Dave MaceyMA                     Photographer

As Ingledew (2006:59) points out, the human body has fascinated many photographers. Discuss how photography has explored the human form in general and the nude in particular.

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We like to look.  To look is to use one of our senses and to interact with the world around us, it is how we partly understand reality and we place significant value on what we see.  In this essay I will show how we appreciate being the viewer, to look, and how we appreciate beauty.  I will also explore the concept of aesthetic beauty, how it has influenced the visual language we use and the concept of “the gaze”.  To aid in the exploration of these issues the photographic nude provides ample scope that can range from discussing various philosophical forms of beauty and different aspects of “the gaze”.

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”In the past few decades beauty has become something of an endangered species in the western art world” (Richmond, S.2004) claims Stuart Richmond.  This does seem true as it has become more fashionable to use shock value or to concentrate on the politic of the image to transmit the function, or the definition of the image.  This attitude could be traced back to the Paris Salon of the late 19th century to where the art world fractured with the emergence of the Impressionists challenging the Academic art movement.  But to depict beauty in photography places the image in a unique position because of the element of realism within photography, but not necessarily truthfulness.  Much of the language of photography has been adopted from painting as Graham Clarke mentions “the formal iconography and symbolic structuring has its roots in painting but photography substitutes for the painting’s presence a veracity and immediacy.” (Clarke. G, 1997) So a photograph possesses a combination of realism that is unattainable in a painting and a visual language which predates the medium by hundreds of years. 

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Because of this use of a visual language there is a difference between being naked and being nude.  When we view a photograph of a nude it is not just a naked body without any cultural definition but an image of a person who is unclothed and dependant on the surroundings, poses and the aesthetics of the image, as to what function the image performs.  Also when we view a photograph we see an element of reality, to which we attribute an element of truth, and the image becomes more accessible because of the depiction of a reality. When we then add the element of the viewer looking at the image, the private interaction between the perception of the viewer and the cognitive experiences inside their own mind, the experience is personalised and becomes a memory which produces a bond with the image.  So if the photographed nude’s main function is beauty then because of the “veracity and immediacy” inherent in the photograph, beauty is the message transmitted to the viewer and appreciation of the beauty within the image happens.

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So this process explains how an image is seen and defined but how does the viewer know what they are seeing can be classified as beautiful? The oxford dictionary actually gives two definitions, both of which are useful.  The first is “A combination of qualities, such as shape, colour, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight”and“A combination of qualities that pleases the intellect.” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/beauty) Both of these definitions have their roots in aesthetic philosophy, one which was proposed by Plato and the other by Emmanuel Kant.

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beauty as a refinement of the physical form and an intellectual interpretation.  Indeed Plato is responsible for one concept that has influenced art history, and consequently photography, for hundreds of years and this concept is known as The Ideal.  Plato asserted that everything had an ideal form that was created by God and existed in a metaphysical  dimension and are seen as the original form, a blue print which

would be used to make the physical form.  But because the physical form is a copy it is imperfect and any subsequent copies from the copy would be even less perfect.  Consequently if an artist wanted to achieve perfection then any realistic representation would be inadequate but they could alter the image by refinement.  The art historian EH Gombrich supports this view when he states “what the artists did was to look at many models and to leave out any feature they did not like; that they started by carefully copying the appearance of a real man, and then beautified omitting any irregularities or traits which did not conform to their idea of a perfect body.”  (Gombrich. E,H, p103 2011)

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So when we take the concept of The Ideal and apply it to shape and form certain qualities will appear which will be seen as beautifying the image.  As Gombrich indicates, blemishes on the nude would be removed, such as warts, but also elements such as proportion would be added, and the body would look balanced and symmetrical.  As we can see in fig 1 the body appears balanced and so has a degree of harmony, shows proportion which depicts order and unity.  These elements support the second definition of beauty which was “A combination of qualities that pleases the intellect”.

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However with this definition it is tempting to take it to the extreme and have everything balanced and orderly to heighten the affect of the pleasing aesthetics as it then increases the beauty of the image.  When this happens the image becomes too beautified and the sense of taste of the viewer rebels because the image becomes too far removed from reality, it loses its “vivacity and immediacy”.  As Gombrich also says “But a touched-up photograph and an idealized statue lack character and vigour.  So much has been left out and deleted that little remains but a pale and insipid ghost of the model” (Gombrich, E.H p103-104, 2011)

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The difficulty with this definition is that it relies heavily on the perception and the intellect of the viewer which then turns beauty into an idealised form that only a few elite people could understand.  Beauty becomes a cognitive exercise and a conscious procedure.  Plato’s interpretation is formulaic and objective which overlooks the subjective element of beauty.

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However there is the other definition of beauty from the dictionary that gives a more subjective experience of beauty and this concept was developed by Immanuel Kant.  Kant theorised that there are two forms of beauty, one which is conceptual, where factors are added to make beauty conscious, to make it an objective experience, but he also proposed a definition called free beauty in The Critique of free judgement. 

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Free Beauty is constructed of four elements which begin with what Kant described as being disinterested viewing.  By this he meant that the viewer gazed at the image without consciously thinking and analysing the shape and form.  Then would follow the universal and necessary nature of beauty, that everyone understands what the impression of beauty feels like and so consequently stops becoming something that only one person would understand.  Then would come the purposive element of beauty, the attraction part of beauty, the element which engages the viewer.  Kant stated “If we wish to discern whether anything is beautiful or not, we do not refer the representation of it to the object by means of understanding with a view to cognition, but by means of imagination (acting perhaps in conjunction with understanding) we refer the representation to the subject and it’s feeling of pleasure or displeasure.”(Kant, I. 1790) 

 

This process can be demonstrated with fig 2.  Because of its abstract qualities the cognitive experience can initially be halted and so allows for the senses to make a judgement by using “free beauty”.  The initial reaction is a subjective experience which afterwards leads to an objective experience which employs a visual language to define the object and then to classify the beautified elements. 

So we are now at a stage where beauty has been given a definition and of how this quality is understood and comprehended by the viewer.  But there is another quality of the appreciation of beauty that needs to be discussed that has influenced the perception of beauty dramatically.  This element is the notion of desire and also forms part of Kant’s theory with the universal and purposive element of Free Beauty.

As stated at the beginning of the essay, we like to

 

 

Kant was asserting that beauty should begin as a subjective experience and then defined by a cognitive experience which leads to beauty being personalised according to personal taste.   To develop this sense of taste the viewer is required to view the image initially without making any judgements, to allow the senses the freedom to judge whether the viewer finds the image beautiful on the experiential level.  This is summarised concisely by Stuart Richmond when he notes that “Subject and object are brought together into a harmonious and constructive relationship.”  (Richmond. S, 2004)

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      Fig 2: Nude 1936 Edward Weston

 

 

embroiled with another concept that has influenced art and photography, and that is the concept of The Gaze.

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The gaze is how the image is culturally interpreted and has influenced visual language for generations and puts the power of the viewer first.  In the relationship between the image and the viewer an image would focus on the cultural influences of the viewer as the image exists to be viewed but another part of the aspect of The Gaze is an assumption that the viewer was male.  Consequently images of women were depicted more than men and then allegorical definitions were introduced which led to the development of the classic nude.  Thus it became acceptable and respectable for paintings to exist which show nude women, and because virtually all the artists were male, they were depicted in various submissive poses under the guise of being fine art.

 

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element in free beauty because a cognitive process is not used.  To see the truth in this a simple test can be performed, when looking at fig 3, just imagine a man lying next to her.  Suddenly the whole dynamic of the image changes, the male viewer’s sexuality is challenged and the image loses its perceived element of beauty.

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This perception of beauty has almost become standard within photography, that the definition of beauty within the photographic nude has been marginalised by the male sexuality and has been reinforced by modern industries such as the media, film and television.  Consequently the beautified nude in photography is often interpreted with objectification and voyeurism used as the visual language instead of the concept of Free Beauty.

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So as we can see, beauty and aesthetics are just as challenging a concept such as the politic of the image or the use of shock value within photographic art.  But the issues which have been highlighted, especially the issue of scopophilia, have influenced the photographic nude with an interpretation of sexuality and so the innocence of the nude is undermined and ultimately lost.  But the existence of a different definition for nakedness that does not include the issues of voyeurism and possessiveness does suggest a different direction is possible and can potentially break away from the concept of the male gaze.

 

Bibliography

Clarke, G. 1997 The Photograph Oxford University Press

Gombrich, E.H 2011 The Story of Art, Phaidon

Kant, I. 1790 Critique of Judgement, Western Philosophy An Anthology, 2012, Blackwell Publishing

Richmond, S. Remembering Beauty: Reflections on Kant and Cartier-Bresson for Aspiring Photographers, Spring 2004, Volume 38, No.1, Journal of Aesthetic Education

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/beauty, accessed 24th April 2014

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