Jock Sturges’ No Embarrassment Exhibition Automatic translate

EXHIBITION CLOSED 25/09

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography presents the first exhibition in Russia of one of the most controversial photographers of recent decades - Jock Sturges.

Sturges is known for its series of nudist families in France, Northern California and Ireland. Made using a large-format camera, his photographs send us to the works of old masters of painting and photographers of the late XIX-early XX centuries.

However, fame came to the photographer along with the scandal. The image of female nature during puberty and before it attracted the attention of the conservative public, Christian communities and US law enforcement in the 1990s. At first, police services, together with FBI employees, searched the author’s studio and seized his works and photographic equipment, a few years later activists of Christian communities in the United States besieged bookstores across the country to seize and destroy the author’s photo albums. Later, all charges against the author were dropped.

Despite the attacks on Sturges for the fact that in his works a very young nudity is often present - the pictures do not leave a feeling of perversity. Sturges does not work with a naked body as an abstract form, but establishes a special contact with a person, which makes his photos so charming and laid-back. Sturges has been friends with the families of his sitters for many years. The photographer takes his models - girls and girls from nudist communities - in an environment that is completely harmonious for themselves. "Nudity here does not mean anything… People are naked because they are nudists and spend the warmer months at resorts, free of feelings of embarrassment," the author says.

Having begun work in series in the 1970s, the author is now photographing the 3rd generation of his models. “I have a series of photographs reflecting 30- and 35-year periods of life.” He is fascinated by the human body and how it develops, from infancy and childhood through adolescence and adulthood. Sterges is interested not only in physiological metamorphoses, but also in the personality changes that a person undergoes: “I want the viewer to realize how interesting and multifaceted people are in my photographs.”

Sturges studied pedagogical psychology and photography at the University of Marlborough in Vermont, after which he received a master’s degree in art from the San Francisco Institute of Fine Arts. After graduation, Sturges worked for a year under the direction of photographer and renowned photo specialist Richard Benson. During this time, he had to print from the negatives of Eugene Atge, Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Harry Vinogrand and other famous photographers.

Jock Sturges has published more than 10 monographs; his works are in museum collections of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Library in Paris and the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art.

The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography will show about 40 photographs taken by Sturges on a 20x25 cm large-format gimbal. The exhibition will present the author’s work from the early works of the 1970s to modern filming.

September 8 will be a creative meeting with Jock Sturges.

Ticket price: full - 430 rubles, preferential - 200 rubles (purchased at the box office of the Center for Photography), World War II veterans - for free.

On September 25, as a result of indictments of Messrs. Mizulina, Tsvetkov and the public organization “Officers of Russia”, the gallery management decided to close the exhibition. Based on the study of the photographer’s creativity on the Internet, the above-mentioned gentlemen made conclusions about the presence of materials classified as child pornography at the exhibition. Later it turned out that there were no photographs that violate Russian law at the exhibition, and the mentioned authorities demanded that the exhibition be closed on the basis of their own speculations. However, the exhibition was closed anyway, and Surges became widely known in Russia because of this scandal.

Jock Sturges first commented in an exclusive interview with REN TV reporters scandal that occurred due to his exhibition in Moscow. He admitted that he was very surprised and upset at the same time. “I am sad because I wanted to make a great show. My works exhibit many galleries in different countries. And I have never heard anything like this before, never in my life, ”Sturges explained.

According to Jock, this has never happened to him before: “This never happened in my work, anywhere in the world. And my works are exhibited all over the world. ” The artist noted that his photographs show neighbors, friends whom he photographed for 40 years: “These are my neighbors, my friends whom I photographed with their families for forty years. My photos contain about 25 families that I photographed from the 70s of the last century. ” “People who agree to take part in my photo shoots do it because they themselves want it,” he added.

When asked why Jock chose such a style, he answered the following: “It’s the same as asking why you like blue. There is nothing shameful in these photos, they are full of the charm of human nature. I’ll say, on the other hand, many people point fingers and urge to be more moral, more correct. ”

Sturges noted that his photographs were published all over the world, and not a single gallery saw pornography in them. “It’s just not there,” the artist assures.

Jock Sturges admitted that everything that happened had saddened him: “I am very saddened because Moscow looks like a city of the 21st century. Breathtaking! Moscow has changed so much in the last 40 years! I met interesting people, with such a broad outlook that I was amazed after talking with them. I was invited to Russia by a very good gallery. The Lumiere Brothers are one of the best private galleries I’ve seen. ”