This is a quote that I stumbled on recently and posted on FB.  It received a real mixed bag of feedback which is what I expected.  I purposely did not initially offer my views on it.  Of course from my perspective as an artist who primarily photographs the nude form, this is the context in which I’ll frame my feelings and opinions.  The quote taken literally to me means give me the full nude or it’s just not real.  I don’t agree with this interpretation because in many cases parts are sometimes better than the whole.

One could argue that the implied nude will tend to hold the viewer’s attention while their imagination takes them on a journey full of all sorts of possibilities.  The question I would ask in this case is “are these thoughts related to the image they saw or to what’s buried in their subconscious?”  Only the viewer can answer this and I’d guess that it’s a mix of both.  A quick scan of today’s advertising world and you’ll see the implied concept put to use in many different areas.  The cliche “sex sells” comes to mind and the reality is that it does.  We are all sexual and emotion beings which is something to embrace and a topic for a different post.  For me the implied nude carries a much greater sexual and or sensual connotation that a full nude. The full nude leaves little to the imagination and must speak in a different voice to hold the viewer’s attention.  I’m also a strong believer that the full nude is much less sexual than the implied nude.  What I attempt to communicate with much of my work is the beauty of the human form.  I’ll also explore the provocative and erotic genres as well.  We tend to take human beauty for granted but it is without a doubt one of the most beautiful things nature offers.  Unfortunately the society in which we Americans live believes nudity to be wrong, perverted and a plethora of other definitions.  It’s also unfortunate that there’s so much abuse and mis-use of it.

I do both implied and full nudes in my work making conscious decisions regarding what it is that I’m trying to communicate.  The depth to which both implied and full nudes have been explored over time in a variety of media tells us that there are exceptions to everything i.e. there are implied nudes that are not necessarily sexual stimulating etc…. At the end of the day I think the important thing for the artist is to communicate what it is they intended in as strong a way as possible.