Jackie #2, 1928, shows the model's torso closely cropped and on a diagonal in the frame, playing with triangles in the top corners of the picture and elsewhere, not least in the shadow of the model's left breast. The cutting off of her arms gives a resonance of the Venus de Milo, although the moderately hard and fairly oblique directional lighting leaves us in no doubt as to the substantiality of the flesh; Cunningham's women have a personality and particularity about them - we notice the line leading down from her navel, the slight curves in her skin - and a sensuality that many of Weston's nudes evade.
In “Triangles 2”, 1928, the title implies geometry, but the dominant lines are the curves of the woman's back and neck, viewed from the side, and its repetition by the shadow of her right arm cast on her body. There are triangles to be found, but they are largely implied, incomplete or interrupted. The model holds her head down to her knees, wrapping her arms around her shins, creating a triangle of white background between the top of her arms, legs and bowed face, which is disrupted by her silhouetted nose. Moving down toward the centre of the picture, the background visible below her arms is cut into by the jutting cone of her right breast, almost but not quite touching her shadowed leg, virtually creating two triangles above and below it. Seen from this angle her breast also creates two sides of a triangle.
The sensuality of Cunningham's works is perhaps at its most explicit in her several pictures of two sisters from the same period, the curves of their bodies mirroring the intimacy of their relationship.
As you can see, there is an art to photographing the human body (much more tasteful than the smut that has been circulated throughout our culture – but even this is a reflection of culture today). When done with care and by focusing on setting, you will find nude portraits to be among the most telling and captivating works of art anywhere.
Home
