Tutti Nudi

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From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 09/13/00-11:50:01 AM Z


On Wed, 13 Sep 2000, Rod Fleming wrote:
> Do you have a problem with photographs of naked people? A thoroughly
> accepted and mainstream area of photography, the nude, and practised to
> great effect by both men _and_ women- witness the work of Imogen Cunningham
> and Lynn Davis to name but two.

Now now, Rod, what has "thorougly accepted" got to do with it -- shall I
name some of the other "thoroughly accepted" practices of history, from,
say, throwing the Christians to the lions to public autos de fe... (not to
get to close to recent times for comfort) ?

The objection, as Greg points out, is the pretense that the eroticized
stereotype of slender, young, sexually attractive women is a "neutral art
convention." (If that's "neutral," I'm the Queen of the May.) And the
stereotype *is,* in a variety of ways, harmful to all women -- as I've
written at greater length elsewhere, even on this list (tho I don't recall
the subject line, it went on for a while).

However, you give me the opportunity to mention the arrival, at long last,
of "Tutti Nudi," by Christine Z. Anderson, aka as Chris Anderson, also of
this list. Published by Midmarch Arts Press, 212/666-6990 or 865-5509, 300
Riverside Drive, NYC 10025.

This little book ($14) covers the nude so to speak from the Greeks to the
21st century, with a lively and irreverent text (personal as well as
scholarly) - plus, well, oodles of nudies -- including those in various
incarnations of photography.
 
Not everyone knows for instance, that until well into the Renaissance the
female form was considered defective, beauty and perfection being the
province of the naked male. The very latest in nudes in "our ever-changing
artworld" range from John Coplans and Robert Mapplethorpe to Barbie,
Jennie Saville, Jeff Koons, and the Chapman Brothers.

As the jacket blurb says, "Christina Anderson is herself a woman of our
time who loves the classics and 'modern' art equally. Here she looks at
both with an exceptionally sharp eye and a talent for debunking the
pieties of every period."

(Not to mention her sharp eye for high falutin soft porn.)

best,

Judy

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| Judy Seigel, Editor >
| World Journal of Post-Factory Photography > "HOW-TO and WHY"
| info@post-factory.org >
| <http://rmp.opusis.com/postfactory/postfactory.html>
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