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March 08, 2009
Our very naked selves
Under all the fabrics of disguise, that tissue of lies that surrounds us and serves to preserve some sense of social modesty whilst simultaneously conforming to various stereotypes, we are all naked. Naked as the day we were born.
Aileen & Aisha
German photographer Sebastian Kempa has a project where he photographs people both naked and clothed. Though there is a neat trick on the project website.
H & Ansgar
This isn’t a new idea. One of its first photographic proponents was Greg Friedler, who photographed New Yorkers clothed then naked, in 1997.
Naked New York, Greg Friedler
He followed this with Naked London and Naked LA.
Naked LA, Greg Friedler
But before photography came dancing into all our lives, Francisco de Goya was there. He painted a clothed and naked painting, or rather two paintings, between 1797 and 1805.
La Maja vestida
La Maja desnuda
It’s said that the first owner of the pair, one Manuel de Godoy, hung both pictures together, the one in front of the other, the clothed in front of the naked and the latter could be revealed by an intricate system of weights and pulleys.
Today they hang side-by-side in the Prado, Madrid.
Posted by john at March 8, 2009 08:46 PM
Comments
Bare with me on this one,no pun intended,this has always amused me,that is, our society which seems so obcessed by nudity yet prudish & moralistic at the same time. This subject is similiar to any other subject when any information that is shrounded in scerecy or veiled,the missing information has to be filled in by our own imagination to search for what we then WANT to believe rather than leading us to a place where we don't want to be when confronted or uncovered by the actual hard facts of the "TRUTH".
Is that as clear as mud Lol
Posted by: paula at March 9, 2009 12:12 PM
er.... yes
Posted by: john Coombes at March 9, 2009 12:50 PM
.....I can't stop laughing at the above, I had a lot on my mind yesterday when I wrote that,like charity meetings,press,& the like,well more importantly making decisions on POPCORN v CHOC ICE LOl .... I know what I meant,anyway who else is bothered about what I meant.That was the naked me .....continue,as you were saying..... : )can't stop laughing now so it had some value
Posted by: paula moss at March 10, 2009 12:00 PM