Workshops & Events

Abstract Nude Photography

Kim Taylor for 180 degree imaging
© 180 degree imaging, 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Almost from the beginning of photography the nude has been a part of the subject matter. If photography can be said to have started in 1839 with the deguerrotype, the earliest known nude photo may be attributed to N.P. Lerebours in 1840.

From the beginning of photography the question of the photograph as art has also been debated. On one hand, there are those who claim the unique and separate quality of photography, as distinct from painting, is the only legitimate "photographic art". On the other hand, we have those who insist that the closer photography comes to painting, the more artistic it becomes. The dominant theory of photography has moved between these two poles for it's entire history.

What does separate a photograph from a painting? Verisimilitude, immediacy, the reality and the instantaneous nature of the image. A photograph is an "instantaneous" slice of time, an image torn from reality, freezing it for examination at leisure. A painting can never be so realistic, since the painter must necessarily work for many hours or days to finish the image, his viewpoint and attitude changing, as is that of his model. The image is also processed through the thoughts and feelings of the artist as what is seen in the eye is recorded by the hand. The camera, however, is mechanical, no such influence of time, attitude and impression is usually assumed possible in the physical recording of the image itself.

This verisimilitude is probably why the erotic and pornographic image achieved such early importance in photography, to such an extent that the London Times of 1874 reported a police raid on a London shop where 130,000 pornographic images were seized. Nude photography today is still dominated by the realistic image. From the coy glamour pinup of the "lad" magazines to the hard core fetish porn of the internet, the photos are universally well lit and conventionally posed. These "images torn from reality" are available for extended, detailed and private viewing, without the interference or input of the subject, and usually without any other thought or interpretation required.

Nude photography remained mostly "straight" from 1840 to about 1900 with most images fitting into several classes, the artist's model, the scientific and medical investigation, the pictorial imitation of artworks, and the erotic. At the turn of the century this changed, as did the Western world in general.

The origin of abstract nude photography fits closely with the history of abstract art itself. As such, we begin our consideration at the beginning of the 20th century and especially in the years following the first world war. Several great art movements arose at this time including Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Constructivism. Abstract art and Abstract Impressionism arrived around the time of the second world war and shortly afterward.

You'll find a short history of the nude in photography here and a short chronology of art movements here.

First we should perhaps consider what an abstract image is. A simple definition might be that it is "non-realistic", not a simple representation of reality. With regard to photography, a more specific definition might be that it is an image that is "abstracted" from reality, one that takes on some aspects of reality but that has been removed some distance from how one would normally expect reality to look. Erwin Blumenfeld, one of the photographers we will discuss here, described his aesthetic intention as "to distill the unreal out of the real".

Photographic abstraction may then be separated into classes of images that are:

Out of context (images which have no background referent, or whose backgrounds do not fit any realistic scenerio).
Out of proportion (images that are distorted in camera or in the darkroom, or perhaps by mirrors)
Unreal or unexpected (with elements that are juxtaposed in strange relationships).
Occult or hidden (deep shadows or fabrics that almost, but not quite, conceal the body)
Reduced in detail (over or underexposed, blurred from camera or model movement, extreme soft focus, excessive grain, solarized or otherwise changed, and selective detail as in body landscapes).

The abstract nude is largely anti-pornographic, anti-glamour, anti-comfortable, anti-fashion, and anti-commercial. It appeals to the head as much as to the genitals, creating a tension between thought and instinct that disturbs and distracts the viewer. Abstract nudes aren't "pretty" or "sexy" or "appealing" any more (or less) than they are "disturbing", "confusing" and "annoying".

The abstract nude is as much about texture, light and form as it is about the subject, but the nude body brings an added dimension to the image. The body is a trigger that trips many assumptions and associations in the viewer. Images of people (or the absence of people in situations where one would expect to find them) are generally images with more "impact" than those of, say, landscapes. A nice sunset may be pleasing but a nude centrefold will command a different, more intense gaze. To then distort and abstract that gaze will generate a strong inner dialog in the viewer of the abstract nude.

So, to return to the end of the Great War we find a world of vast change, the old structures have collapsed and there is a great distrust of the old ways. For the artist, no less than anyone else, these changes needed to be assimilated, and the desire for change needed to be expressed. Some of the earliest photographic movements away from "realism" were the photomontage and photogram of Dada, and Constructivism. From Futurism we begin to see deliberate movement of the model, or multiple exposures to express movement and time in what is essentially a timeless image. From surrealism we begin to see strange juxtapositions of images. From the Constructivist and Bauhaus traditions we see the "new vision" of radical camera angles, and an emphasis on geometric and repeating forms. A few years later under the influence of abstract art we begin to see mirrored distortions, extreme manipulation of lighting and manipulation of the printing process.

We won't try to separate all these influences, or understand them in terms of geography and artist, since even at the time they would have been difficult to categorize. Today of course they're all just part of the toolbox for the modern artist, as were all the techniques that preceeded the abstract explosion. Today we are developing our own methodology of abstraction and manipulation of images with digital imaging and editing, and we'll leave it up to the academics and the manifesto writers to invent their own names for these new schools and tools.

But, we do need to know where we came from, so we will study the images of a few of the classical abstract nude artists in this workshop, and attempt to duplicate their techniques.

We will recreate the fabric techniques and high contrast work of Erwin Blumenfeld, the mirror distortion techniques of Andre Kertesz, the closeup "body landscape" work of Imogen Cunningham, and the body distortions of Bill Brandt . If we have time we will also work on the shadow and object work of Frantisek Drtikol. Below are some photographs that were made using these techniques.

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