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The Genuine Article Issue 03
_The Genuine Article_ #3 (1995) published by Frank Wallis
Copyright 1995 Frank Wallis. All Rights Reserved.
Don't forget to open and view the JPG file(s) that came
as part of the file that you just downloaded. If you didn't
get these JPG files, then go to http://frankw.hypercon.com/
for samples.
_The Genuine Article_ [a quarterly newsletter] is meant to inform
anyone about photography of the female nude and related topics, not
limited to the following:
* the breast implant scandal (legal, medical, cultural)
* how to make better female nudes
* female body image in psychology and pop culture
* reviews of books on the photographic nude
* pin-up models new and classic
* female nudes
As chief editor, publisher, and receptionist, I am always happy to
review articles and photographic nudes for possible publication.
With this new technology I am able to receive articles and nudes
via email, through my CompuServe address. Again, _The Genuine
Article_ has a web site, http://frankw.hypercon.com/
Hardcopy of this newsletter is $2 [cash] per copy. Two year
subscription is only $18:
Frank Wallis
PO BOX 654
Monroe, CT 06468
U.S.A.
All Back issues available, e.g., #s 1,2,3,4,5.
PS: There are female nudes at this www site, plastic-free.
**********************************************************
CONTENTS
(1) Letters & Feedback
(2) "A View of European Breasts: Beach Etiquette in France"
edited by Frank Wallis
(3) "Survey on French Breasts" Edited by Frank Wallis
(4) "The Truth About Breast Implants," Part 3, by Frank Wallis
(5) Book Reviews:
_100 Women_
_Fetish Girls_
_Body Exposed_
_Studio Nudes_
_Seidner. Nudes_
**********************************************************
(1) Select Letters to the Editor
Frank;
I got the G.A. this morning (6 June 1995), and I have to
say that you're doing a great job. It's informative, both
culturally and scientifically, and you're also not afraid to
publish differing opinions on the entire subject. Right
amount of pages too.
I was very interested to read the "Feminist Counterstrike"
by Dolores Menendes, about the influence of a patriarchal
society upon women's bodies. I do not believe that women's
desires to change their body shape is totally dependant on
the issue of men's approval. If you examine the backround
of anorexic and bulimic women, often the "approval complex"
they have revolves around the parents, and quite often,
significantly the mother. Sometimes women are their own worst
enemies, believing in cultural "truths" that time and time
again men demonstrate as false, for example, the "thin is
better" debate. Women are encouraged to aspire to thin
model-like figures, yet still knowing that as a general rule,
men prefer more rounded figures, both aesthetically and
biologically. Yet they still aspire to model-like figures, and
this is often blamed on the fact that most designers are male
and "hate women". This is really not so, and to say this
is to over look such influential designers as Coco Chanel.
I believe it is more the fault of fashion magazines, readily
available and full of powerful images, magazines that are,
more often than not, staffed by a female workforce.
All of this adds up to not a patriarchal conspiracy against
female bodies, but rather an insidious kind of female cultural
competition, where the issues at stake have gone far beyond
anything to do with men. Men are not the problem, and to blame
them for all women's "burdens" is to forget that men too have
their problems and hang-ups, none of which they seem to
entirely blame on the presence of women in society!
- Cathy Alison Lang, Belfast, Northern Ireland
(2) "A View of European Breasts: Beach Etiquette in France"
edited by Frank Wallis
The beach can be a place of refuge and liberty for women, where
they feel in control. The beach never forbids, and indeed
sanctions the "game of looks." According to Jean-Claude Kauffman,
in his _Corps de femmes, regards d'hommes_ (1995), beach culture
regulates the exposure of breasts, and everything begins with the
question of where to set down one's beach towel. A woman pays
attention to her audience and to those who are allowed to see
her. She will select a group of people like herself with
similar sensibilities and will avoid _les mateurs_ (the
voyeurs), and especially single old men of this type. And, she
avoids groups of young males, the _bande de joyeux lurons_ (gang
of assholes). Too, she avoids families with young children,
because the little ones ask stupid questions about chests.
In setting up her bivouac, it is necessary to cast a quick
glance at towel-site options and proceed to the desired place
with deliberation, not zig-zaging to and fro, thereby risking
further discovery. Women who arrive "topless", or who immediately
remove the _haut de maillot_ (bikini top) are in the minority.
They are almost always young women with nearly perfect bodies.
Most women wait awhile, sense their surroundings and note the
presence of other bare breasted women, or voyeurs. If her husband
or boyfriend is with her, his opinion is of no account _c'est
mon corps_! (it's my body!).
It seems that the age group most at ease with being "topfree"
are women in their 30s. They are most comfortable about being
practically nude on the beach. They seek to show off their beauty
before it vanishes forever.
Forbidden Breasts
Women who lack breasts which conform to beach culture must hide
them. Forbidden breasts? Yes, and the list includes big ones,
saggers, and those which are too beautiful. Strange but true.
Breasts which are too large or too lovely risk jumping beyond
beach _banalite_, or the norm. They attract too many looks, and
looks which last far too long. These breasts introduce an element
of eroticism which is officially forbidden. A woman with big,
firm, gorgeous breasts runs the risk of being seen as a
_provocatrice_, a tease.
Also, beach _banalite_ demands that breasts remain immobile.
Jiggling, swaying, or bouncing boobs upset the polite norm of
beach culture. My own observations of French beaches confirms
this hypocritical etiquette. One hardly ever sees women actually
walking around topless, and getting wet in the ocean seems to be
unfashionable. In other European countries, such as Holland, one
can see more strolling breasts.
Beach culture forbids women from touching their breasts. There
is one sanctioned loophole in this regulation: the medically
approved necessity of _creme solaire_ (sun tan lotion). Even so,
a woman must apply the lotion quickly and not appear to take
pleasure in it. Carressing one's chest would be perceived as a
terrible _faux pas_, akin to masturbating in public! Mon Dieu!
Being Seen
Women enjoy sunbathing without chest coverings because they like
the freedom, and they want even tans. Of course, they like to be
seen, but with restrictions. To attract _les regards_ (looks) is
an indication of and reinforcement to a woman's sense of
attractiveness. Looks reinforce identity. Such glances must not
upset beach norms.
How do men see women's breasts on the French beach? Three
ways: 1) literal, without specific sensibility, 2) esthetic,
appreciating form and shape, 3) erotic, becoming somewhat aroused
by female secondary sexual characteristics. What keeps men under
control during all of these ways of perceiving breasts is the
unwritten _entente des seins_ (treaty of breasts) which exists
between men and women. It is the beach culture set of norms that
everyone agrees to, the curious effort of humans to impose
_banalite_ upon the beach scene.
(3) "Survey on French Breasts"
Edited & Translated by Frank Wallis
http://www.hypercon.com/frankw/
The vast majority of French women like their breasts, according
to a poll sponsored by the magazine _Marie-Claire_. In their May
issue they devoted twelve pages to an analysis of how French
society regards female breasts. First, the results of the poll in
tabular form.
(a) What do you think of your breasts?
Very beautiful 09%
Sufficiently beautiful 67%
Not very beautiful 16%
Not beautiful at all 04%
No opinion 04%
(b) If you don't like your breasts, why?
Too small 28%
Too big 22%
Not a nice shape 18%
They sag 28%
No opinion 04%
(c) How do men feel about
the breasts of their wives
or girlfriends? They are:
Very beautiful 50%
Sufficiently beautiful 42%
Not very beautiful 02%
Not beautiful at all 00%
No opinion 06%
(d) Are you shocked by nude
breasts at the beach?
1981 1995
No 78% 92%
Yes 18% 07%
(e) Do you sunbathe at the beach
without covering your breasts?
1981 1995
Yes, all the time 08% 16%
If nobody knows me 04% 10%
Only with people I feel
comfortable with 12% 14%
No, never 74% 58%
The survey sample was 494 persons 18 to 50 years old, contacted
by phone, in France, over regions not specified. Most of the
women polled never went "topless" at the beach, which surprised
me at first, but that might make sense when one considers that
despite the hordes of lovely bare chested women on French beaches
it is only a fraction of all the women in France. Besides, there
are many foreigners enjoying the sun as well.
Still, the general attitude towards breasts in France remains
light years ahead of the Puritan schizoid view that prevails in
the United States. The poll indicates that virtually everyone in
France has no problem with women enjoying the beach in the same
manner as men: without having to keep their torsos covered. A
large minority of women 40% regularly sunbathe virtually
nude. And, this poll said nothing about the scores of
nude beaches accessible to all who care.
(4) "The Truth About Breast Implants"
Part Three (of Three)
Frank Wallis
Science to the rescue! Women anxious to have bigger breasts can
look hopefully to modern chemistry and big business to provide
them with "safe" replacements for the discredited silicone gel.
Already, clinical trials have been underway for implants filled with
peanut oil. Another experimental implant is derived from soybean oil.
This latter product is called the Trilucent implant, made by
LipoMatrix, of Palo Alto, CA. The leader of the project seems to
be Dr. Leroy Young, a plastic surgeon from St. Louis, who thought
silicone should be replaced with a fatty substance similar to the fat
already present in women's breasts. His new implants use a silicone
shell, but they are filled with unsaturated triglyceride extracted
from soybean oil. If the implant cracked or leaked for any reason,
the oil would be absorbed into the body like any other fat.
The Culture of Boobs
Some social critics look at the implant scandal as evidence of a
fairly recent cultural trend which pressures women to look more
like...women. Others regard the whole affair as an issue not of
health, but of choice and control of one's body.
One woman thought the subject of breasts had been made a political
issue only during the past few decades. Tracy Young thought small
breasts were fashionable in the 1960s, but in the supercharged 1980s,
the gilded years of greed, women began having implant operations for
the same reason they wore Frankenstein shoulder pads: they wanted to
make a "power statement." Another writer echoed this sentiment, and
wrote women like boob jobs because they provide self-confidence. Yet,
only with the advent of implants has the female quest to look more
feminine threatened women's health.
Well, yes and no. The subject of women's looks have not been a
concern of human culture since the 1960s, but from time immemorial.
Small boobs may have pleased some media types, but are we not
forgetting torpedo-tip bras, push-up bras, and Jayne Mansfield, not
to mention Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell? Also, recall that Playboy
rose to prominence in the 1960s on a wave of centerfold models with
hourglass figures and large breasts. As for health concerns, women's
preference for tight-laced corsets in the 19th century caused alarm
among some social critics and physicians.
One does not really have to take seriously the opinion of a Forbes
magazine editor who wrote that the FDA has no right to interfere in
the choices made by women about their own bodies, in consultation with
a (usually male) plastic surgeon. And, after being told by their doctor
about the health risks, women should have the right to chose implants.
This argument neglects the likelihood that cosmetic and plastic surgeons
have a vested interest in convincing women that bigger breasts are normal
and will make women feel better. In fact, the ASPRS (American Society of
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Inc.) has categorized small breasts
as a treatable disease called micromastia! At least one critic has called
into question this madness, and points out how the medical community
tries to exploit not only abnormalities, but women's perceptions of
abnormality to increase profits.
_________________
17. Isadore Rosenfeld, "The Latest on Breast Implants," Vogue 182
(Sept 1992):414; Patricia Corrigan, "Breast Implant Developed at WU
Gets National Trial," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Aug. 2, 1994):1B.
18. Tracy Young, "A Few (More) Words About Breasts," Esquire 118
(Sept 1992):141; Shapiro, "What is it..."
19. Peter Huber, "A Woman's Right to Chose," Forbes 149 (Feb 17,
1992):138; Barbara Ehrenreich, "Stamping Out a Dread Scourge," Time
139 (Feb 17, 1992):88.
(5) REVIEWS OF BOOKS ON THE NUDE
Andre Rival, _Self-Images: 100 Women_ (Edition Stemmle, 1995)
[ISBN 3-905514-45-1] 152pp. 9 x 12 hardbound. $49.95. 100 color.
Is there a new way to make a nude? Andre Rival tried what must
be a unique approach: ask 100 women to pose nude and take photos
of themselves in his studio (his transformed living room). Trained
in Germany, there seems something overly academic about the
resulting process. "Let me make pictures of naked women without
being there. In this way the evil male gaze is averted and artistic
respectability engendered." Does Rival claim that these 100 images
are his? Yes. Very well, but he is NOT the photographer: he was
the editor and technical adviser. The project idea was his, and he
can take credit for that, but here is what he said, in effect:
"Here ladies, stand on this backdrop and release the shutter
with this." In other words, "Here, you do it," while he left
the room, abdicating his creative responsibility as an artist.
Why women? The press release and jacket blurb says Rival
wanted to turn women from "objects" to "subjects". However, there
is not much difference, because an object is always the subject in
photography. No? Take away the object and you have a blank print.
Admittedly, the terms have additional meanings in current art history,
dominated as it is by feminist constructs: the word "object" means
devoid of personhood, while "subject" means dignification of the
personality. Either way you have propaganda. If Rival made nudes
this way, then it's the same old Victorian scam of clothing the
nude with respectability, a safe bourgeois precept.
Idea and practice are well executed, according to academic
notions of thesis and evidence, proposal and explication. The idea
is stated, and examples follow. Yet, the practice is too harsh.
Rival used color transparency film in a medium format camera, yielding
very sharp and technically perfect images of naked bodies. But that
is the problem. There should be some mystery involved with a nude,
otherwise you have a morgue shot, or a snapshot. I want to know where
the artistry went: perhaps out the door when Rival exited the studio.
Do we really need to see every blemish, wrinkle, mole, hair, razor
stubble, and pimple?
Another deceit is the idea that these women are normal
representatives of womanhood. A full 75% of them were artists or
entertainers, used to being in front of the public gaze. The rest
were psychology students, and a few professionals. And, how real
and true to life were these portraits when several women made use
of the makeup artist on the set?
Contradictions abound: a photographer who claims ownership of
images he did not make; a feminist thesis which turns out to be an
old Victorian culture scam; ordinary women who turn out to be
professional entertainers; real women who nevertheless apply makeup.
It would be interesting to see if Rival could make nudes himself,
without hiding behind the door. At 27 years of age, he has enough time
and apparent publishing connections to build a good portfolio. He was
fortunate to have chosen so many women who had obvious photo-sense
and made perfectly good nudes by themselves. Were it not for that
happy coincidence, the book would have been a total disaster. Please
Andre, give us your own work.
Also, could publishers leave off the textual props, e.g., intro,
forward, afterward, poetry, etc., written by third party experts? It
seems as though publishers have no faith in photo-books, and are afraid
that images will not be sufficient to sell the product. Hence, the
tradition of stuffing such books with useless verbiage. Rival's book
contains no less than four third party commentaries, etc. The model
to emulate is Eric Kroll's Fetish Girls, a portfolio of 200 images
with text written by the artist himself. - F.W.
Eric Kroll, _Eric Kroll's Fetish Girls_ (Koln: Benedikt Taschen,
1995). [ISBN 3-8228-8916-4] 9x12 softbound. 200pp. $24.99.
The best nudes are contemplative: they inspire us to pause,
reflect, and ask questions. With each of Kroll's
images one stops and tries to assess the meaning. Nudes or fetish
photos can be assessed on two levels: the immediate, and the
contemplative. In the former one either appreciates the
composition, shapes, form, color, tonal range, lighting, "look"
of the model, or one does not. In the latter, the process of
questioning elicits answers drawn from each individual's
experiences, likes and dislikes.
With a classic nude the process of questioning will not go
very far, because the intent of the images seems readily
understood: a comment on form, an exclamation of beauty. With
Kroll's images one asks "why is she in that pose? Why is she
wearing that? Is it only for the delectation of a male viewer?
Is it only for Eric Kroll? Why are vulva rarely seen? Is it fear?
Is it loathing? Why color for some shots, B&W for others? What
is the significance of male models in some shots?"
Kroll has had a lifelong fascination with glamour and fetish
photography. He used to sneak out of his parent's suburban house
and train to the City to buy forbidden magazines and pictures.
He began his pro career as a,photojournalist, and in 1982 started
working on ever expanding projects in diverse places (China,
Hollywood, the Lower East Side). In 1987 Kroll was instrumental
in triggering the Betty Page mania, publishing some pin-up
negatives sent to him by 1950s glamour photographer Bunny Yeager.
Kroll's fetish girls got going in 1986 when he moved to a
large studio in Manhattan. As a photographer myself, I was
intrigued with the few snapshots actually surreptitious nudes
of the master's atelier. The sanctum sanctorii are revealed to
us filled with pin-ups, stuffed with hundreds of "girlie"
magazines both vintage and contemporary, and stacked with boxes
(acid-free) filled with one million negatives.
Like so many great artists, Kroll studies the past masters and
transcribes ideas from others. The operative word is transcribe
as in music composition, when a composer takes inspiration from
an existing work and then shapes it anew. For Kroll's purposes,
it also helped to have models who were enthusiastic about his
project.
Mercifully absent in this photo-book are useless forwards,
afterwards, and introductions by critics and other third party
observers. Instead, we are treated to an intro by Kroll himself,
and to an autobiography at the end. - F.W.
Best Anthology of Nudes
Michael Kohler (ed.) The Body Exposed: Views of the Body. 150
Years of the Nude in Photography (Zurich:
Edition Stemmle, 1986/1987/1995). 9x11 hardcover, printed in
Italy; smythe sewn binding with heavy glossy
paper. First published as Das Aktfoto 1840-1986. Ansichten vom
Korper im technischen Zeitalter. 208 pp. $45.95.
40 color and 200 B&W nudes, mostly women.
One of the best anthologies on the nude ever published just
happened to be an exhibition catalog in German, and now Michael
Kohler's text has been translated into English. Horst P. Horst's
"Odalisque" (ca. 1940), a buxom reclining woman holding a fan and
wearing an ornate headdress, is the cover image and seems to
best represent Kohler's approach to the nude as a subject of
study. Horst was a commercial photographer, and "Odalisque" is
the culmination of several trends in nude photography: the academic,
the glamorous, the objectivist, and the commercial.
Kohler abandoned any attempt at collecting only artistic nudes
for his exhibition and disdained the critic's distinction between
significant and insignificant nudes. Instead, he distinguished
twenty categories within the genre of the nude. The key to each
category is the type of staging, or mode of presentation: the
artist's choice of presentational mode is determined by the intended
audience, customer, consumer. He believes in a typology of
nudes based on the consumer. This consumer has usually been male,
but no other genre in photography has been as strongly influenced
by shifts in public opinion (especially views on morality and
propriety) as the nude (8).
Craig Morey's Monograph, Best of the '90s
Craig Morey, Studio Nudes. Selected Photographs, 1989-1992.
(Emeryville, CA, 1992) [ISBN 0-9632813-0-5]
9x12 hardbound. 35 B&W plates. $50.
Nothing in the 1990s has yet surpassed Morey's portfolio of
beautiful female nudes, and his work bears the
stamp of timelessness to the extent that Studio Nudes will remain
current for many decades. One is instantly
reminded of Jeanloup Sieff when viewing the plates, but Morey is
less interested in women's lingerie (as Sieff is)
than in the careful arrangement of female form on the perfect
canvas of printing paper.
Morey had the luxury and privilege of working in San
Francisco, and the Bay Area in general, recruiting his
models and posing them in his professional studio. Nudes posed in
a studio should be close to perfection, such is
the latitude given the artist in composing the frame, adjusting
the light, and making sure the angle of view and
pose achieve the artist's idea of an outstanding nude. Morey's
portfolio thus does not contain any mediocre
images. They are beautiful and erotic, without any attempted
sentimentality meant to conceal sexuality and
protect the viewer from "prurient" feelings. Morey leaves it up
to the viewer to deal with these sexy young
women. It is a pleasure to deal with them.
Morey made his own prints, as any photographer worth his salt
would do, and they are exquisite. In fact most
of the images are available as limited edition prints from Morey
himself. By special arrangement, I have several
signed copies of Studio Nudes for sale. Please take a look at the
resource box. - F.W.
Fashion Meets Classicism
Seidner, David. _Nudes_. Munich: Gina Keyahoff Verlag, 1995. 6x9
softcover. 50 pp. $20. 49 studio nudes.
Seidner, a fashion photographer, took about 1? hours to work
with each model. He aimed to objectify the subject, but admitted
that there was a human element involved in each session. He
imagined himself a doctor using bedside manner to soothe his model,
who he saw as vulnerable. Seidner wished his models to forget
themselves in order that his nudes be ideal, thus the uniformity
of their facial expressions (blank). Every pose is identical: weight
rests on the right leg. Seidner's use of the contraposto pose is
meant to celebrate the individual's potential to attain divinity.
Greek classicism as expressed in the Kritios Boy fused the static
with the dynamic, and Seidner freely follows the ancient Greeks.
He knows about classicism, but it is really odd for any artist
nowadays to break with the orthodox anti-classic style, and hopefully
more photographers will explore this. If Seidner's nudes appear
classical then it is because he intended it to be so, but one does
hope that in future Seidner tries a few other poses, and experiments
with more varied backgrounds. - F.W.
