Ivan Pinkava - Czech photographer

Ecco, la Luce!, 1996

Wow. It's been too long since I found a link that has really made an impression on me. Czech photographer Ivan Pinkava's work knocks me out. It's certainly not to all tastes, but finding photos this challenging and multi-layered is a real treat for a jaded old blogger like me.

From Artist's Bio:

"...The topics, such as death, eternity, lost paradise, destiny, the nakedness of being, are in the great tradition of the European fine arts. It appears that hope, as if masked with scepticism, is probably linked with the theme of most of the artist's photographs, the conviction that Being has its own profound existential meaning. The partial androgyny of the photographed beings, who sometimes seem no longer to be of our world, only then points to some sort archetypical eternity of the presented themes."

Ivan Pinkava - Czech photographer

This link found at the excellent Xupacabras blog

BRUNO BISANG PHOTOGRAPHY

Here's four galleries from famous fashion & beauty photographer Bruno Bisang.

Bruno Bisang Photography

OK, I'm curious about your opinions on this one. While I search for photographers for this blog, there are certain cliches I run across constantly that almost guarantee that I won't be featuring that site. The fact that a photographer has used one of these cliches doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't talented. Heck, most of us who shoot figure work have probably used these conventions at one time or another, that's why they're cliches. However, when you look at as many sites as I do, you soon realize that certain things are just plain overdone.

That said, here are my personal top three overdone, passe, boring cliches.

#1 Selective Colouring. If I see one more black and white nude with pink bits painted in, or the eyes coloured, I'll scream.

#2 Nudes in stilletto heels. Helmut Newton could pull this off, most anyone else can't.

#3 Nudes with swords.

Now it's time for reader feedback. I know you're an opinionated bunch, so please let us know what photo ideas you think are past their "best before" date, or are just plain cheesy. Just click on the comments below and share your thoughts.

George Losse

There's an unpretenious, straight-forward feel to Philadelphia photographer George Losse's work that I find really appealling.

George Losse

Michael McCarthy ~ Photographer & Artist

"When I see old photographs of young people I inevitably begin wondering what has happened to these people in all these years since the photo was originally taken. Have they led happy or sad lives? Are they even still alive. I think to myself that if they are alive they certainly have a very different physical appearance. With my own work I'm trying to give this sense of the passage of youth and beauty. The idea being that there will always be young and beautiful people but they too, in their turn, will move steadily toward physical decline."

Michael McCarthy ~ Photographer & Artist

SYLVIE BLUM :: Welcome to SYLVIE BLUM Photography

I don't love everything she does, but there is quite a lot that I do. Elegance with a nod towards the commercial, coupled with marvellous tones.

Sylvie Blum

Photography-Peter Fetterman Gallery : Ruth Bernhard

Ruth Bernhard's ageless photos never fail to please. They're an object lesson for any photographer of the nude.

Ruth Bernhard at the Peter Fetterman Gallery

Flor Gardu?o - FLOR

Flor Garduno - FLOR






The Mexican photographer, Flor Garduno, is one of my favorites. This site contains work which later was released in her book, "Inner Light". Her photographs capture the spirit of the Mexican Magical Realism genre. If anyone runs across newer work of hers, or discovers that she's doing workshops somewhere, I'd love to hear about it.

DE

Flor
Garduno

A. Pilichowski-Ragno Fotografia Artystyczna, Fine Art Photography

Here's some really strong and classic looking black & white work by Polish photographer A. Pilichowski-Ragno

A. Pilichowski-Ragno Fotografia Artystyczna, Fine Art Photography

The link via the excellent Xupacabras weblog

Brooks Ayola Photographer

If you notice any subtle little aesthetic changes around here, it's thanks to new contributing editor Brooks Ayola. He helped me translate some scary looking blogger code so the name of the person responsible for posts shows up automatically and sorted out some other glitches too. Thanks Brooks!

And now for something completely different (that's if Michael hasn't linked to this before). This may not appeal to everyone, but it's interesting. Meet Toto Frima from the Netherlands. Personally, I'm usually not too fond of this type of low tech imagery, but there's something about this SX-70 work that reminds me of how freeing shooting with a Holga can be. The dual Polaroids like the set shown above are in the 2001-2002 gallery.

Toto Frima

nudity

Here's an interesting list of incidents where nudity in artwork has resulted in censorship or criminal charges. They range from well known cases like the photos of Jock Sturges to the obscure like Isadora Duncan being branded "the Bolshevik hussy" and being run out of Boston in 1922.

nudity and censorship

Playing with the notion of photography vs. painting, Farkas Antal Jama creates some very unusual work.

Farkas Antal Jama

You may also want to check out the source page for this gallery. It's all in Hungarian, but there are some pretty amazing photos to be found here, many of which I've never seen before.

farrokh chothia photography

Farrokh Chothia is one of India's leading fashion photographers. The personal work section of his website features not only some truly excellent photography, but some of the most gorgeous South Asian models I've ever seen. (I know, I know, it's about the photography not the models, but it's the weekend!)

farrokh chothia photography

Galerie de photos de Baudouin de Rochebrune

Here's some nice straight forward black & white work by French photographer Baudouin de Rochebrune

Galerie de photos de Baudouin de Rochebrune

Finnish photographer Tuomas Marttila's photographs breathe elegance and grace.

Tuomas Marttila

Corrie Ancone - Photographic Artist

Apparently it's Australia day at Art Nudes, because here's another photographer from Down Under, Corrie Ancone.

Corrie Ancone - Photographic Artist

Home

There's lots of new work at Australian photographer and sculptor Lawrence Winder's site.

sitedfigures

Marco Michieletto Photography - Welcome

Well, here I am eating my words. Thanks to an overwhelming response by the readership of this blog and renewed energy brought by a couple of new volunteers co-admins, it looks like Art Nudes will live on for a while yet.

Thanks to Eric K. for the first guest post below.

I'm going to start back into this with the work of Marco Michieletto, a young photographer with a strong fashion look to his work.

Marco Michieletto Photography - Welcome

Pamela Creevey

American photographer Pamela Creevey's black and white abstract nudes are both sensual and refined. In spirit, Weston's peppers are not a million miles away.

Pamela Creevey

Art Nudes

Wow! I've received a lot of really nice emails and comments from people. Thank you all very much. I'm genuinely touched.

The big news is that I'm here to tell you that there may be hope for this blog yet. I've received a couple expressions of interest from people who might want to help out as co-administrators here. Whether anything really comes of this remains to be seen, but keep your fingers crossed and check back in a few days for an update.

If anyone else is interested in being a blog co-administrator please write me for details.