"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.

WE!

Exhausted! going to sleep well - Have a good WE

The 5PM break - Tokyo, Japan, 2009

Routine?

I don't believe that "repetition creates routine". "Routine" seems to be more a question of point-of-view, a mentality. After more than 10 years photographing Anne, with a mean of once a week at least, I always feel the same tension, fear, submerged by emotions and with some stomach pain - want to extract something from the instant, catch it to more play with it.

Of course, I get bored by the location - shooting at the same place piss me of quickly but I just continue doing it, trying to improve, i.e. understand more about my myself my feelings.
Funny thing is shooting some other models (quite rare in comparison) could be so relaxing - Routine then...

Anne - St Brice Courcelles, France - 2007.

Tokyo - FTC

Japan (especially Tokyo of course) has the reputation to be a Fashion Test Center (FTC?). People can go on the street with incredible outfits and just feel happy to look different without taking care much about the present "mode" or "codes", perfect for experiments. So let's shoot some. Fashion photo required high technicals skills and, I believe, could be a nice way to learn about lighting and such - That was my plan!

I ended up shooting in Tokyo, 35°C, behind a temporary shop (with a guy screaming loud for hours), an Indian model (very nice & energetic by the way), with no strobes, no nothing; and it was great! Next morning I woke up the Tokyo-Paris flight and asked myself when will be the next Fashion week there.

 

Tanya, Tokyo - 2009.

First Snow

Snow is here! All white this morning - 12°C less than few days ago...

This was one week ago - same place but warm (sort of "été indien").

Anne - Rokkasho, Japan.

Long Lasting Favorite

There are always Photos you Love without understanding why and how - it's like that.

Of course, this session was more than great - unforgettable time at least but then, more than one year after, boum! This one gathers every souvenir, every feelings...

How every detail corresponds so well to my memories? I guess my brain is just evolving every second to new situations, new stimulus, taking what I see now as what it was. A recent study shown that the souvenirs are strongly deformed versus time, so much influenced by all the running time...

That's cool - Photos made during nice sessions will all be my Favorites!

Kyla Cole - Montalivet, France - 2008

By the way, if u care, the blur is using a Canon TS lens and it is sort of BTS shoot.