Ta Nea (People Supplement, 1999)
Nudity is a favorite subject of painters and an essential lesson in fine arts studies. Photography inherited it from painting and, although it cannot provide the same services, it has used it frequently and with inversely proportional quality. The photographed nude may not present particular technical difficulties, but, in compensation, poses almost insurmountable obstacles in thematic handling and content. To understand this, one only needs to consider how much more willingly someone poses for a painting than for a photograph. The power of photographic realism, which frightens or repels the person who is to be naked in front of the lens, is precisely what the photographer must use to overcome the already charged subject of nudity. The power of the presence of the photographed nude undermines the photographer, who, even when realizing that it cannot be ignored, often covers it behind obvious and always weak evasions. Supposedly artistic nudes in the hope or pretense of negating their naked provocation, nudes with schematic abstraction where body parts become pretexts for shadow play, and nudes used as carriers of engaged messages.
The sudden liberation (and subsequently fashion) of male nudity (a subject even more difficult than female), expressed mainly through homosexual photographic manifestos, instead of giving us true images, born out of eroticism, violence, and possibly oppression, gave us instead postcard-like and formalized images, where the size of the genital organs caused more indignation than arousal or terror. Most of these nudes were in every respect painless and consequently uninteresting. The male nudes hardly differed from still lifes. Their bodies, usually identical to fashion and advertising standards, "decorated" pedestals and backgrounds in a context of an aesthetically soothing beautification. Their decorative aspect vastly outweighed their supposed subversive nudity.
The well-known painter Dimitris Geros decided a few years ago to test his skills in photography as well. He tackled one of the most difficult subjects, male nudity, presenting us with a photographic album titled "Theory of Nude." This title, combined with the treatment of nude bodies, shows that Dimitris Geros consciously attempts a transition from the classical approach of painting to a postmodern photographic aesthetic of the past decade. However, his impeccable technique was not enough to cover his weaknesses in content, many of which relate to those mentioned above. It's possible that the known painter's brief engagement with the function of the photographic medium, combined with possible inhibitions in front of an absolutely sincere treatment of nudity, are responsible for these images of male "clichés," often reminiscent of masked or "dressed" nudity, and without even reaching the provocative mockery of them, assuming there was such intention.
For these reasons, I was very pleased and surprised when I got hold of Dimitris Geros's second photographic album ("Limitation"), with a completely different photographic approach (the contribution of Natasa Markidou, who took over the editing, must have been crucial). Notably, this publication was subsidized by the Ministry of Culture. There are contradictions and inequalities in this book, both in terms of subjects and handling of the photographic language. However, a more substantial search for the photographic medium itself is evident, and more importantly, an honesty, spontaneity, and lack of pretension that perfectly match the nature of photography. Some images are indeed photographically immature, like innocent steps into a new world, but not bad, and without winning admiration or generating emotion. Others, likely credited to the creator's mature artistic age, are more complex and substantial. Interestingly, some of the few portraits included emanate much greater sensuality and demonstrate a much more genuine photographic aestheticism than the older nudes, and most importantly, in a particularly suggestive manner.
Dimitris Geros's relationship with painting will likely remain primary and privileged. Nevertheless, I am pleased to see that the power of photographic immediacy, combined with the ease of photographic technique, attracts more and more creators from different artistic areas. These artists use photography sometimes as an element to enrich their artistic contemplation, sometimes as a means to escape creative dead ends, and sometimes as a revitalizing game in their strict artistic course. The strength of photography is that it can allow this usage, provided that those who use it respect its idiosyncrasy. Dimitris Geros did it. The future will show if photography has won him over in a more permanent way.