Living Sculptures

My high school art teacher was a little eccentric, (which was a good thing and seems to be part of the job description for art teachers!) She helped students through personal projects that had nothing to do with the exam material, calmly reviewed proposals for twenty-foot high paintings, and was an expert at tackling students paralysed by artist’s block a week before the deadline.
One of my friends wasn’t happy with her work and on hearing her plea for inspiration, our teacher cried “but how can you be stuck- you’re a walking work of art!!!”
I could almost see the light bulb turning on in my friend’s head. Her subsequent self-portraits received an A.

Seeing the human body as a living sculpture isn’t exactly an original concept, or a difficult one for many photographers and models- the tricky part is often getting the viewer to see what you do.

For some people, the challenge is getting past the obvious:
“She’s naked.”
“That’s right- but look at the pose and the way her body is positioned. It is perfectly symmetrical- the light makes her curves even more pronounced…”
“But she’s naked!”
And on and on and on…

Making an impression on other artists is even more difficult as most have seen it all before at the very least. Many have tried it themselves. That’s where the lighting, positioning and imagination come in- especially inside a white box with- if the team is lucky- a cube or step for the model to pose on.
Not that shooting outdoor nudes is easy- it isn’t- but a lot of decisions are already made. On location there are infinite focal points, a change of scenery usually within a minute’s walk, a variety of things for the model to pose with, in, on or under- and there’s a nice round sun to help with the lighting decisions (or hinder them until five ‘o’ clock precisely when the light suddenly becomes perfect)!
A studio is literally a ‘blank canvas’. There are so many ways to treat the curves, angles, ripples, joints and plains that make up a human body, that such a project could last a lifetime- and that’s without factoring in models of different genders, colours and shapes!

It is while browsing studio nudes that I find I can identify the best of the art models- bizarrely, this is because shooting abstract or sculptural nudes often involves doing the opposite of what modelling usually entails! As a model, scrunching yourself into a ball may not feel like the most attractive position, but when photographed from the right angle the creases and awkwardness of the pose are hidden and instead, you resemble a smooth living stone.
Close-ups are often joked about- it is a daunting thing to see your elbow in all it’s wrinkly glory… but if the viewer sees amazing texture captured in an abstract shot, then you have earned your meals that day!
While it is lovely to be recognised in photos (“another wonderful shot posed by _______” is always nice to hear), hiding models’ heads instantly makes the photograph about the form, rather than the identity of the person posing and so sometimes it is better to shut egos away, keep our heads down, and hope to be recognised for our incredible knees!

There are only so many ways the human body can be arranged and so accidentally copying someone else’s pose is a nightmare of many models. (Trying to avoid this with experimental posing often results in some hilarious outtakes!) However, trying to invent a new pose- whether it can be done or not- and, in the case of abstract nudes, banishing your inner model (along with the ego) is what, in my opinion can make a great pose.

And when the aforementioned great pose is captured by an equally-great photographer? That’s when the magic happens…


ROSWELL



First image: "Underlap", by Matthew Scherfenberg. I love the marble-like appearance of the model's legs. (And could see this on a pedestal in a gallery!)

Second image: by Lightphile Studios. This is the definition of a "living stone". Beautiful pose.


Some more beautiful pictures:

3) by Keital.

This image reminds me of the yin/yang symbol in the way that the model (Anita de Bauch)'s face is shown in one reflection but not the other. If you look without trying to separate the reflection from the real image, the different curves and lines take on an abstract quality.















4) by Jose Manuel de Caso

I see so many photographs of swans taking this pose, but it didn't occur to me that models could! I really like the sensuality- even eroticism- of this image, without it being explicit.














5) by B L Photography

It is always fascinating to see the work of art-nude models when they are behind the camera! This photo is a self-portrait by nude model Brooke Lynne- and a great example of an unusual pose that works to great effect.













6) by Jose Manuel de Caso

I love the pose and the contrast of the model's body with the dark background. Proof that the model does not have to be contorted to produce a wonderful image!












7) by R Davidson

I did not know the human body could make a heart shape in so many ways! If you focus on the model's outline, you can almost see another heart shape!














8) by Franklin Photographs

I love the way the lighting emphasizes the muscles and shadows on the model's body- and the tension in her fingers and toes.
Comparing this picture to the one above, it's a good example of how a small change in pose can change an image entirely.








9) "Ear", by Matthew Scherfenberg.

This image seems simple at first glance but the longer I look, the more details I see- especially the changes in tone around the jawline and hair. Beautiful piece of art.

Venus is a real woman: the photography of Grace Vane Percy

Happy New Year everyone! 


This is our first feature for 2012 and we are starting off our new series with Grace Vane Percy, an internationally recognised London based art photographer who specialises in nude female portraiture.  

Clients come to her from France, Italy, Sweden, Holland and Monte Carlo and she  also travels to New York to photograph women. Grace’s clients are professional and independently successful women, her work is a celebration of their natural femininity and unique beauty. 
In other words, Grace does not work with "professional" models. It is an interesting choice, one that certainly challenges preconceived notions of beauty. Her work celebrates beauty and the female form and is about empowering women to think differently about their bodies.

Trained as visual artist at Central Saint Martin’s, Grace went on to study fine art and the techniques of the Old Masters in Florence. Grace sees her work as directly influenced by classical art as well as the work of mid/late 19th century English and early 20th Century European (especially Czech and German) photographers. 

 In 2004 Grace was invited to join the ‘Women In Photography’ Archive at Yale. She has had many solo exhibitions around the world and is currently being exhibited at Art Palm Beach, represented by Christopher Walker Art. Learn  more about her by perusing her website.

I came across Grace's work in 2009 and we were briefly in touch. Last month the Evening Standard magazine carried a feature about her and this prompted me to reconnect. She graciously agreed (no pun intended) to contribute to UdA which she found very much to her taste. 

I asked her two questions "Why real women rather than models?" and "Why film?" (Grace does not work with digital for her personal projects).

Let's hear it from her.

Why real women?

It just so happens that I am currently producing a body of work based on Venus, which ties in nicely with your question “Why real women?”

Nude female portraiture, that is to say the artistic depiction of the nude female form in art, harks back to the very origins of art itself. From the moment that man could conceive of art he has depicted the human form. But the creation of the nude as an art form in its own right and not just the subject, comes to us directly from the Ancient Greeks in the 5th century BC. The worship of Aphrodite or Venus and her celebration as the goddess of love, beauty and fertility was unquestioning of the fact she was a woman and the embodiment of physical desire. In fact this mysterious and compulsive force was embraced as an element of her sanctity. The concept of Venus has always unapologetically celebrated and glorified the female form. 

The reality of any nude in art of course, is that its inspiration comes from an actual human body. Venus’s root is a woman’s body, a real woman’s body. In her many depictions art and art history are full of endless differing nude female forms, inspired by and indeed copied from life, from real women.

Simply put Venus is the worship of the triumph of the female form and the cult of its beauty. “Art”, says Aristotle, “completes what nature cannot bring to a finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature's unrealised ends”. And so we see that the existence of ideal beauty is a creation from art. Praxiteles (of the late 4th) the first sculptor to be credited with sculpting a life sized female nude was as famous as his muse Phryne and together they are credited with the creation of some of the most beautiful works of art to enrich the classical world. Sadly only replicas now remain, but their collaboration is well documented and certainly one of the earliest examples of countless such artist/’model’ associations. This particular ‘model’ being any woman inspiring to the artist who was prepared to pose nude.

My current Venus project is conceptually loosely linked with Pygmalion. The idea is to photograph women referencing the Goddess Venus (mother of all female nudity in art), posed within neoclassical architectural surroundings. The locations will include some of the UK’s most celebrated and renowned stately homes. The halls, sculpture galleries, temples, ruins, alcoves and fountains, will provide an apposite setting. The project is aimed at highlighting the natural, sculptural form of the body.

Why film?

Not only am I totally in love with the romance of film – the idea that when you’re looking at a negative it is a precise split second of history captured – like a miniature time capsule of the exact moment when the light and chemicals combined. It’s like an imprint of the light we reflect constantly, and our eye sees constantly, that has been caught, suspended and preserved – what could be more magical?!

But also I find it gives this wonderfully rich tonal depth, which is especially valuable when the camera is describing skin. There are two films I shoot with pretty much exclusively – Ilford FP4 (120 roll film) and Ilford Delta 3200 (120 roll film), I use one for flash and one for daylight, they both give different qualities.

When I’m looking at a subject I want to capture that pearl like richness the skin holds and the luminous tones as the surface moves from light the shadow. I think no digital print can rival the depth and beauty of a high quality tradition hand print. My printer is a master at what she does, she has nearly 25years experience and a great understanding of the subtlety that is involved in good printing.

 

Thank you, Grace. Your work is thought provoking and inspiring.  We hope to see more of it and good luck with all your projects!

model transformation

another video I like to share:
I have to admit I too occasionally manipulate my images, tuck a bit here and nip a bit there, just to get a more desired look and shape ...

happy winter solstice to you all

Never understood women but always loved them

Andrew Keiser can be found on deviantArt. He also has a website and writes his own blog. And he is not new to UdA, he has been featured before!

Here is Andrew in his own words:

"I’ve never understood women, and yet I’ve always loved them.  With every picture I take it seems that fascination grows deeper and deeper and enlightenment all the more elusive.  But still, I firmly believe if you strip away all that is unnecessary, all that women normally hide behind and use to define themselves, you will eventually see a small sliver of light to the soul with the click of a shutter.

My work covers a variety of mediums and methods including traditional film, Polaroid, and Pinhole photography.  In the end, it is not about capturing beauty or fantasy, but instead about creating what is human in all of us."


And this is a selection made by Andrew of his own favourite shots

I like when an image expresses joy.  I think far too often people treat artistic nudes as if they have to be some serious thing when that isn't necessarily true.

Sunshine will last

I am a complete sucker for a model staring right into the camera with confidence and strength.  I think this image captures that very well.

Tomorrow is sunday

A cold gaze

Sometimes an image can be both cold and warm at the same time.  This is one of those occasions.  

I often have a hard time what is more important; the subject or the environment that surrounds her.  It's a really rare thing when I can give them both equal weight.

Walking the line

Before it was summer

Basic shapes can often make great images.  Some women have those shapes in abundance and it never hurts to capitalize on that.

I could really make something up here about the subject becoming the photographer and what it means as an image maker to have the tables turned on him.  But in reality I'm a nerd and I like old cameras.  As such it often becomes a theme in what I do that I tell my subjects to just hold something pretty like a Rollei.  

Point and shoot

My lovely shapes

When I took this image I was thinking about geometric shapes and I told the model to mimic a triangle.  This is how she enacted that request.

Brooke Falls

Again, right into the camera.  No apologies, no forgiveness.  Just being who you are is a really wonderful thing.

Curve and Tone

A lot of times people think all I do is photograph super skinny women.  Believe it or not but I like curves.  In fact I like them a lot!  

Out of time

This is a rare indoor image that I am quite fond of.  The model's body language is very subtle but at the same time very telling.  There is an energy about it I've never been quite sure about which just draws me into it more!

Thank you Andrew! We wish you all the best for the future.






An announcement for all art nude lovers: 
Mark Varley has just published a book "Derelict Nudes" a collection of photography featuring Nudes in Derelict locations, featuring the work of several photographers and models
For your copy of the book please visit here. More about the artists here

Erik's moment

I have known Erik Flak (Phydeau on deviantArt) since I joined dA in June 2008 and we have become online friends and collaborators - we are both involved with the dA group Fine Art-Photography and the one I recently founded with Iris Dassault, Models-Photographers.
Erik has been taking photographs for some years and I have particularly admired his underwater nudes, one of which was recently awarded a Daily Deviation (a DD as it is known) on dA.

Abandon

I have asked Erik to tell us a little about himself and his work.

"My name is Eric Flak, and I'm currently located in North Carolina.  I've been doing photography since I was 11 after winning a cheap toy camera in a contest.  There really wasn't much I could do with that camera, so my parents got me an SLR and a tripod that Christmas, along with some books on photography.  I took pictures until I went to college, at which point I was required to pay for my own film and developing.  I slowed down a lot after that.  Later, point-and shoot digital cameras came along, and I gave up on the SLR all together.  Point-and-shoot cameras aren't bad - I managed to get the occasional good shot - but they really just don't have the control of an SLR.

Lush love

During those years, my main artistic outlet was through drawing.  I liked to draw people, and in particular nudes.  A friend introduced me to deviantART in 2006 so I could show off my drawings.  I quickly became addicted to the site.  I had no idea there were that many talented artists in the world.  dA changed my view toward photographic artistic nudes.  I didn't know there were that many people doing that, either.  It was the first time I got involved in a discussion of art vs. pornography.  Until then, I had made the assumption that with very rare exceptions most photographic nudes were of the prurient variety.  I changed that way of thinking quickly.  The artistic nude gallery is probably the reason my interest in photography was renewed.

My most popular deviation at the time was actually not a drawing, but a composite image I made by morphing 32 faces together.  I did 3 of those, using the same celebrities at 3 different angles.  I decided that I wanted to do the project again, only with more control of the variables as opposed to the random weirdness I got from internet searches.  While I was at it, I thought it might be a good idea to do it full-torso.  I asked for volunteers, and the only responses I got were all along the lines of, "Eh, seems like you just want girls to send you naked pictures."  There's a dozen reasons why that was ridiculous, but I didn't argue with them.  I just said to myself, "Well.  I guess I'm going to have to do it myself.  And that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks:  "Why the hell am I NOT a nude photographer?"  I decided that moment to finally break down and buy a DSLR.

Home

I didn't just jump into it, though.  I spent almost 2 years learning to use the camera well, and practicing hard.  Sometimes I used myself as a model.
My biggest challenge is money.  I can't afford to hire models, and the bible belt isn't exactly crawling with models willing to work for trade.  Thankfully, my main model, Cassandra, has been kind to me a few times.  What they say is true.  The more times you work with a model the easier it gets.  We're more like friends than just photographer and model, now.

Lush

I'd like to eventually broaden the types of models I work with.  Different ages, weights, ethnicities, and not just women.

My favorite photograph is one of the first I ever took of a model.  I knew I wanted a specific look, but I wasn't able to articulate what exactly that was.  I had her positioned on the edge of the bathtub for over ten minutes trying to get it.  Finally, there was this moment.  I suspect she was running out of ideas of how to pose in such a confined way, and for a second she stopped posing.  That brief moment when she was in her own head was what I wanted.

The Moment

I titled the piece "The moment" not just for that reason, but because it was the turning point for me.  Until then, I thought I wasn't going to hack it as a photographer.  I was worried that I   was wasting her time, and that I'd be percieved as the "GWC".  After that shot, I felt unstoppable, and the rest of the shoot went beautifully.  It was my moment, too"

Thank you Erik, for sharing that moment with us.

WAYS OF SEEING (female nude)

 this is part 1 of 4 from a a video, I highly recommend watching

Nude in Art

 a while ago a young model from Spain sent me a link to this video, (an image her was included in this)
they are a set and much fun to watch

the place of the art nude in public venues

congratulations to contributing artist David Winge
his work is a part of exhibition inspired by the Spirit & Place theme ‘The Body’

"The Calling"
Art Model: Conundra

INDIANAPOLIS (Oct. 13, 2011) – The nude human figure in fine art has been both celebrated and censored, with its creation and display being influenced by academia and religion and its virtue debated by everyone.

As part of the 2011 Spirit & Place Festival – which carries the theme “The Body” – a group show at Stutz Art Space will explore the question of the art nude’s place in public venues.

WHERE: Stutz Art Space, 212 W. 10th St. (Please enter from 10th street via Bearcat Alley)
COST: Free
INFO: www.stutzartists.com or (317) 503-6420

Nudes of 'ordinary' women

This is a topic dear to my heart and about which I wrote in my personal blog. Following that post I contacted Jane Lancashire, after seeing her website. Jane  is a photographer who specialises in doing nudes of women who do not model, either professionally or semi-professionally, and who want such images for themselves, just to feel good about themselves. 
The results are stunning as you can see from the photographs. 

Says Jane:
"It is such rewarding work, celebrating the natural, feminine curves and reminding women how beautiful they are. The creative journeys I share with clients make this a particularly enjoyable type of photography.

Clients will find that even if they have some reservations about removing their clothes, this passes almost immediately and almost everyone has commented on how liberating the experience is."

The testimonials on her website, from women who have experienced being photographed nude, often for the very first time, are proof that what she does is amazing, in terms of helping women to feel beautiful and confident.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore it is perfectly possible to obtain high quality images when photographing women who may not be conventionally beautiful, but as people they are interesting and have a beauty which the camera may (or may not) capture, depending on who is taking the photograph. Jane knows how to make a woman unleash the inner goddess which is in all of us.

When I see Jane's images I feel that the only difference between me as a model and any of her clients is simply that I am more used to being photographed and feel very confident in front of the camera, regardless of who is holding it. It took a while to gain that confidence but I have it now and it will never go away. This is what allows me to be a model. There are times when some (male) photographers, usually middle aged,  try to shutter that confidence by claiming that "the best models are girls under eighteen". I look at them with pity, as what they are saying is but a projection of their desires. I am a photographer myself and I know that the camera is but an extension of my eyes. It sees what I see and my images embody my own prejudices. I believe women are beautiful, simply by being themselves,  and it's wonderful to see someone like Jane putting this philosophy into practice.

I can't help quoting here what one of the women photographed by Jane says:

"Thank you Jane for reminding us of who we are, who we can be and giving the choice of who we wish to be"

Thank you Jane for doing what you do!

Alex






More about Jane at The Real Does Not Efface Itself




(The women you see in these photos wish to remain anonymous, therefore they are not named)