The Lumiere Brothers Photography Center returns the “Without Embarrassment” exhibition by American photographer Jock Sturges to its walls.

The “Without embarrassment” project was launched in early September 2016. It consisted of photographs of the families of the nudists of France, Northern California and Ireland, with whom Sturges was friends and communicated. The author photographed them throughout his long creative career. Starting work in series in the 1970s, Sturges captured 3 generations of models. The shots revealed their beauty, the girls voluntarily and without embarrassment posed for the photographer.

“Nudity here does not mean anything… People are naked because they are nudists and spend the warmer months at resorts, free from feelings of embarrassment,” the author said.

Last year, the exhibition had to be closed two weeks after the opening day, despite the objections of photography connoisseurs who did not manage to get acquainted with the project. The reason for the closure was the appeal of MP Elena Mizulina, who saw signs of child pornography in Sturges’s works and started the mechanism of bullying. The massive support of Mizulina’s position by political and public figures, numerous appeals to the prosecutor’s office and the investigative committee led to attacks on the Center for Photography, threats to the organizers and vandalism - all this forced the organizers to close the exhibition ahead of schedule. The investigation on charges of demonstrating child pornography lasted almost a year and ended very recently. Neither 13 claims from citizens who have never visited the exhibition, nor the position of the deputy Mizulina and the children’s ombudsman Kuznetsova who have not seen the photographs, could not convince the investigating committee of the illegality of the exhibition. Forensic experts acknowledged the complete absence of evidence of crime and the high artistic level of the works presented at the exhibition.

In addition to photographs of the talented and recognized Jock Sturges at the exhibition “Without embarrassment 2.0”, you will be able to get acquainted with the history of the conflict, newspaper excerpts, photographs and video footage of the media covering the closing of the exhibition, documents of criminal examination and investigation.

Jock Sturges. Ad ele Montalivet, France, 1999