A lot of people have posted on this already so I doubt it I will be saying anything new. I took part in an art student project yesterday which was an exploration of nudity and nakedness. The young artist devised it as an installation with three male models and two female models, one of whom myself. The other female model and one of the male models were a couple in real life and they were demonstrating some intimacy, but all very subtle. We had to pose for photos of our own interpretation of nude and nakedness and then we had different locations within the room and different tasks to perform as the guests poured in. I had to sit in a hanging chair showing my idea of nudity. Another model posed for a short life drawing class. The couple stood together in an embrace. All guests and the models too had to fill in a questionnaire about themselves and what they thought was 'nude' and 'naked'.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but this is beside the point.
I thought a lot about this difference and came up with the following.
There is a very porous boundary between nudity and nakedness, but to me nakedness suggests self awareness of being unclothed and therefore a sense of shame in showing one's naked body. I always think of Eve who was nude in the Garden of Eden but then suddenly saw her nakedness after she ate the apple from the Tree of Knowledge and became aware of being exposed.
But in my interpretation of nude I went further and used Helmut Newton for reference, so I wore heels and used very aggressive, Newtonesque stances, whereas for naked I showed myself in a state of dishabillée, entirely self-conscious.
It seemed appropriate.
To me nudity is almost like wearing clothes. I am nude when I model. I am naked when I am putting my clothes back on in the privacy of the bathroom. This is particularly so when I pose for life drawing classes. I keep my robe on until the class begins and then I 'wear' my nudity for the artists. So nudity is wearable, whereas nakedness is not.
I wonder what you think of this.
(All photos modelled by Alex B and taken by Martin Norris)
I was shooting with a first-time nude model just yesterday, and I was discussing the difference between nudes and what I call "nakeds". So, this is an interesting topic to come up so soon after!
ReplyDeleteWhat I told her was that I think, like you said, there is some self-awareness in "nakedness", which is communicated most strongly when the model looks into the camera - thereby creating the illusion of eye-contact. It creates the sensation that there is an awareness on the part of the model that there is a viewer, which in turn indicates an awareness that the model is nude (though, not necessarily).
I told her that in what I would call a nude, there is usually no eye-contact, because it creates the illusion that there is no viewer - that it is a moment in which the model doesn't know he or she is being "watched".
I think that applies even to photos in which there is more than one model. So long as neither is looking at the camera, it seems as though their nudity is not something entirely acknowledged.
So, I think, in part, being "naked" requires an awareness that you are being watched. It requires, to some degree, audience participation; the "gaze." But it doesn't work unless that gaze is acknowledged with eye contact.
I think you are right that nudity is like wearing a costume of sorts, because you have to play the part of someone who is oblivious to the gaze of others.
Everyone will have their own personal interpretation of the two words of course. I agree with Hatebunny that "naked" usually comes with an awareness that you are being watched. However "nude" can be aware or unaware.
ReplyDeleteTo me "naked" can imply a degree of vulnerability, being unprotected or exposed, but "nude" implies a natural state, almost an innocence.
Eroticism or sexuality may be part of a naked or nude image, but it is something else. It often exists to a greater extent in images of clothed models
Thank you all for your very informed and interesting comments. I will write the next post including your comments, if I may
ReplyDeletel realise that 'nude' and 'naked' are two different words and, as such, might to some have different meanings but to me the act of being unclothed feels the same whatever l am doing. lt feels free, sensuous and unshameful.
ReplyDeleteI once commented on a photo by our mutual friend Unbearable Lightness, that she was not only nude but naked; by that I meant that there was a strong presence and expression not always present in "art nudes."
ReplyDeleteAmong nudists, there is some discussion about whether our "natural state" should be called "nude" or "naked." I have come to prefer *naked* for its connotation of openness and vulnerability.
And one could do a lot worse than to quote the Robert Graves poem: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/aupoem116.html