What is the role of nudity in abstract photography?  I acknowledge that employing nudity in a project where the final product is abstract, and thus does not depict the nudity, is strange and might seem superfluous but I believe it is integral.

Photography is the freezing of emotions.  I have found that nudity creates not only the greatest range of emotions but the most honest.  The fundamental truth is we just act differently in a state of undress.  But nudity doesn’t only affect the emotions of the model it also affects the photographer.  Not only do we act differently in a state of undress we also feel differently when we see someone in such a state. 

Unfortunately, nudity has been commercialized and demonized in our society.  If a women decides, of her own free will and volition, to pose nude she is smut shamed and given all kinds of labels.  Social media bans anyone with the audacity to post nudity.  So the fundamental question is how do we redeem in nudity in a world where we cannot depict it? 

The answer, I have come up with, is we obfuscate it.  By abstracting the final photo it allows me to get it past the social media censors without blunting the emotional power of the original photo.  The abstraction of the photo also allows the photo to pass the social filters we have setup towards nudity and for us to have honest and complex emotional reactions.

“I truly enjoyed the experience and collaboration involved in this project. I found Payam to be easy to work with and open minded in the creative process. I truly hope to work with him in the future!”- Geneva