Belgium born, London-based photographer Jean-Francois Carly is noted for his distinctive interpretation of classic style photography. Tonight, his new exhibition “Surrender After” featuring 50 black and white portraits opens at Forge & Co Gallery. As unequivocal and easy to interpret as the title suggests itself to be, “Surrender After” captures the myth of nudity and dangles it upside down by the feet, subverting any sort of preconceived notions we have of what it means to remove ones clothes in a simple but effective manner.
The collection features nude portraits of male and female east Londoners in the sanctuary of their own bedrooms, the most appropriate location to let go of all inhibitions in unrestricted comfort – laying all their insecurities bare.
There is very specific platonic ideal of attractiveness that we all know, even if we choose not to accept it, and the vast majority of self-acceptance/social-acceptance images we see spread across the media are not of friends, family or someone we met in an East London bar – but rather perfectly selected, edited, filtered individuals in commercially lit in premeditated settings. Very rarely do we see un an-planned photograph on the Internet today, the vulnerability displayed in the nudity of these 25 girls and 25 boys beautifully photographed in black and white are a pleasure to embrace.
Surrender After runs until March 4th, every day from 12pm-7pm at Forge & Co Gallery.
154-158 Shoreditch High Street
London, E1 6HU
Luciana Garbarni (LucPierra)
afternyneblog.wordpress.com 