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Stripped Naked
Raw, real and sexually-charged photographs of beautiful women, all photographed in their own homes. Each woman has her singular story to share, and Stripped Naked expands our understanding with a fresh, untouched sense of composition. With no imposed boundaries, Gorman captures an incredible array of women in free expression of their most intimate selves.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2004
4 people want to read
About the author
Peter Gorman
4ÌýbooksLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 3, 2008
I've been happy with the recent photographic trend (fostered by such as Richard Kern, the Suicide Girls, and amateur photography on the internet) in leaving behind the floating fantasy world of the female (and male) nude and depicting the (un)fair sex not only au natural within a believable environment---often, and in the case of this book, the woman's own apartment.
I picture this as an amazing leap forward, akin to when zoos went from holding animals in concrete enclosures to crafting complete environments in order to provide context for the creature's life in the wild. Suddenly a whole new appreciation for the subject matter arises. What was once alien now becomes approachable.
Of course, dash it, my whole analogy breaks down because I'm becoming ill-favored of zoos, but the point is that this new approach to nude photography is finally giving a dimension of individuality and personality to the nude photography subject. What was once depriving the female nude of her human side is now making her seem all the more so. When a woman is photographed in the nude, with the 1970's Penthouse fuzzy quality, seen in some splendid seraglio setting, or some nigh Disney-esque meadow, the woman became unapproachable, a foreign creature, unattainable, unknowable, a creature of a fantasy world.
But when a woman is photographed sans clothing in her own apartment, she becomes (I think gloriously) an everyday human being. Lounging naked amidst a mess she should have cleaned up, New Yorker magazines and well-worn shoes and with (I find this sexy) a bookshelf for a background, there's more of a human connection. I applaud that connection.
And that (lengthy preamble aside) is what drew me to peruse this book. And at its best, it does just that. Oddly, especially because what I've said above is the stated goal of this book, that individuality is often cast aside. The photographs are often drawn in so close on the woman that the apartment, the background, the human context, has little impact. Moreover, after letting the setting exist to make the women human, they are often posed in such coquettish positions that they, regardless of setting, transform into those 1970's Penthouse Pets, or even 1970's Hustler Playmates.
So, while I give the book's premise five stars, I can only give the book's execution, and the book itself, three stars.
I picture this as an amazing leap forward, akin to when zoos went from holding animals in concrete enclosures to crafting complete environments in order to provide context for the creature's life in the wild. Suddenly a whole new appreciation for the subject matter arises. What was once alien now becomes approachable.
Of course, dash it, my whole analogy breaks down because I'm becoming ill-favored of zoos, but the point is that this new approach to nude photography is finally giving a dimension of individuality and personality to the nude photography subject. What was once depriving the female nude of her human side is now making her seem all the more so. When a woman is photographed in the nude, with the 1970's Penthouse fuzzy quality, seen in some splendid seraglio setting, or some nigh Disney-esque meadow, the woman became unapproachable, a foreign creature, unattainable, unknowable, a creature of a fantasy world.
But when a woman is photographed sans clothing in her own apartment, she becomes (I think gloriously) an everyday human being. Lounging naked amidst a mess she should have cleaned up, New Yorker magazines and well-worn shoes and with (I find this sexy) a bookshelf for a background, there's more of a human connection. I applaud that connection.
And that (lengthy preamble aside) is what drew me to peruse this book. And at its best, it does just that. Oddly, especially because what I've said above is the stated goal of this book, that individuality is often cast aside. The photographs are often drawn in so close on the woman that the apartment, the background, the human context, has little impact. Moreover, after letting the setting exist to make the women human, they are often posed in such coquettish positions that they, regardless of setting, transform into those 1970's Penthouse Pets, or even 1970's Hustler Playmates.
So, while I give the book's premise five stars, I can only give the book's execution, and the book itself, three stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review
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