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Would you dare to bare all for the camera?
Mar 6 2008 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post
Laura Davis meets the people behind a photography concept that proves we can look good naked
WHAT is it about nudity that makes us giggle – at the man streaking across the football pitch, at a naked John Cleese wooing Jamie Lee-Curtis in Russian, at the thought of Lady Godiva riding bareback (in both senses of the word) across chilly old England?
Perhaps it is the national stiff upper lip that makes us snigger at the human body revealed, even though it is something we have been familiar with since birth.
Sniggering, that is, when we are not being reduced to fits of indignation, by Yoko Ono’s My Mummy Was Beautiful enormous photographs of the naked female form plastered across Liverpool city centre for the 2004 Biennial arts festival for instance.
Usually, art is the one public occasion when we can let our guard down, when it is OK to be seen staring at a body in its unadorned state, the only time we don’t mind admitting to others that we take enjoyment in it.
In galleries, this nation of prudes can freely admire the human body, without feeling like a peeping tom.
How far the general public has to catch up in the smashing of social taboos that TV, film and literature have been leading the revolution on.
Not so, argues Adam Yaffe, photographer and director of Yaffe Fusion Art, which has studios in Southport and Marbella.
The company has recently expanded its ”Undressed” nude portraiture service to include images of couples.
These are not would-be glamour models, but people who are happily married and see the photographs as an expression of their love for one another. And with prices starting at £215 for a small image, clients tend to be professional people looking for a new piece of artwork to hang in their suburban homes.
Adam says he has around three clients booking the service each week.
“Undressed is a natural progression in the evolution of our work,” he says.
“In the 80s, we started doing a lot of shoots of women in gorgeous La Perla type underwear.
“Then the boom in visits to the gym, and, more recently, the tweaking of certain bodily assets through cosmetic surgery, has given both men and women the confidence to seek out photography that is more up close and personal.”
Adam compares the Undressed images to Renaissance or Pre-Raphaelite art, which he considers are less relevant to the way we live our lives now.
“Today’s modern style of artists, such as those at Yaffe Fusion Art, who use photography and digital manipulation are changing the face of nude and semi-nude, sensual portraits.
“During the last three or four years it has become a boom industry and no-one else does this.
“Couples like it because it can be a nice piece of art in the bedroom.
“There is nothing embarrassing about it.”
Some people want to record their looks at a point in their lives when they are proud of them, adds Sandra Carney, marketing director of Yaffe, which was established in 1967.
“Everybody goes to the gym these days and are very body conscious,” she explains.
“What we look like has become very important to us and these images reflect the pride people take in achieving a good physique.
While it’s possible Rossetti may have exaggerated Alexa Wilding’s natural curves or skimmed a little from her stomach, today’s subjects have access to the sort of physical alternations that earlier models could only dream of.
Once the pictures have been taken – you have a choice of male and female photographers and can be coached on the most flattering poses – there is the option of airbrushing any bits you aren’t completely happy with.
In the post production design studio, tummies can be virtually tucked, blemishes masked and muscles pumped – without the need for dieting or endless trips to the gym.
FURTHER details about Undressed can be found at www.yaffefusionart.com
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