Naked Tokyo 2008

I am entering images in the Naked Tokyo show again. The 2008 show will be held in Shibuya at a gallery called Le Deco.

Images from last year's show can be seen at The theme for last year was to have shocking portraits.　"Shocking" is such a tough word. How does one interpret it? Offensive? Surprising? It was really hard. Last year had a lot of nice images but I think it was hard to really come up with something shocking. 　A few of the images were pretty shocking in terms of the sexuality shown, but they were in a slide show rather than images on the wall.

I ended up going the route of trying to push myself beyond my comfort level. I didn't want to do nudes. I also didn't want to do something really out there and in-your-face. I decided to work on an intimacy theme. My husband was nice enough to model for me. He ends up modeling a lot for me. It was especially nice of him to be okay with me exhibiting the images.I hoped my images were exploring intimacy and just the edge of sensuality.

I had nice comment from the curator of the show via the show producer. He felt my images conveyed a lot of intimacy because most Japanese men wouldn't let themselves be photographed like that. Without knowing me or the model, he felt that the model and photographer must have a relationship. I was really pleased with the comment. Another photographer commented that I did beefcake really well. Hmmm...

This year absolutely no hint of beefcake. There was no theme this year. That made it both easier and harder. I get to shoot whatever I like but it makes it harder to think of what kind of stuff the curator is looking for. Portraits in Tokyo is a pretty broad topic. I decided to go for lone figure in the city for my topic. Even though Tokyo is a pretty crowded place, I am always surprised at how often one can just be alone in the city.

I submitted eight images. I will hear on November 15th if any images will be selected.

I will put up a link to the show after the stuff comes online whether I get selected or not.