What Photography Gives the World, What My Photography Seeks
You may know this, or perhaps not, but the act of taking and preserving photographs is around two hundred years old — from its early pioneering days in France to nowadays, when the number of images taken each day around the world is nearly impossible to count.
Harvesting, black forest - Alfred Stieglitz from wiki commons
Since the start of its history, photography has always existed in a duality: between detailed, documentary images and more artistic, expressive images intended to produce ideas and feelings.
Photo of James Stewart, Grace Kelly & Alfred Hitchcock taken for film Rear Window (1954). Paramount Pictures, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From the 30s through the 50s, the idea prevailed that a camera could capture objective Truth—though already by then, Alfred Hitchcock in his Rear Window was subverting that notion. Even today, however, it remains very common to use photography to capture and store memorable fleeting moments: weddings, sport events, and so on.
At its beginnings, the medium had to fight to be recognized as a proper fine art form. Only thanks to photographers like Alfred Stieglitz—whose artistic nude images of his second wife Georgia O'Keeffe reached legendary status in the early 20th century—did art photography gain recognition alongside other art forms.
Portrait of Photographer Alfred Stieglitz; Edward Steichen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From there, the genre developed tremendously in techniques, styles, and aesthetics, though it has always remained controversial because of how undefined its borders are and its proximity to the more commercial-industrial use of women's bodies in advertising and the porn industry.
Georgia O'Keeffe — Hand and Breasts; ph: Alfred Stieglitz
Within art nude photography, the very first images depicted women posing in the guise of ancient Greek heroes or goddesses, emphasizing their figures. It was a highly figurative art form. It took time to move beyond that approach and start playing more with the naked body to produce more abstract artworks.
Part of a series of nude photographs made with Eugène Delacroix, source: wiki commons
My photography, within this large and problematic field, does not aim at overly defined images. It is not assertive. Instead, I question—I question a lot. With all the old-era techniques I use, I interrogate appearance in search of meaning, or to express feelings like desperate craving, pyrotechnic success under the sheets and traumatic break-ups, dusty memories of past triumphs now long since passed. If my photography is narrative, it is more like a song—an emotion lived in a certain time and place—rather than a classic start-to-finish tale.
Lorih, Her move; ph: Francesco Coppola
It seemed to me that it was only right to start talking more about the meaning and emotions of my photography, to place myself in a context like this. More history of photography, art nude photography, and its authors will arrive on these pages. Stay tuned if you are interested.
Shine on!