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Heavy in White

Heavy in White

Heavy in White

Text JF. Pierets    Artwork Lynn Bianchi

 

Lynn Bianchi is a New York City-based fine art photographer and multi-media artist who has shown work in over thirty solo exhibitions and in museums worldwide. Her photographic art has been featured in over forty publications. Bianchi’s Heavy in White series was inspired by body-consciousness, and the desire to create a fantasy world where women could break free of self-criticism. Small and heavy women celebrate nude while eating and dressing, existing in the moment, challenging societal ideals on weight, beauty and sexuality. The Heavy in White women are not trying to impress or perform. They play dress-up and eat with relish, celebrating their sexuality without trying to be something other than what they are.

 

Your series ‘Heavy in White’ is right up our alley regarding diversity and a different view on beauty. How did you come up with the idea?
One time, I went to a Whitney biennial exhibition and I saw lots of tables covered with what looked like garbage. They said it was art. Then I went to MoMA. I saw the Impressionist paintings: Monet, Cézanne,… Coincidentally, tables were involved again: beautiful still-life paintings, gorgeous table settings in the impressionist paintings. I went from garbage to beautiful fruits and flowers. After the Whitney exhibits I was very much impressed by the clash of opposites. I thought to myself: I can do that. But what is it that I Iike? I like white. I also could use tables. So tables led to food, food led to body image. Then I wanted a heavy model. And that’s how it started.

Why did you choose to put them in a neoclassic setting?
I guess I’m a neoclassicist inside. One isn’t always in charge of what comes out of ones mind.

Which artist inspires you?
No artist in particular. I’m inspired by my own life experience and by life itself.

How about the models? Were they as positively body-conscious as you wished them to be?
Not necessarily. Being a woman myself, I know that most of us are not satisfied with our bodies, no matter how close to – according to today’s standards – perfection we are. In any case, the photo sessions took away a great deal of the self-consciousness that my models were feeling towards their bodies. For example; I photographed one woman who was bulimic. After our photo sessions, she was able to overcome her bulimia. The sessions were like facing one’s worst fears. Nobody felt self-conscious because the idea of any specific individual or identity was of so little importance compared to the task at hand. The models did not actually lose their identity, however, but rather their sense of ‘self’ was allowed to submerge into the collective. Each model became an important part of the bigger pictures. The photographs weren’t about one individual but spoke of something deep inside each one of them.

 

 

‘I want people to see the joy of living, in and of itself. I’m showing them one of their fears, for example the fear of being too fat. But there is a sense of commonality in the nudity and once the differences are exposed, they are more beautiful than scary.’

How important is diversity in your work?
I love diversity. It’s never boring. It’s life.

It looks like all those women have a lot of fun. Was it a pleasure to shoot them?
Absolutely! The models weren’t self-conscious. Quite the opposite. They were given one task; to eat. And while doing that, they forgot to be in control. They became a monumental sculpture. An exchange of beauty occurred. It was a harmony of shapes and forms. Then came the acceptance of the differences between all of us. It was the best fun.

Why did you want them to eat?
Because that’s what we do every day; we eat and we suffer, we don’t eat and we suffer. You want to eat but you don’t want it to show. But at the core, it is a pleasure to eat. It is a very social thing, too. People get together to eat and have a good time.

Your pictures are very physical. How do you accomplish that feeling?
I just show what’s in front of me. And again; life is very physical.

What do you want your spectators to see?
I want people to see the joy of living, in and of itself. I’m showing them one of their fears, for example the fear of being too fat. But there is a sense of commonality in the nudity and once the differences are exposed, they are more beautiful than scary.

Are you, yourself, free from self-criticism?
I have to say with laughter: no! Absolutely not!

How do you define beauty?
From inside out. Beauty is something that shines through. Physical beauty is pretty to look at, but it disappears quickly if there is nothing much to support it. Beauty is the joy of living.

 

www.lynnbianchi.com

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Sworn Virgins

Sworn Virgins

Sworn Virgins

Text JF. Pierets    Photos Jill Peters

 

Northern Albanian women, faced with a culture that subjugates females, live and dress as men in order to provide for their families. These sworn virgins took a vow of chastity, wear male clothing and live as men in the patriarchal northern Albanian society. In an ongoing series, photographer Jill Peters has captured the fascination of a tradition dating back hundreds of years.

 

When and where did you come up with the idea of making this series?
In late 2008 I was reading a book written by Serena Nanda about gender diversity around the world, and came across a chapter about the Sworn Virgins of Albania.  I was intrigued by the idea of such a tradition.  I knew nothing about them, nor had I ever heard of  their existence. The general consensus that they would soon be dying out made me act quickly. I had to meet one and I was determined to photograph at least one. This idea soon expanded to making a documentary film and I put a crew together. We all traveled to Albania in July 2009 and some of these portraits were taken then. I returned again in late 2011 to continue the project.

Was it easy to find these women?
It was not easy to find them.  The Sworn Virgins are very proud but extremely private people.  The majority live in very small secluded villages not often seen by outsiders.  They remain suspicious of foreigners and their trust must be earned over time. Once they accept you however, they are talkative, warm and hospitable, often offering coffee, tea or cigarettes to their guests.

They live as men yet I guess everybody in the village knows they are women – otherwise you would not have found them. Or am I wrong?
The most remarkable aspect of this tradition is that everyone knows they are women. In this culture however, the way one dresses dictates how they are perceived. A woman who cuts her hair short, wears men’s clothes and adopts masculine traits is accepted as a man. Because this practice has a long history and is associated with family honor, inherited wealth and clan survival, the burneshas are well respected and regarded as a benefit to the family. For the most part, villagers in these areas are so accustomed to knowing a Sworn Virgin, or “burnesha”, first hand that they often wonder what all the interest on our part is about.

What do they think of this paradox? 
I was drawn to this project because of the paradox of a strident patriarchal society accepting a woman who switches her gender by choice.  I want to make it clear if it isn’t already, that this has nothing to do with sexual identity.  As westerners we tend to jump at the chance to label someone gay or straight because those seem like the only two options in our culture.  The remarkable thing about these women is that they are beyond labels.

 

 

‘In this culture however, the way one dresses dictates how they are perceived.’

I read that this decision is more related to gender roles than to sexuality. Nevertheless they have to remain virgins. Why is that?
I believe swearing to remain a virgin for life and thus avoiding any kind of romantic relationship altogether was their only way of circumventing such labels. Regardless of any orientation, they could not be with a man and still be considered a man. Nor could they be with a woman, as that would technically be a homosexual relationship since they were known to be biologically female. Also, the Kanun, which is the tribal code still influencing many in the rural north, states that a woman is only worth half as many bags of grain as a man, but a virgin is equal to the value of a man. I find it sad in the broader scope, as a woman, that this extreme sacrifice was necessary in order for a woman to exercise her free will.  Because a woman wears a pair of pants she is “suddenly” deemed capable of inheriting property, driving a car or running a business. It simply amazes me. I think the injustice in that is evident to everyone today.

Some women became burneshas when they did not want to marry the man their family had chosen for them.  Again this is a sad reflection on what it meant to be a woman in those times. Once the vow is taken though, it is forever.  To go back on a vow would be to disgrace the family and could result in a deadly feud between the two families that could perpetuate generations of honor killings. I was relieved to discover that for the most part, the burneshas did not regret their decision and insist they have led happy lives. Most would make the same choice given the same circumstances. They are pleased with the progress women have made in the past 50 years and understand why it is a custom that is dying out.

You said in an interview that this is an ongoing project. What are your plans?
My future plans for the project include finishing my documentary film. I’m proud to say I have a good relationship with my subjects and have developed a level of trust over the years.

 

www.jillpetersphotography.com

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Paul Buijs

Paul Buijs

Paul Buijs

Text JF. Pierets    Photos Paul Buijs

 

Young, reckless and fresh from the Arnhem art academy. In order to find a suitable subject for his graduation project, Paul Buijs went where no other student would follow; the shady underworld of gay darkrooms and sex parties. Hovering unsettlingly between fiction and reality, documentary style and art photography, Buijs’ work is of an unedited realism. What normally stays in the shades is now brightly lit up in an uncomfortable, confronting way. It reveals a curious and previously unexamined aspect of the gay scene, and provides a window into the collision of the club life, kinky sex and dark cellars that color the streets of Amsterdam.

 

Paul just returned from his exhibition and lecture at the Berlin Porn Film Festival when we meet. He’s once again flabbergasted by the way people react when confronted with his pictures. “It’s weird to experience that people are still to be shocked since it was never my intention to provoke. When searching for ideas that would suit my graduation project, I was a frequent visitor of the Warmoesstraat and the Regulierdwarsstraat in Amsterdam. The gay areas, so to speak. I started to take pictures and soon my teachers pointed out that I was on to something.”

During that time, Paul got very much intrigued by an article called ‘Life When The party is over’. Written by a psychologist who had made a study on gay men in their mid 30’s –  40’s and published in Wink magazine. He stated that a lot of gay men weren’t able to enjoy their teenage years because of their family for whom they only came out of the closet when they were already in their 20’s. Due to the social impact of such oppression, they started their outgoing life when most straight people in society started to settle. 

A phenomenon that in a lot a cases leads to heavy party life and the drug use that often goes along with it. Not to speak of a low career expectation. “This article explained what I questioned: what lies behind the surface of that fashionable, sexual and glamourous appearance. What was behind the mask of the people involved in this scene?”

 

‘By asking to wear a mask I wanted to underline the oneness of a certain scene.’

Still in the stream of perfectioning his art school assignment, his teachers advised him to focus on his signature. Being a huge fan of the Disney and populair culture he swiftly found a symbiosis between the personages that populate his work and the alienation of mainstream entertainment. “All Disney characters are drawn in a certain, monotonic way.  They all have the same glance, facial expression and are very similar in style. It stroke me that a lot of my fellow party people wore the same Fred Perry shirt, the same Bikkemberg shoes and had the same hair-do. By asking to wear a mask I wanted to underline the oneness of a certain scene, by making it half a mask, I made a pairing between the monotony of the public statement and their own private personality. “

With the best will in the world you can’t say that Buijs’ work is approachable or reassuring, hence the numerous galleries who rejected his work for being too shocking and the multiple reactions of viewers who found his images to confronting, to surreal, to raw and to bright. “I had no idea my work would have such an impact. I have the upmost respect for my models and I always show them their picture before I make it public because they still can be recognized despite of the mask and I shoot them while we both experience an autobiographical moment of obsession and dependency. The images are viewed like a private journal made public and it works out to be a little too much to handle for a lot of spectators. For example I got fired as a teacher because they thought my work to be too dangerous for the children and their parents. I don’t quite get it, but let me tell you that I’m too passionate and too engaged to just give up. I invariably believe that somewhere, sometime my work will be acknowledged so I keep on going”.

 

www.experiencedbypaul.com

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Masked Superstars

Masked Superstars

Masked Superstars

Text JF. Pierets    Photos Lourdes Grobet

 

For thirty years photographer Lourdes Grobet has penetrated the world of one of the most popular sports and deep-seated traditions in Mexico: Lucha Libre-wrestling. She documented the lives of the fighters inside and outside of the ring.

 

Lucha Libre (Spanish: Free wrestling, lit. “free fight”) is a term used in Mexico for a form of professional wrestling. Being mostly a regional phenomenon in the early 1900’s, professional wrestling remained in Mexico until Salvador Lutteroth founded the Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (Mexican Wrestling Enterprise) in 1933, giving the sport a national foothold for the first time. Grobets childhood was very different from what it is today. She was a rich girl from Lomas de Chapultepec, one of the oldest and most exclusive residential areas of Mexico City. Her classes were taught by nuns and, wearing a uniform, she rode to school in a black Cadillac. She was an athletic girl and her father, a professional cyclist, obligated her to exercise before going to school. This was a routine that allowed Grobet to lead a life without physical setbacks. 

As a young woman she was determined to get away from the upper class lifestyle she was used to. “I was always rebellious and that saved me from being stuck as a good girl for the rest of my life”, she recalls. “I never wasted time trying to make money, or getting my own Cadillac.The times I watched fights on television were moments of splendor and leaps of joy but, because I was only a child, my parents never wanted to take me to the arenas to see the action for real. It was quite a mystery to me how my father, being such a lover of sport, would not take me there. It’s ironic that years later I have devoted so much into documenting this spectacle.”

In 1942, Lucha Libre would change forever when a silver-masked wrestler, simply known as El Santo (The Saint), first stepped into the ring. He made his debut in Mexico City by winning a battle royal for eight men. The public became enamored by the mystique and secrecy of Santo’s personality, and he quickly became the most popular luchador in Mexico. His wrestling career spanned nearly five decades, during which he became a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man through his appearances in comic books and movies, while the sport received an unparalleled degree of mainstream attention. “I had promised myself not to take pictures of any folkloric bias, but in doing portraits of fighters I found something so deeply Mexican that I was very intrigued. Meeting the fighters gave me another perspective and the one who struck me the most was El Santo. His generosity in dealing with people filled me with joy.

I couldn’t believe that the most famous man in Mexico could be so humble. I hate power, fame, and money because they corrupt people. El Santo broke the hold of fame and never had to be the center of attention, he just didn’t give a damn.” Grobet took the still photographs for one of El Santo’s films and confirmed that he wasn’t using tricks. “He didn’t use a double or strike star poses. When he finished filming there were endless lines of people waiting for an autograph. El Santo stood there and patiently signed his name up to the last person. He gave me a great deal of lessons in generosity.“

 

Grobet is the only woman whose lens has captured the magic of this exciting sport that is much talked about but known very little of.’

Staying anonymous by wearing a mask is a very important part of the Lucha Libre. These warriors need their disguise, because appearance is not only a fine adornment characteristic in the world of wrestling but also a weapon with which to disconcert, astonish, and frighten their opponent. Warriors are transformed by the sublime pleasure of becoming stoically anonymous. Their audience knows they may be well-known legends, but their private lives must remain a secret, for their epic fantasy plays out confrontation between normal, everyday environmental design and their particular mystery. The visual appeal – especially when set in scenarios outside the ring – was quickly apparent to Grobet. In Lucha Libre: The Family Portraits, Grobet shows the wrestlers with their mothers, wives and girlfriends, sitting for what would almost be a generic family portrait, but for the fantastic costumes of the luchadores themselves. By this simple gesture we are brought to the threshold of their identities – and held there. The ungainly, monstrous and splendidly defiant stance they convey with this final preservation of anonymity is of course what gives Grobet’s pictures their edge.

Despite all these great stories you have to keep in mind that Grobet is the only woman whose  lens has captured the magic of this exciting sport that is much talked about but known very little of. The only woman who worked in the arena for thirty years. She evolved  from taking pictures during fights into a frequent visitor to the private homes where the wrestlers meet, celebrate their victories and live their everyday lives. “The fighters are generous and respectful people. When I started I was young and pretty. Nobody ever failed me in that regard. We began to build relationships; we got to know one another. It didn’t take much to get into dressing rooms even though the majority of the wrestlers are men. I was spending time in gyms and eventually it was just another part of the job,  like documenting an office in another profession. Instead of positioning myself as a woman, I was always more interested in myself as an independent human being who doesn’t bow down to anyone. I’ve never been much of a flag-waver and my attitude has been rather unorthodox, but I have fought for women’s rights and equality. What I’ve always rejected is the kind of imported, middle-class feminism that doesn’t correspond to the reality of Mexican women.”

Grobets passion for this sporting ritual has led her to gather not only thousands of photographs, but a vast collection of wrestling posters and programs, newspaper clippings, postcards, flyers, magazine covers, movie posters, stickers, and diverse objects that form part of wrestling paraphernalia.  Still, Grobet says she is a “bad portraitist” because she shows people as they are and sometimes people want to be different, better. “I don’t put anyone in a pose. I was invited to their homes, I arrived, sometimes we ate – in fact the mother of Los Brazos was a great cook – and with that feeling of closeness I went to work. Their homes were wonderful. Sometimes people think that I composed the pictures but I never did. You simply enter the house and you don’t know where to look first. Everything is interesting, it’s a marvel of icons and objects.”

Grobet promised her fighters that she would make a book, and she delivered. In 2005 she published Espectacular de Lucha Libre, an effort that brought together a vast collection of images. Grobet has done more than twenty solo shows and, with her  transparent and yet kaleidoscopic reflection of an eclectic, suggestive outlook on life, she became one of Mexico’s leading contemporary photographers.

 

www.lourdesgrobet.com

 

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Et Alors? magazine. A global celebration of diversity.