Nude photography is unlike any other field of taking images;
you require total involvement with the subject,
mutual understanding, especially regarding what you are
seeking to create,
and an overwhelming sense of trust and responsibility.
Lucien Clergue
Image of Patti by Tom Cubbage from the 'Dreaming of Georgia' series.
Faith and Art can often be discussed in the most remote, the most distant of terms, as if such were something deposited in a dreary museum display case, now confined to some remote corner of the stores, moth-balled and long forgotten. The reality, of course, is very different.
Christ spoke of a living faith as being something that involves the whole of us, heart, mind, body and soul, and anyone who engages deeply with art knows the same to be equally true here - a profound fusion of the artist and the subject to use a medium to capture something deep and evocative - a beauty which truly inspires.
The 'type' for this, as I've touched upon in prior musings, is the Creative work of our Father and Saviour Himself, in the six days of Creation, in His 'work' of delighting in this, and in all that has flown from that dawn in the marvel of His redemptive love towards our currently tarnished world. This reality underpins and informs an approach to life and creativity in a fashion that both furnishes and invites a bold inter-action whilst securing us 'in orbit' to the realities at the core of this existence - those which unfold from the truth regarding Creation, Fall and Redemption.
The context, then, for all great things in life, including composing a nude image, is to recognize the great value of the person before you and the true significance of seeking to express something of that worth within the frame.
Aside from a very few instances in my time behind the camera, most of my image taking has derived from moments which can only be described as permeated with the 'still' richness of grace.
Eternal life will be defined by our truly knowing God - both the Father and His Son - and discovering something, as far we will be able to comprehend, of the profound richness of the communion between the three persons of the Godhead. In a far smaller fashion, creating good figure work photography involves an inter-action between artist and subject (or, perhaps that should be two artists) which flows from trust and common vision and fuses into a compositions drawn from the confidence and delight of such inter-action.
This manner of Creativity is the most wonderful of gifts.
It allows us to mark and perhaps express the image of God within the human being,
and recognize the limits of that frayed visage due to our fallen estate,
but to also look in hope and with confidence, because of the whole vision seen in Jesus Christ.
Such riches frees us to be children of grace once again, aware of the broken nature of our world, but engaging with its beauty none the less, in the hope of the day when we will all be truly known as we are, and when all will be naked and unashamed once more.
Could there be a richer basis upon which to make our art?
Dreaming of Georgia
by Howard Nowlan
(Patti Image by Tom Cubbage)
Time is the Illusion, before the beauty written,
in every strand of hair & light,
of skin and bone gathered,
beneath the fulsome promise,
of a smoldering, burgeoning sky.
The marks of Eden's tempered echo,
unveil the rapture of her ripened soul,
within the serenity of a body,
worn now with ease and delight.
Look, reflect, in bright wisdom,
behold, earth's issue - this elated child,
clothed in the choicest of good gifts,
cherished in the tapestry of life.
The window of her eye reflects the inner tone,
light, skin, hair, and form, all singly respond,
surrounded by such a glow,
whispering safety,
breathless, as beauty remains.
