The Male Nude is just as artistic as the Female Nude
Having been duly scolded by Ms B on my previous comment I would like to say that I completely agree that the male body is - on many levels - wonderful and beautiful to behold. There have been many fine works of art and photographs taken over the years of just this. A long time past (when I used to have a collection of photography folios) I had and would marvel over many a fine and gorgeous photo of a naked man. And I’m not being sarcastic there in the slightest.
I guess in some ways people view these as often more pornographic than the Bill Henson photo, mainly because of the presence of (shock!) a penis! Whether it be erect or not for some reason people seem to see a penis and think immediately of pornography. Or is that just me reading things into things that aren’t there?
I guess the point of all this naked flesh is that too many people the mere thought of nudity in photography will automatically mean it’s porn. I was once with a few people as they looked through a photography folio of nude photographs - men as well as women in this book, Ms B :) - and as they flicked through photo after photo of beautifully composed and very well lit photos they were just uttering porn…porn…porn…porn and the way the world seems to be heading is that any artistic photo featuring the naked body will be automatically banned.
The only naked photos we can hope to see will be on bill boards, magazine pages and advertisements for ice-cream. I personally think that’s wrong.
May 31st, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Maybe if you showed your folios to someone besides your great aunt Myrtle you’d get a more positive and receptive response! Or does showing this to your stuffiest associates actually provide you with a slight thrill?
Example: A few years ago I went to Italy bought this little bronze winged phallus, very cute. I think it is a copy of a Roman original (the Romans were very into their phalluses…or is it phalli?) It is sort of a good luck charm, meant to promote assertiveness, so I hang it from the rearview mirror of my car because I’m a timid driver and I wanted to learn to merge more effectively (whoa, that sounds way more flirty than I meant. I did not mean it that way, get your mind outta the gutta).
Anyway, it’s rather elegant, this winged phallus, and you have to really look at it to see that it’s not a bird or an angel or something, but of course, my most conservative, Dr. Laura-listening, Focus on the Family drone of a friend saw it and got all flustered (in a very cute way though!). Three kids, and she questions the power and beauty of the phallus?
But I have to admit, it kind of gave me a thrill to get someone worked up…especially about something as stupid and banal as a body part! A goofy looking body part, at that.
May 31st, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Just a point that they weren’t my photographs - they were photography folios from other photographers which I used to have whilst at photography college.