My work concentrates on the photographic female nude with a heavy emphasis placed on portraiture. Even the way that I shoot nudes, they are very “portrait- like.” For me, there is something very magical about figurative art, but, by the same token, it’s a genre that can become banal quickly. When I’m in the process of creating an image, I constantly challenge myself to boil it down to 'what is the essence of this image'. What is it that I’m trying to communicate to the viewer?
I’m afraid to say that images that lack content are the types of images that pull the genre down as a whole. We’ve all seen them ad nauseum...nude woman in forest standing next to tree, nude woman in contorted pose next to rusted truck, nude woman in abandoned warehouse. I constantly ask myself (and the artists), “why is she there, and what is she doing?” When the work becomes trite, it cannot hold content, and when it cannot hold content, there is no challenge to the viewer. The viewer is subjected to an image, or the genera of an image, that he’s seen over and over and over again.
Figurative art, especially where photography is concerned, is a relationship between an artist and a model that is based on trust. I’m always fascinated about that relationship because it is symbiotic, meaning that both artist and model work closely for a duration of time for the mutual benefit of both. The artist cannot express his ideas without the collaboration of the model. And the model cannot ‘perform’ without the audience of the artist. With every project that I work on, one model always emerges out of the pack that typifies the essence of what that project or series is about, and the work is ultimately built around her.
Strung Peony