Warsaw born, NY based photographer Justine Kurland, Nudes from her series 'Of Woman Born' are fascinating in their “hyperreal artificiality” (BNET). The depiction of breast feeding mothers and their infants gathered in cult-like or hippie commune environments where they all stand naked is both eerie and beautiful. Its so natural its seems unreal! And the best part of all her work is the high-keyed, large-format C-prints that her images are presented on.To photograph this series, Kurland drove across the country while living in a van with her one-year old son. She began in New York City and made her way across the southern U.S. toward the Pacific Northwest. She stopped at some 45 locations, including national parks, beaches and campgrounds, to take photographs of other mothers and children that she met along the way. The exhibition’s title is taken from an essay by Adrienne Rich about the realities of motherhood. Kurland uses the natural landscape as a stage for these photographs, constructing an optimistic fantasy about living in harmony with nature and finding faith in humankind even as the world becomes increasingly unsettling. The resulting pictures of nudes posed on beaches, foggy coastlines and under waterfalls give this timeless subject matter an otherworldly quality. Works reference Pictorialist photography, early 19th century landscape photographs intended to lure settlers to the American West, and even Arthur Rackham's turn-of-the-century fairy tale illustrations.
Warsaw born, NY based photographer Justine Kurland, Nudes from her series 'Of Woman Born' are fascinating in their “hyperreal artificiality” (BNET). The depiction of breast feeding mothers and their infants gathered in cult-like or hippie commune environments where they all stand naked is both eerie and beautiful. Its so natural its seems unreal! And the best part of all her work is the high-keyed, large-format C-prints that her images are presented on.
To photograph this series, Kurland drove across the country while living in a van with her one-year old son. She began in New York City and made her way across the southern U.S. toward the Pacific Northwest. She stopped at some 45 locations, including national parks, beaches and campgrounds, to take photographs of other mothers and children that she met along the way. The exhibition’s title is taken from an essay by Adrienne Rich about the realities of motherhood.
Kurland uses the natural landscape as a stage for these photographs, constructing an optimistic fantasy about living in harmony with nature and finding faith in humankind even as the world becomes increasingly unsettling. The resulting pictures of nudes posed on beaches, foggy coastlines and under waterfalls give this timeless subject matter an otherworldly quality. Works reference Pictorialist photography, early 19th century landscape photographs intended to lure settlers to the American West, and even Arthur Rackham's turn-of-the-century fairy tale illustrations.
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