S and I caught a fantastic documentary on HBO last night, called Naked World. The documentary deals with the artist Spencer Tunick; I'd never heard of him, but S insisted we watch it simply from seeing the description in the guide, because he knew a bit about Tunick's work. I have to admit that at first, I was slightly skeptical about his art, but as the film progressed, I became more and more taken with it. I think it's stunning, and some of his images are simply beautiful. Tunick does an interesting thing. If you haven't clicked on any of the links I've provided, I urge you to do it, because you'll immediately understand, at least I hope you will, my initial misgivings, and hopefully you might understand why I came to like the photos so much.
There were, in the film, some interviews with random people, and a couple of them were very rude about Tunick. One said that he just wanted to look at naked people--which I think it completely ridiculous. Another said that he was just using naked people as an attention-getter, so that he could be famous. I think those opinions are slightly uninformed, only because it's not like nudity is new to art. Or even photography. I've seen plenty of nude photos on the photo websites that S belongs to--and most of them are, yes, art, and most of the photographers are, yes, unfamous. And I also consider Tunick's photos to be completely unsexual. One of the Russian models, in the film, she said that she thought his photos were very sexual, but I really don't see that. And as for Tunick just wanting to see naked people--well, I can't see any truth in that. As far as the man himself, he does come off as completely genuine. I do think that he believes in his art, and has a vision. I do think that some of his installations, especially, are brilliant in their composition. (Although I'm more inclined to think, "Pretty!!") Maybe you won't agree, but I think that the way we see our bodies is so fucked up, and this is doing something different and beautiful with them. Would I pose for him? Probably not. I hate my body. But I hope that someday I am as brave, and bold, and beautiful as the 70 year-old poet in South Africa, who posed.
Changing gears a bit....
I've been struggling for a while about whether or not to post a link to S's personal photo website on my sidebar. I think that he takes beautiful photographs, and I want to share his photos with people. S's photo website is, for him, a blog. He doesn't think in words, like me, but pictures, and not sharing the link makes me feel ugly inside. However, my picture is on the site, and his name. If I publish a link, I may as well stop using any pretense of anonymity, because that'll be it. Maybe I haven't been very careful with the pseudonyms and locations, but I still don't like the idea (yet), of it all hanging out there. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to email you the link to his site if you email me (to the address provided on this blog) asking for it. If I get tons of requests, I'll publish the link. If not, I'll keep things as is.
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