My Nipples Get Harder Than Your Dick

“My Nipples Get Harder Than Your Dick” is an ongoing project by non-binary photographer Maria Bolz exploring gender identity, bodily autonomy, and external perception through self-portraiture. Blending vulnerability with humour, Bolz confronts the projections and misunderstandings imposed onto their body, reclaiming the gaze as an act of resistance and self-determination.

Photography Maria Bolz


In my photographic work “My Nipples Get Harder Than Your Dick”, I explore gender identity, the body, and external perception. As a non-binary person, I use self-portraiture to make visible experiences of doubt, friction, and social projection. Humour becomes a form of self-protection and resistance. A central turning point was my surgery in 2023, which fundamentally changed my relationship to my body.

My body remains a surface for projection and is constantly read, corrected, and misunderstood in public space. Through the camera, I reclaim that gaze. Self-portraiture becomes an act of self-determination — a way of making my body visible without having to explain it or make it legible.


“I dream of a world where gender plays a secondary role, and where I am seen as I see myself.”



“My body remains a surface for projection and is constantly read, corrected, and misunderstood in public space. Through the camera, I reclaim that gaze.”


“My nipples get harder than your dick” is currently shown at Atelier für Photographie in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin until 4th June 2026. Open Fridays & Saturdays, 2–6 pm.

There’s also an artist Talk on May 28, at 7:30 pm.

The work is also available as a book, available for 35€. Please send Maria a DM or email if you’d like a copy.


About Maria

Maria Bolz is a Berlin-based photographer and visual artist whose work explores intimacy, identity, and emotional vulnerability through contemporary portraiture and conceptual imagery. A graduate of the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, their practice combines bold visual storytelling with a raw, personal aesthetic that challenges conventional ideas of femininity and connection.

To see more of their work, visit their website or follow them on Instagram


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