100 People
  

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100 People

Too many times we are judged by our outward appearance. We are not looked at as unique beings of flesh and blood, what is seen is only our outward appearance, how we look and what we wear, based on style and fads. This is how we are judged. People are compared to the standards of models, actors and actresses, the high profile men and woman that we are forced to look at on television, movies and magazines. Few commercial agencies depict real people to advertise, or sell their product and image. Thus we have been brain washed to think that being accepted in society means looking like the images we are force fed, or at the very least, we are made to believe that striving to achieve these false standards will make us accepted. What a real living human being is made of seems to be less understood today than any time before.

Each of us represents a valuable and unique human, no mater what our outward appearance may reflect. We should not conform to the imagery that society has placed upon us. An image of what people should be, how we should act, how we should interact with others and how we should look. Some of us may fit into this mold depicted in magazines and television, but it is a minuscule number. Other human beings may stride in a false quest to conform to this plastic mold, but even those that seek this task fall short. The majority of the people that inhabit this world are just people, good, bad and indifferent. We are all just humans and should be comfortable and relaxed with who we are. I truly believe, for the most part we are all good and likable people. All men and women are more than just themselves, they are unique and valuable, and all are important and even sacred.

By seeking out real people from different walks of life, stripping away their clothing, leaving them with just themselves, and placing each one in the same environment we are more able to see the real person – they're soul. These are brave people that are revealing only what they entered this world with. No matter how they look, how we might perceive them, they are good people and their physical characteristics have little to do with the inner person. Each person represents a significant point, a special place where the worlds phenomena intersect. This intersection is spiritual and important for it exists only once and never again.

I am not making any judgments. I am not condoning, or condemning the way any person may look, or choose to look, what I am doing is trying to help others think and reveal, if only for just a brief moment, that basically we are all good people at heart, no mater what our outward appearance may reflect. Each individual is only here on this earth once; never again will they represent the significant person they were when this image was made. It is our own society that changes us and if by chance you are offended by the concept of this project, or if you criticize those that were brave enough to take part, you might be doing so because of your own shortcomings. Look past what you think you see and see what you should see. Look inward and think about the idea of this statement. Look beyond the physical attributes of the individuals and see them for who they are. After all, we are all the same species.

Is nudity, or being nude wrong? No, it is not. This misguided judgment and image of the human body being wrong if unclothed, is the result of centuries of dominant cultural teachings. Teachings and ideas spawned by the inhibitions of others that have been forcing the sight of a human body into a morality issue that have sadly been a milestone of religious beliefs. Digressing back to the beginnings of Christian belief, if Adam and Eve existed, were they not unclothed, or nude in the Garden of Eden?

Nudity has been subjected to, and placed into a gendre that has been labeled immoral. Seeing the human body nude is harmful, unacceptable, or somehow obscene and indecent. There is a self-righteousness, arrogance, and ignorance in this kind of thinking that should not have been accepted in the past, or in this new millennium. What should be seen is the person, the spirit and the soul, not the way they are presented.
    To quote Michelangelo; "What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"
Shooting 100 People
Each of these 100 people were photographed with a Bronica 6X6 using Kodak Tmax 100 film. They walked in freely to my shooting area, removed the constraining clothes they wore and stood on their mark. I shoot one roll of film, twelve frames, for each person. I tried to not direct or pose, I wanted each person to give me themselves, to show their unclothed essence, and they did. It is not an easy photograph for a person to submit to. There are no props to hide behind, no retouching to feed false egos. They are what you see, beautiful brave people that are proud and comfortable being themselves.

100 PEOPLE
WANTED