JULIA FULLERTON BATTEN

 

Unadorned

 

My latest work is inspired by paintings of old masters from the 15th to 17th Century (Titian to Rubens). Over a period of three centuries, these masters showed that female beauty of that time was represented by a fuller figure, and also even for men.

In this series I transposed the old masters' inspirational works into a modern context. Larger-than-life models of both sexes unashamedly shed their clothes and posed for me in the nude. I placed them individually in a scene with appropriate props and asked them to pose in ways that would show off their shape naturally and enhance their beauty. I simulated soft candle- and moon-light to recreate that seen in the old masters' paintings.

The way my models held themselves and behaved when naked and being photographed showed me the strength of their individual personalities and their self-confidence. They accept that their bodies are as nature intended them to be. They are honest to themselves in a world all too often dominated by manipulated beauty.