I was watching an interview the other w/ leonard nimoy (spock) and apparently he has long been a fine arts photography, and he was talking about this project he is showing right now, called the "full body project."
it's basically where he recreates famous scenes of women with large and in charge women as well as original shots
Here are some examples:
the Herb Ritts photo of 5 famous fashion models sitting nude on the floor.
the Helmut Newton diptych of 4 models walking towards the camera.
Matisse's "Dance"
Marcel DuChamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase"
Raphael's "Three Dances"
this was confusing to me b/c at first I was going to post about this and say something along the lines of "well that is fine if he wants to show images of non-traditional bodies our society usually rejects as being unattractive, but he could at least get women that are healthy and in shape where their health isn't in danger." and then I realized that while I am not as big as these ladies, I don't work out and I am definitely not in shape, so if he used people that were my size, would I have a negative reaction? but I still was going to write the same thing b/c I'm so sick of the words "body image," "concept of beauty," "what's considered beautiful," (thank you college women's studies) that I didn't want to deal with it.
and then I read this article where he was interviewed and now I'm confused. at first I thought he was just going for shock value or whatever and doing it so people would be like "oh wow, we do put too much pressure on girls to fulfill one body type" and I was like "over ittt" but then I realized he was going for something more than a reaction. he talks about how he doesn't photograph his subjects as sexual or erotic beings and he's not photographing them as objects, and he does talk about my previously mentioned annoyed words, but he does it in a non-annoying way.
but mostly, I like this about what he said:
What do you expect the average art audience will learn or take away from this project?
"I didn't set out to teach anybody anything with this work. I set out to explore a cultural phenomenon. If it creates conversation, if it creates discussion, that's fine."
b/c I feel like most artists are like "people will be better human beings after they see/experience my art" and I'm like "shut up you are annoying"
I don't know. now I am confused if I think this is amazing or if I am still grossed out at that much cellulite and don't want to look at it. probably both.
