gullybogan

Dear Reader,

Sanders McNew is a professional photographer who (according to a reviewer)

explores the tension between the concepts of “portraits” and “nudes” in flattering but unretouched photographs of real women. – source

This simple (?) positioning statement opens up a number of questions.

Tension?

Is there truly a tension between portraits and nudes? It seems to me that just about every portrait of a female human being i see, whether it be down the intertube or on the wall of a gallery, that portrait is a nude. I guess that the tension – if there is any – lies in the difference between using a naked lady as a poseable (and marketable) figurine to show off your lighting and composition skills, and actually showing the person as a person.

The thing that sandersnyc does, so it is claimed for him (and i’m not sure that it’s claimed *by* him) is to show real women.

Real Women?

The titles he gives his portrait/nudes intimate that these are people, real people, who are defined in their realness (read “mundanity”) by having simple, everyday jobs.

This is very evocative, since here are humans in the raw, as it were, shown in some way that reveals an inner truth.

Sure.

Do they have to be women off the street for this to be real?

As to “real women,” since I’ve photographed some of the women in the series, and recognize others, it should be noted that many he has photographed are serious (“professional?”) artistic nude models. Which doesn’t diminish their real-ness, certainly, but the implication that these are portraits of gals who just came in off the street is rather misleading. – source (his website)

Happily, sandersnyc replied to this comment:

Stephen Haynes objects to [the opening statement]’s characterization (not mine) of my subjects as “real women” because some are “serious artistic nude models.” An Irishman once asked: “O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,/ Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?” I, myself, am variously a father, a lawyer, a husband, and a photographer. Is an accountant from Kansas with a second life as a “model,” (a label, like “photographer,” that is increasingly blurred by the Internet) any less “real” than any other woman, because she does not come as a stranger to the camera? – source

Unretouched?

It does look like these womenfolk have simply shrugged off their apparel and stood in front of a white screen, and then he’s snapped a pic and here it is, in all its honesty.

Of course, there’s all sorts of professional photographer’s knowledge behind that snap. He knows lots of things about taking photos that your average mug punter such as myself doesn’t, so his portraits turn out the way he wants them to.

And how does he want them to turn out? Well, “flattering,” sure, but the photo’s not the whole thing; it’s only a part of the “art.”

I do not intend them as a finished work as they stand. I am writing essays now to accompany them, which, when combined with the photographs, will attempt to address the questions I’ve raised about portraiture. – source

I have this belief about art – if you need to have it explained to you, it’s not art. Art works inside of you, to challenge what you think. If i have to have how i think explained to me, then it’s not working.

To investigate the relationship between portraits, nudity, character, and subjectivity, I’d find it would be necessary to challenge the viewer in some way or another. These portraits are really not challenging at all, as long as you don’t consider it hard to look at naked pictures of pretty young women without the benefit of Photoshop. – source

Expectations?

OK, fine. So there’s all these expectations of anyone who tries to challenge portraiture. Let’s all remember that for when we do it ourselves.

The part of his photostream i find most successful is his portraiture of his wife, Melanie, as she swells with his child.

He brings his quiet, matter-of-fact observational style to the miracle of impending birth™, and it is possible to glimpse, just as you can in the other portrait/nudes, the connection he has with the sitter. In this case, that connection is all the more powerful.

So, you can check out sandersnyc at Flickr. He used to have a portfolio website, but it looks like he’s taken it down because serious photographers complained that he used Flash® to run it.

Apparently serious photographers aren’t allowed to use Flash®.

There’s a pun there somewhere, but i’ll let you sort it out.

Yours,
Gullybogan

UPDATE

Sanders has released his book (see comments), and it is available for preview, and purchase, if you so desire. Click the image below for details.

The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once observed: “If, in making a portrait, you hope to capture the inner silence of your subject, you must try to put your camera between the skin of a person and her shirt.” New York photographer Sanders McNew presents a series of portraits of naked women with accompanying essays that together question and challenge the nature of portraiture. 160 pages, including 121 portraits and accompanying text.