Reviews

Ordinary Bodies

Mandelbrot

Ruth Kaplan, whose astonishing photographs of naked bathers appeared in Geist No. 4 in the spring of 23, has collected her “bathing work” into a deluxe volume from Damiani. Together the images in Bathers constitute a supreme study of ordinary bodies, and demonstrate in visceral ways just how unique is the ordinary body: no two alike, each an expression of itself. Realizing this truth can be a shock, given that the bodies displayed in the media are processed to reproduce a polished original, with the result that men and women in movies are all nearly identical. In the clothed world of the rest of us, we strive for a similar sameness: there is no unique body in the processed world. Nevertheless, we all have one, with its own knees, thighs, buttocks, shoulders, breasts and arms, etc. Kaplan’s work is proof that we are not Other to ourselves; as Robert Everett-Green wrote, “Kaplan is a most humane photographer, who may question the nature of the natural but who never doubts the nobility of the human.” The book includes accompanying essays by Marni Jackson and Larry Fink. With the rise of the selfie and fear of smartphones in public, this may be the last work of its kind. Copies may be ordered from www.damianieditore.com.

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