Masculinity is the subject of photographers Eva Lipman and Ken Graves' exhibit, In the Company of Men.

The black-and-white photographs that have been on display in the HUB-Robeson Gallery since March 18 depict men in isolated social environments everywhere from the military to wrestling.

Graves, who is a professor of art at Penn State, and Lipman were interested in how males behave and display their masculinity.

"The mood in general is those isolated moments of misperformance and unguarded demeanor," Lipman said. "It is about men with other men and how they relate socially through bonding and intimacy."

The images portray a sense of high concentration and intensity.

"The subjects are so involved in their own discipline that they are unaware of the photographer," Lipman said.

The photographs focus on the ritual and social practice of males in specific institutes and situations.

They capture what goes on behind the scenes, rather than the events themselves.

"The exhibit is brilliantly edited. I had the opportunity to see the photographs individually, but never as a collection," said Lara Dutta, Graves and Lipman's daughter.

"I was impressed with how everything fit together and how it showed masculinity in terms of vulnerability."

Prior to the collaboration, Lipman was involved in social work, but decided instead to pursue her interest in photography by working with Graves, who taught photography for more than 20 years. The two have been collaborating for about 12 years.

Graves was recently honored with the distinguished Guggenheim Fellowship Award to fund their work for In the Company of Men. The collection is an expansion of earlier photographs by Grave and Lipman on boxing and bodybuilding.

"Ken had been in the Navy and was interested in photographing men in that atmosphere," Lipman said. "We had also taken photographs of the Demolition Derby and football games and we realized we had a theme going."

Together they do free-lance work and self-assignments.

Their works have been sold to major museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

"Since the feminist movement, males are in the process of rediscovering their masculinity and this is what makes the exhibit so interesting," said Ann Shields, the gallery head of the HUB-Robeson Galleries.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at Penn State and will be on display until April 30.