Secrets and Skin
![I got this tattoo before I lost my [faith]](http://photos.jpgmag.com/389942_46319_14846e2d05_m.jpg)
By J.R. Goleno
3 March 2008
It started with a challenge from my photo professor.
Take the fine art nude and make it my own... "be unique" he says. So I search the Internet, endless books, projects from over a hundred years ago and I see that the nude has been done and done to death. Outside, inside, sunset, rocks, closeups, color, black and white, soft skin, goosebumps, faces, masks, large, small, fat, skinny, male, female, hair, shaved, shaving(ew), full bodies, posed, "natural", smiles, butts... I had felt like I'd seen it all, and I was actually getting sick of looking at bodies all the time.
So I took a step back and looked at what I liked and what I was interested in and trying to accomplish. I had done projects before using friends, and wanted to continue in that, not to mention I would rather NOT be shooting my naked backside. So I knew I wanted to ask friends, now what to do to make it actually an interest to me and hopefully those seeing my pictures. I thought about books I like; books that involved little work on the author's part. I wanted something where my models would contribute the most and I would just be there to provide the camera. I had a friend talk to me the next week about how much she had loved the "Post Secret" books and website and how she's always wanted to submit but never got the chance. Suddenly it clicked; that's what I wanted to do! I'd make my models tell me their secrets! Oh man, it's so perfect! The nude has always had this play of anonymity of form with intimacy of nudity that I thought would play off so well with written secrets.
So a call to my friends via myspace went out, and in all, 25 people were gathered to shoot. I told them my criteria was that nudity was not necessarily required, but I would not allow clothing in my photographs, nor would I allow faces. I wanted to keep the secrets separate from any real connection to the person. I kept the form open; they could say really anything they would like to, I just prompted it with "secrets or anything you really want to get out but are to afraid to just say." That's how the tagline came about, "getting it off your chest by putting it on your chest." Of course it wasn't all chests, and I feel I used different parts of the body very effectively.
Technically, this was more than I've done in the past. I'm used to natural light photography, night long exposures and heavy photoshop work. This brought me back to using a borrowed studio rig, plain black seamless backdrop, and my camera. Burning and exposure correction were really all the post processing I would do other than a little sharpening when needed. All words were written with eyeliner pencil or sharpie at models' discretion.
My reaction was far better than I had anticipated, being my first nudes, my first use of studio lighting, and such an off the wall concept. Close to half of my models wanted printed 8x10s to hang in their rooms or give as presents, sometimes to the very people the words were intended for. An "A" on the project and kudos from my class, and it all started with a challenge to shoot some people without their clothes...
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