Nude Photography is complicated as it is beautiful. Different eyes view it distinctly, which makes this art all the more nuanced. Before you all dive into the article, let me take you through my observation and standpoint regarding nude photography.
The first time I came across a nude photograph of a woman while scrolling through Instagram, I stopped for a second, and just admired the confidence of the model. The way she embraced her body like hers, only hers, made me question my own perception of the ‘perfect body’. At the same time, I also kept on asking myself about what it meant to be photographed naked. It’s more than just a click. There’s a lot of ‘letting go’ involved in the art of nude photography, be it for the person clicking the picture, and for the person modelling. In a way, it is sort of empowering because you’re at your comfortable best, letting go off all the judgements that you’ve passed on to your body, and just accepting it the way it is. Mind you, that takes a lot of courage, and a lot of unlearning our own insecurities.
To look beyond our skin, and be our rawest self is indeed powerful so I went on a journey to explore the minds behind photographers from Kerala who have managed to shift the vulgar gaze of nudes to something more meaningful. These photographers have grown to carve a special place in their field by making something that society would perceive as uncomfortable, comfortable.
What are you really trying to capture?
If there’s one trend, if you can call it so, that I have noticed in the past year, is the rise of self-portrait nude photography. As the name suggests, you become the photographer and model, showcasing your vulnerable side at ease.
Jithin Raaj from Calicut, who photographed himself wanted to “portray the tenderness and warmth of a male body.” He goes on to say that “the beauty of a male body is frowned upon and never seen as beautiful. The notion of the ‘real man’, of meeting the societal expectations of being a man, is flawed“, and that we should “stop running behind this utopian sense of beauty”. Through his photos, he wanted to tell people to love and accept themselves, no matter what, and that being perfect is just an illusion that our toxic society has created.
Thinking on similar lines, Harikrishnan from Thrissur believes that “beauty does not depend on the colour of the skin or the clothes you wear. Everyone’s beautiful. Everything’s normal.” And, that’s exactly what he tries to capture.
Arsha‘s understanding of the body and its politics is highly reflected in her series of nude photographs. “Nudity is sexualised, particularly with women. In a patriarchal world, this is an act of men to ensure their dominance and hide their insecurities. They are scared of losing their power and dominance. Consider Instagram for that matter. The very platform through which we fight against sexism, inequality and other social and political causes itself blatantly endorses discrimination and supports the sexualisation of the female body. How ironic and unjust, isn’t it?” she pointed out. The idea of nudity comes with a piece of historical and cultural baggage of censorship, as Arsha rightly stated. The more we immoralise human bodies, the more time it’s going to take people to view nudity beyond its sexual connotations.
Shajeer Razeena, on the other hand, feels that “nudity is the identity of any species”. We humans began to cover our natural bodies to survive and to create an identity. So nudity of humans is not something special when it is seen from nature’s perspective, he said. For Shajeer, beauty lies in human normality in their personal space and mood, that is individualistic and personal.
He further added, “We don’t get to see a lot of people comfortably standing, sitting, dancing or even moving in their own skin, naked. So many people haven’t even seen their entire body or skin yet, even Infront of a mirror”, shared Shajeer. His idea of nude photography has always been about giving new perspectives to people so that they get that confidence out if it to sit free or face a crowd without any insecurities.
When asked about Arsha’s POV about nude photography, she shared, “I consider nudity as truth. When I capture nude photographs of an individual, it explicitly reflects a comfort zone that the individual shares with me and the confidence and comfort of that individual in their own skin. It’s a process of breaking their insecurities, fears and conditioning which were forcefully imposed on that individual by our ancestors. Hence it’s a revolutionary act.”
Adding on to the above statement by Arsha, Aparana Thankaraj shared, “In our society, the female body has been objectified and mystified so much. Normalising it, and aesthetically depicting it in all its virtues and flaws is what I aim for.”
Keerthana Dinesh finds realness in the human body. She shared, “I’m trying to capture the simple raw nature of the human body. My images communicate an expression, lets the viewer interpret and share a moment of thoughts with themselves, sans words. It’s about self-expression. I want my subjects to feel empowered and confident in their skin. I, through my enriching experience, aim to use photography as a tool to capture the art that emanates from the portrayal of my subjects in an individualistic way. My practices have explored the natural boundaries of photography and I work to push its potentials in various situations.”