Comments on: About Willy Ronis and a certain nude

By: troy

troy — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 05:21:56 +0000

the wider shot of ronis caught more of an intimate scene. your portrait style with soft background is too intent to be as intimate. i like your work though–just wanted to point out the comparison with regards to intimacy.

By: Luka Knežević-Strika

Luka Knežević-Strika — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:47:27 +0000

hey, thanks for your comment. i found the language a bit hard to understand, especially the last sentence, but i think i figured the main points. I disagree with the notion that the goal of a photo-copy was merely/or even at all duplication. if it had been so, i think using the scanner would have sufficed. of course, i am aware of the impossibility of recreating the exact same feeling a photographer and a model shared (it can be argued that even the same two people couldn’t do it again if they tried), but this never was my goal. what i was interested in was making a photograph that answered to the graphic/compositional elements in ronis’ one, thus creating a sense of ‘sameness’ in the viewer – but i intentionally treated only the superficial level of a photo, i didn’t want to make the exact copy/replica, i just used it as an inspiration and basis for a personal tribute. incidentally, the girl on my photo is also my girlfriend, but i think this, aside from anecdotal, adds no value to the photo-copy in question. as to the point of the original being stronger than the photo-copy, i would never argue differently, but i just wanted to point out the reasons behind this endeavour and what i (thought) i achieved.
thanks again for commenting,
luka

By: Radovan Janjušević

Radovan Janjušević — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:14:07 +0000

I suppose intimate photos like the one by Ronis does owervhelmes most of us from time to time. Those holds reminiscences and motives which are recognized and close to some, therefore making the sole image strangely dear or personal.
Besides his wife a think the motive was nudity in a brad sense of meaning. Nudity before somebody, if not contemplated for commercial exploitation, is sign of closeness and absolute surrender. It is romantic and brutal. It is a good chance that somebody will recognize his own loved one in this depiction and come to love this photo.
What might be missing in any photo-copy of the original is that hidden notion hold only by the author. The intimacy only comprehend by hit and exclusive to him. That notion is only possible to be related to, not to understand it completely and there for impossible to duplicate. Knowing the difference in the motives between original and copy only cast shadow over the copy even if it might be supreme in some qualities. Why? Because intimacy is very hard to achieve and the bond between two people even harder.
It is evident that Ronis was concerned about certain aesthetics of female body. Suppose that this preoccupation derived from the human nature to portray loved ones in best possible manner, and his own aspirations. Besides she is really cute :-) Which ever tools author used here naked truth here is adoration…