Reviewed by AmitavaRay
on
Apr 07 2009, 3:54am
Very Good
Sensuality: The Nude in Black and White
The female nude is the focus of Whiterose's photography site. One can only imagine what her mind's eye would have seen had it encountered Catalin Chitucea's exhibition on Nudes that recently surrounded this long overdue show of her black and white prints.
Whiterose's Blog - deals with the subject of the nude. The nude is one of the most traditional and popular of all photographic subjects and the Stumbler has taken advantage of this. Remarkably high percentage of those who shoot pictures seriously have turned to the subject of Nude, for inspiration at some point. Small wonder then that there's such a variety of material around and so much diversity in terms of approach.
Black and white has proved to be a uniting factor for Whiterose also known as Martha, though she occasionally mounts a spot-colour, monochrome and full-colour. Also the main subject is female nude though she has some ,who are in some form of dress . There is also an occasional male who peeps into the subject. I think the Stumbler wished to explore this subject, with different photographers using the medium as their starting off point and then employing her own vision to achieve something that has become personal to her.
One of the most prominent strategies to emerge form this collection of work is that the Stumbler rigorously drawing attention to the limits of female anatomy, both in terms of personal choice and of the potential of selection.
Many of Martha's subjects comprised her inspired view of sculptures which comes from her native Greece. As exhibited in the site, they included high society ladies, middle-class families, carnival performers, dancers, eccentrics and notable personalities in a variety of poses. She managed to place many of them consciously in the photographic dialogue between herself and subject, thus heightening the sense of drama in her selection.
The selection includes works of famous black & white photographers such as : Ivan Mladeno, Howard Nolan, Sona Janasova, Djana Dvers, Franz Sauer and other eminent photographers.
However the Stumbler should have taken more care to select the photographs in some sequence or theme. It may be due to search conducted and placed directly on the site, rather then selection keeping them in a folder thematically and then displaying. However easy you might think this to be, let me tell you it is not easy. It comes to author's dilemma which technique to use that is comprehended from the alternation of the subject of the photographs in the sequence order of the photo-essay.
I have a feeling from a note posted in the site that there are copy cats of this site and many pick up her selection without credit which is a compliment in a way , though disturbing. There could be a general feeling that it is easy to replicate her site .......but let me tell you, it is not that easy.
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