Comments for Not Barbie: A Celebration of Real Women

Thank you does not even begin to express the gratitude - your lovely models are so clearly our sisters and selves entwined.  What a joy to see women, real women & think Beauty.  ~ AP

Thank you Susan!  This exhibit is outstanding - moving - powerful - inspiring and outrageous and it will help to educate women and men - thank you!  You are a gifted artist!  ~ ROS


Empowering and validating.  A show that should be seen by all.  ~ D

Wow!!  Amazing and beautiful.  Important work challenging society's assumptions on what beauty is.  This exhibit deserves a national exposure.  Thank you!  ~ JB

Love the exhibits - beautiful women - makes me appreciate my body more.  also as a mother of a transgirl - I love your display of beans: female ~ inbetween/undecided/intransition ~ male

Helps open the minds of others that gender is beyond the binary scale - but a continuum.  Thank you!!

Beautiful work!  Thank you & all of the women shown for the boost of confidence and pride that we should all have in ourselves.  ~ AMG

I love your focus on the "experience" of posing nude.  It really framed the works for me.  ~ AJ

Susan, What an incredible show - on so many levels - the visual excellence is amazing - the creative journey depicted for model and artist is enlightening and empowering for all including the viewer.  It reminds me of a quote from a famous photographer about how you must love your subject.  This is a project of love, creative excellence and a greater vision for social change.  Well done!!!  ~ KB

Thank you for all of thse beautiful women pics.  We are all beautiful in our own ways and you captured them all perfect.  Much love to you.  ~ DL

Absolutely gorgeous renditions!  You make me feel so much more comfortable to be a woman!  ~ BD

Susan, What an inspiring look at real women facing real life.  I can't wait for what's to come!  Blessings.  ~ J

Susan, this is such an amazing event/forum to bring to RVA!  Thank you for your courage.  ~ JS

I stand here in awe with tears welling up in my eyes!  So beautiful and gracious!

Love it!  beautiful, inspiring, courageous, & amazing.  ~ b

Healing images!  and stories.  Thanks!!! ~ MBG

It is all amazing - so reaffirming.  you did a wonderful thing in showing the reality and beauty that lies therein.  Thank you and carry on.  ~ DLH

Susan - I was taken by the joy that came through - in the meeting place between artist/model/viewer/materials - still room for mystery - shadow and pain - but lots of joy.  I, too, loved "Illumination".  Also, faces revealed so much ("Valley") and kept some things hidden.  The vulnerability & beauty of the feet in the Mother/Daughter Jock painting totally moved me.  ~ LS

Thank you to each of you who took the time to think about the show and comment on it.  I am so very grateful for your kind words.  They will inspire me to continue with my work if ever things get tough.
Much love,
Susan

A new model who loves her body

Last week I photographed a woman whom I saw onstage playing violin at Khalima's Raqs Illuminaire (a belly dance extravaganza).  She had a wonderful stage presence, playing her violin passionately between dance numbers.  I was happy when she asked to model for me because I was curious to get to know her better.

Here's what she wrote about her experience modeling for me:

I came into the studio feeling confident and relaxed. I am not shy with my body. I felt very comfortable being naked and being photographed. But I started to notice that I was chatty and that I had a little difficulty feeling free with my facial expressions. I realized that despite my calm I still have some pockets of shame, but not around the weight. Around being vulnerable emotionally with someone. It's OK for my body to be seen but what about the inner stuff?

And yet I made a conscious effort to stay present in the moment. I posed with the violin and in those moments was able to open the door a little to the emotions. You took lots of pictures of and asked lots of questions about my massive surgical scar, which put me in touch with both the agony of that experience as well as the deep well of strength I gained from it.

 And then you asked about the tattoo on the back of my neck, the memorial for a loved one who committed suicide. At that time I was posing looking into the mirror, and I cried. The photos capturing that moment of grief along with the tattoo are precious to me. I'm so grateful for that moment of literally naked and raw emotion.

Afterward, looking over all the photos and chatting with you I felt connected, and loving toward my body even while looking at it in photos - uncovered, unhidden, rolls and floppy bits and all. What a wonderful evening - to collaborate with you is to be visually explored from all angles, appreciated, documented, captured in art. I'm humbled and grateful and excited to see the finished product, whichever direction you take.

Later she sent me a brief addendum:

I wanted to look powerful, larger than life - and you captured this gorgeous image lying on the floor beneath me standing there, and I look gargantuan. I love that photo. It's full of power of stature and weakness of flesh. It resonates with who I feel I am - an overcomer.

I can't wait to begin painting images of this fabulous woman!  It's gonna be fun!

A Viennese ballerina is fired for posing nude for the paper - creates an uproar from the public

I thought the US was the only place that was extremely prudish about nudity, but a friend in Austria just sent me an article from the newspaper there which shows that it's still an issue in Austria as well, though the public is in an uproar about what happened there.  Here's the link to the article in German with  my translation: 


Karina Sarkissova dances no more... (updated)

... at least not at the Viennese Opera.  It was there that the Primaballerina was relieved of her duties by the newly appointed Director of Ballet, Manuel Legris.

Critical to his decision, according to Sarkissova, were the artistic/erotic photographs taken by Moritz Schell of the
September-Wiener which appeared on August 16, 2010.

We find that to be quite prudish and unworthy of a cultural institution.

Apparently in May 2010 Sarkissova had been "warned" by the then-Chief of Ballet Gyula Harangozo on account of nude photos of her which appeared in the June edition of the magazine
Penthouse.

According to the Director of the Opera Dominique Meyer, the company was "shocked" to see the new photographs which appeared under the heading "Sex."   In response to the question by the WIENER reporter why it was a problem to appear in nude photos in a magazine when nude dances were performed on the stage of the international Opera House, the director responded, "No comment."

One other aspect makes this prudish behavior seem even more incongruous: the very same Director of Ballet, Manuel Legris, who let Sarkissova go, posed naked as a jay bird for a series of photos (see left) - in which men and women were cavorting wildly with one another.  Apparently men at the Viennese Opera are allowed more frivolity than women are...

At any rate, the Director of the Opera, Meyer will meet with Sarkissova next week to hear her side of the story.

Manuel Legris on the Cover of BACKSTAGE by Kishin Shinoyama, published by ASAHI Press

[This story is still evolving]

UPDATE, 14.38h:
WIENER- Reporter Barbara Ginzinger recently spoke with Karina Sarkissova by telephone. The Ballerina said that she had NOT been warned after the first photos, neither in writing nor orally.   

There had, in fact, been consternation in the Opera and people expressed differing opinions about the photos, but she had not been warned.  She hadn't given any thought to it since the new Director of Ballet, Manuel Legris had appeared nude in a series of pictures.  "I am not the first and also not the last ballerina to take her clothes off."   Additionally Ms. Sarkissova and the ballet ensemble were asked, at the end of the last season, if they would be willing to dance nude, or topless, at the Opera.  That is planned for January for the piece "Bella Figura".

About Sarkissova:  born in Russia (1983), Sarkissova was trained at the Bolschoi Ballet and in St. Poelten.  Since 2000 she has been a member of the State Opera Ballet, since 2009 as a soloist. She is married and has an 8-year-old son.
  

Readers' Comments:

• 8. Oktober 2010 by Frank Bussmann: 
• And such a backwoods idiot is the highly paid Director of the Viennese Opera!  Unbelieveable!  Which century is he living in?  FELIX AUSTRIA…
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 by Wolfgang Johannes v. Busse: 
• Mr. Legris should take another look at his own naked pictures where he's in contact with other naked men and women - there aren't even any little scarves to hide a thing in those.
  Titel:Manuel Legris ,A L Opera de Paris, von Kishin Shinoyama, Asahi Press, Dainippon Printing. Unfortunately it's very hard to get a copy of it.
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 by Harald Harald: 
• ... as though ballerina don't already dance around half-naked (and occasionally completely naked already - and are displayed as erotic objects for the curious anyway. ..
  
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 by Natascha: 
• as if show business today were about morals anyway...  She's smart to find another way to earn some money - after all, her body won't last forever...
  natascha- choreographer
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 von Hannes Reitinger: 
• How can someone be "shocked" by these beautiful pictures?  What kind of times do we live in if looking at a picture of an undressed person can give a person a shock?  This double-morality is "shocking", and if anyone should be fired, it should be Mr. Legris.
  
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 von Doris Leppitsch: If men go around showing their chests (as often happens in the ballet!!!!!), no director gets upset about that.  Where is the equality here?
  By the way, the photo is gorgeous.
  
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 von Doris Leppitsch: 
• We've discussed it in the meantime.  The only logical explanation in our eyes is that this gorgeous woman turned down some powerful man's attention.
  
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 von Gabijan: I dont understand the issue here. À beautiful woman poses in nude. Not porno or anything. Not even sex. Just beautiful. If anything THE pictures complement the super boring and outdated image of a national ballet. She will draw many curious people to the theater who may never even have thought of going to a ballet in the first place. I will definitely boycott the Wien ballet if this lady had to go. Celebrate healthy people don’t fire them!
  
• 8. Oktober 2010 von fritz:  someone is mighty jealous.  what a turned around world - if the "artists" are shocked by something like that and the people who aren't artists love the beautiful pictures.
  
• 9. Oktober 2010 von Bob: Is there a beaver shot?
  
• 9. Oktober 2010 von Nicole Kolisch: nope!
  
• 9. Oktober 2010 von Eric: What’s all the fuss about?
  The body is beautiful, a work of art created by the grand master in the sky.
  Enough of the prudishness!
  Don’t pontificate – celebrate!
  
• 9. Oktober 2010 von KC: She looks beautiful.
  
• 9. Oktober 2010 von KC: BTW, have to laugh at calling a magazine “wiener”. LOL!
  
• 10. Oktober 2010 von wolfgang schnabl: no worries.  Just close down the opera, make a parking place out of it.  Art hasn't been anything but a gift job for idiot directors for years.
• 10. Oktober 2010 von alfred hulka: I think she should complain by the equality commission.
  
• 11. Oktober 2010 von rainer: Jesus!  Welcome to 2010.  This hypocritical double moral is reaching American proportions.  First class aesthetic photographs which will certainly not harm the "reputation of the opera".  If I think about what is displayed up on the stage - and mostly without even warning the public - Please!
  So, please, dear responsible ones, pull the stick out of your a... and let this dancer do her job.
  
• 14. Oktober 2010 von Satanskatze: oh good grief, how prudish they are all of a sudden!  what about the ballets where the groups of dancers run around the stage naked? 
• 
  

 

Can you get fired for modeling nude? One person's take

About a week ago, I posted a blog and mentioned that some people had expressed concern that they could be fired for modelling nude.  I asked if anyone had more info about it.  Here's one response I got to the question:

Hi Susan


Just to answer your question, yes, some people can be fired for posing nude.


Teachers are particularly targeted, as there is a morals clause, usually in some fine print, upon hiring for the first time. Usually public schools, don't know about private. It never shows up again when teachers are "renewed" for the subsequent years. The same clause has been used to fire pregnant, but unmarried, teachers.
I suspect certain other businesses also have vague morals clauses. I vaguely remember something when I was a JCP employee. Truth is, a corporation/business/employer should have a right to hire or fire people, but they should also make clear their rules. That is where I think you will find the dilemma - rules and interpretations and how many employees actually bother to read when signing on?

I suggest asking your models to locate a Memorandum of Understanding, or some equivalent, to find out.

good luck... geez, yet ANOTHER thing for you to worry about. Your perseverance is remarkable.

Anybody else have any information about this daunting question?