"Livres de Nus" by A. Bertolotti

Sometimes after reading a book, you feel much better, more cleaver. It just happened to me with "Livres de Nus" written by A. Bertolotti (in French). I guess I will come back few times to this in the coming weeks but, to start, let's focus on the preface and the overall content.

--- As you guess if u follow this Blog, English is not my native language so drop me an email if it is unintelligible ----

In the preface by J.C. Lemagny, there is a so clear and well written essay about the duality (Esthetic & Erotism) existing in every Nude Photography - even if it shouldn't, that it just clean a window in my mind. The Erotism is not an Esthetic value. The beauty of a volume, of a line curve, the quality of the light, have an Esthetic value but not Sexual ones. The touch, skin contact, odors, the warmth are Sexual but not Esthetic. But, even if they are radically different in thought,  they are completely mixed in reality. To evaluate an esthetic value, we have to put some distance, to observe, to witness. The erotic feelings are more in the possession, the fusion making an extreme link between the "observer" and the subject. These two aspects are incompatible but inextricable. This relation found surely its reason of existence in the depth of the human mind.

The content of this book is a door open to follow the evolution of this "relation" along the history of Nude publications. How the social pressure affects this along the past century gives indications.
Another way could be to discuss more with Nude Models. Some come to me with compliments about the "distance" existing between the observer and the nude subject, the quality (!) of the contrast.... and some others want to pose for me but feels uncomfortable due to the Erotic aspect of my work! In the PF of the later ones, you can see they prefer to shoot in front of a white cotton sheet with a flower in the hair, a greek column close by and harp in hands! Don't get me wrong - it is perfectly fine and some times very interesting but it shows how the mind is mixing all this.

The book is all about this.

Anne - ALOLICRIS II - 2006.