Final Shoots...

So with my project deadline looming ever closer, I spent my Easter holidays cracking on with my final project, if you remember my post from the 6th March you will know what it is all about. But for those who don't, here's the general gist of it, I am doing self portraits that focus on my body and the theories around the male gaze. They are also representing this transitional period of my life, leaving education and entering the world and are therefore very bold and hopefully like Jenny Saville's work (see blog entry 25th March) deliciously fleshy! I decided to stick to more subtle images than some from my first shoot, focusing on feminine curves and suggestions. So enjoy and please let me know your thoughts about any prints you think I should use for finals!

"If there's a narrative, I want it in the flesh."

For my new project I have been researching female artists who use the female form in their work. After purchasing Phaidon's brilliant new book The Artist's Body, I became fascinated with the work of Jenny Saville, especially her collaboration with photographer Glen Luchford of which some images are shown below. This work really caught my eye as it captures the female nude in the way I am looking into, unromanticized and raw unlike how I believe a lot of male photographers always document it. Saville's body is not perfect in the way the media represents women and the photographs are deliciously fleshy.

Saville lays on top of a large sheet of perspex as Glen Luchford, a fashion photographer, photographs from below. The resulting images present a female nude distorted by pressing heavily on the perspex but is also beautiful due to the use of light and the opulent slickness of photography. Both seductive and disturbing, Saville's form is being pushed out of the 'canvas' towards the viewer rather than remaining safely at a distance, a theme I am working with within my self portraits for my final project, showing raw, unperfect flesh right up in the viewer's face. The huge scale of Saville's photographs, together with the cropping of her body, which almost completely fills the frame, contribute to the overwhelming sense of flesh and are a huge inspiration for my, more subtle, but fleshy self portraits.

Mari Sarai - 'Naked'

Walking past a little gallery called 'Doors Showcase' in Shoreditch an exhibition poster caught my eye, it was photographer Mari Sarai's series Naked. I had never heard of her before but was automatically drawn in to an exhibition that celebrates the naked form in a series of beautiful photographs featuring the liberation of powerful woman and all their glory. There are many ways the naked body can be interpreted and as a photographer who is interested in exploring ways of depicting the nude form in my current project, it was really refreshing to see such a bold presentation of the female body, it captures how a woman's eye sees a woman's body, without any of theh sexual undertones that male photographers seem to always induce, but still celebrating the sexual aspects of the female form.

Sarai's images are very intimate and playful. She celebrates the expressiveness of the female body and shows that nudity is not negative, dark or seedy and for this I congratulate her. I am definitely now encouraged to pursue the naked form in my new project and hope I can celebrate and capture them as well as she does.

The exhibition is on until 13th October, so if you get a chance, go see it!

The Body

A project I really enjoyed doing as it was my first nude shoot. I am really pleased with the lighting in these images, it's very subtle and hits the body beautifully. I really love the images and am pleased with how comfortable I have now become using a studio, which is something I love doing and of course, a very useful skill to have!