article about controversial photographer who shoots girls and women nude

[altweeklyist]

If you're interested in nude portraiture, or in photogs who push the envelope, you might want to read this article about Oakland photographer Frank Cordelle. The amazing photos alone are worth a look!!

[Frog]

I admire those who can bring attention to social issues through photography.
Thanks for sharing this article.

[Ronnoco]

I admire those who can bring attention to social issues through photography.
Thanks for sharing this article.

I view him, more as a social activist with a camera taking documentation style snap shots with "shock" value to some viewers. I do not see that as photography.

Ronnoco

[racingpinarello]

Why wouldn't you call it photography? It's his way of communication. I don't see the images as being shocking either.

All of his images in the article are will lit and show an easiness between subject and photographer. Beauty doesn't have to be skin deep.

Loren

[Photo-John]

I think Ronocco means it's not art. Because if you use a camera, it's photography. No way around that. As for whether the photographer is an artist, a photojournalist, or a snapshooter using a camera to illustrate and article, I don't know. I haven't looked at the story except to check and see if it was spam - which I think it is.

[JSPhoto]

This country is just too uptight about nudity or sex. Take some of these prissy fools to Europe for a trip through some towns big and small, they would die of a heartattack seeing nude statues, or women and girls walking around without bras, or take em too some European beaches where the girls are topless. Don't take them too Scandenavian countries though, they'd definately die of a heart attack! Whole families in the nude enjoying a sauna then running outside and jumping in the snow or the lake. Here the parents would be arrested for child abuse.
It's almost funny that we, and the rest of the world think were "free" here, yet we have more laws and rules than all the other countries put together. Funny too, that with the European views on the body and nudity, they have much less sex crimes, and even fewer teenage pregnancies, yet, of course uptight America leads the world in both sex crimes and teenagers getting pregnant.

JS

[Ronnoco]

Don't jump to any wrong conclusions. There is nothing wrong with nude photography from any perspective. Nevertheless I remember one photography professor that I ran into on a professional basis (not as a student). His narrow scope was taking photos of drunks in the gutter. He was preaching that as photography too. As far as I was concerned it was just the snapshots of someone keen on social commentary.

Picture taking is clicking the shutter and that is what I define is the case here. Photography involves careful technique and composition heading toward artistic.

Ronnoco

[Chantel Stewels]

With all due respect - I can understand that the photographer is trying to convey the images across as art but... in reality I think his images is going to appease the sickos and paedophiles more than anything else.

[Sushigaijin]

the response here is interesting. For the first time, I actually have a lot to say about photography as art.

obviously the photographer is achieving his goal of stimulating discussion, I think that qualifies it as art more than anything else. He has a vision of what he wants to convey, he knows how to produce it, so he does...what's not artistic about that? just because it's not abstracted? After all, Ansel Adams photos all look a lot like snapshots too.

I really like the idea that this photographer has - while I haven't seen enough of his work to decide whether I actually like his photos or not, there is no doubt in my mind that they are good. bringing the viewer into the work of art is something that too many people ignore. A good work of art, photo or not, will stimulate some kind of thought; that's the reason why it exists. Just because something is aesthetically pleasing or not has no impact on whether or not it is good art. Making the viewer uncomfortable while avoiding shock value is a very difficult thing to pull off, and in this case I am reasonably sure that he is doing a good job at it. Suggested reading regarding making the viewer part of the art, so that it cannot be ignored: google situationists, or guy debord, start there.

Sickos and pedophiles won't find much solace in nude portraits taken in a tasteful way - these aren't hustler spreads after all. They also are not anotomical studies like field guide photos - they convey something more, something that expresses the human condition, fragileness, and personality - which in my opinion is what makes them well composed and carefully thought out. Whether or not I like them is still up for debate, but I'd love a coffee table book of his work. In fact, I think I have one that's similar, called Living Picture Books Herbert Hoffman.

good stuff, it is interesting that I learn a lot about my own opinion by reading other people's.

[opus]

I don't have a whole lot to add on the photography/art debate, but I have to say that in looking at the pictures in the article, I suddenly had a revelation about what it means to see "real beauty", and I realized (for the first time, go figure!) just how much of my own perceptions about human bodies have been shaped by the "perfect" images in the media.

I would love a coffeetable book of these images as well. Not for any sexual titillation ... I can't see these photos inspiring that at ALL ... but so that I can get a grasp on the real world and maybe finally accept my own body for its inherent beauty.

[Frog]

I'm thinking maybe the "technique and composition" may not be artistic in the photographic sense that Ronnoco alludes to but the "presentation" makes it [I]art[I][ in the social commentary context which much of art is.