). Samaha has also exhibited worldwide in galleries, museums and alternative spaces. Previously, Lucien Samaha served as Marketing Manager and Digital Applications Specialist whose many responsibilities included the launch of the very first digital camera worldwide in 1991 at Eastman Kodak Company. He is also the US co-director of the Arab Image Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating photographic heritage from the Arab World.