The curve of a hip, the softness of a breast, the firmness of a buttock, the way a body contorts in pain or ecstasy, how skin wrinkles and loosens with age, the fat or the thin, healthy or sick... we never tire of looking at the human body, whether for its beauty, erotic, intimate, or truth bearing qualities.
The human body hasn’t changed throughout history but the way we photograph it, and the boundaries on how we can reveal the nude (or not) is a matter that is related to cultural boundaries, one that shifts over time and varies in different belief systems and different cultures.
In photography’s 180-year history the body has always been present. Daguerre himself and his circle took nude photographs between 1837 and 1840. Due to the extremely long exposure they originally used small scale copies of Roman and Greek sculptures before live models could replace them when exposure time could be measured in seconds rather than minutes. This slice of history is expressed in the curation of Michael Kenna’s prints by combining his photographs of sculptures and female nudes. His nude series, titled ‘Rafu’, is highly sculptural and yet the way he captures sculptures makes them mysteriously life-like. The women Kenna photographed are all Japanese; dancers, actresses, office workers, photographers and yoga practitioners, taken during his various visits to Japan over a 10 year period, which one could say is his spiritual home. He is almost revered as Japan’s national photographer even though he never lived there and is not Japanese himself but because of his incredible sensibility towards Japan and having photographed its temples, shrines, gardens, seascapes and landscapes for over 30 years.
The first photo-book ever made was in 1843 by Anna Atkins who bundled a set of photographic prints (cyanotype photograms) of algae and plant leaves. There is currently a renewed interest globally in analogue photography as well as alternative printing techniques, maybe as an antidote to the increasing digitisation of our lives. Ben Felten’s cyanotypes keep Atkins' memory alive not only by working with the cyanotype process but visually, through the blend of plants and nudes in the form of double exposures. Like Kenna’s work, what appears effortless is in fact highly technical, resulting in each handmade cyanotype print being unique with its own tones and markings.
The push and pull between naked and nude, eroticism and beauty, sexuality and purity... is ever evolving. Today there is a great wave of awareness surrounding gender politics, race and LGMTQ+ rights and it is undeniable that in the past the majority of nudes in art were created by white male artists. But that has changed, albeit slowly, and we are now able to see the world through many different and more interesting lenses. Millennials who are battling the semi-recent developments of social media are also fighting against the old world rules, the idea of gender fluidity or neutrality, and other expressions of ‘self’, is becoming part of everyday vocabulary. One of the friends that Au Tze Long photographed titled the ‘Witch’ series is all about this ambiguity, the male and the female elements in this person are interchangeable and in this, lies the beauty of the photographs. This is part of Au’s ‘offering’ to her models, a ritual by which to bare all but with the agreement to represent this vulnerability in a sensitive way.
One of her series which will be on display is of SiuDing, the pioneer of body positivity in Hong Kong, who has been pushing the barriers through life drawing and exhibitions but primarily by giving her own body as vehicle to show that the body is beautiful and wonderful in all its variations. Hong Kong is still very conservative and nudity/nakedness is often associated with prostitution and the bias that exists towards this ‘lower class’ section of society. Another interesting series of Au’s work is based on her dreams, titled ’Intosomnia.’ Here she sees the characters as “just human bodies, flesh and pain” - sexuality is not the topic. Instead the unclothed bodies set in natural outdoor landscapes expose “memories, feelings, the weaker self, the darkness and the inner child. It is said that nakedness in dreams translates to being helpless or anxious in the dreamers reality."
The therapeutic space created by Tze Long has some similarities to Felten who uses amateur models and encourages a safe space for them to be naked, with a clear contract that the model can choose which photographs are later shown to the public as well as giving them a percentage of the profits from future print sales - which is a rare gesture indeed.
Although ‘the nude’ is a gigantic field within art and photography - we humbly present to you three voices and three photographic studies on the topic. In doing so we also open up our own horizons, this being the first time Blue Lotus Gallery presents an exhibition of only photographic nudes.
More information:Nudes Studies 裸體研究 | Au, Felten & KennaExhibition Dates: 13 May-13 June 2021Opening Reception: Thursday 13 May, 4-8 pmVenue: Blue Lotus Gallery, G/F 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong bluelotus-gallery.com
