Eikoh Hosoe
1933Embrace, c. 1973
Silver Gelatin Print
The intense beauty of 'Embrace' a series of photographs by iconic Japanese photographer Hosoe, leaves an impression that lingers long after one's initial encounter with them. In this series the...
The intense beauty of "Embrace" a series of photographs by iconic Japanese photographer Hosoe, leaves an impression that lingers long after one's initial encounter with them. In this series the light of human flesh is brilliant although photographed in black and white. There is a willful tension that pours out from these images; a tension which is resolved only in rapture. Moreover, the bodies seem to be fighting each other in a uniquely elegant manner. The images raise an awareness of the power, elegance and vulnerability of the human body.
The viscosity that is often associated with sex is not present in these photographs, but even in its absence they are full of a rough, raw athletic beauty. Hosoe captures the solid physical beauty that resides only in the moments and areas where one body approaches or touches another regardless of the nature of that contact. Even in cases where there seems to be no emotional connection between the bodies, the nudity of the photographs lend to even the most unassuming touch a very real seductive effect. This creates a detailed awareness of the beauty of the human body in its wild sculptural activity that also reveals Hosoe's admiration for Rodin's work.
Every trace of pornography is passionately and fastidiously removed as only a genius could do leavind only the power of two human bodies in embrace. The austere dignity of the sculpture-like images of "Embrace" certainly requires a period of orientation for the viewer to appreciate.
© Cigdem Mirol
The viscosity that is often associated with sex is not present in these photographs, but even in its absence they are full of a rough, raw athletic beauty. Hosoe captures the solid physical beauty that resides only in the moments and areas where one body approaches or touches another regardless of the nature of that contact. Even in cases where there seems to be no emotional connection between the bodies, the nudity of the photographs lend to even the most unassuming touch a very real seductive effect. This creates a detailed awareness of the beauty of the human body in its wild sculptural activity that also reveals Hosoe's admiration for Rodin's work.
Every trace of pornography is passionately and fastidiously removed as only a genius could do leavind only the power of two human bodies in embrace. The austere dignity of the sculpture-like images of "Embrace" certainly requires a period of orientation for the viewer to appreciate.
© Cigdem Mirol
Provenance
Dody Weston Thompson.Dody Weston Thompson (April 11, 1923 – October 14, 2012[1]) was a 20th-century American photographer and chronicler of the history and craft of photography. She learned the art in 1947 and developed her own expression of “straight” or realistic photography, the style that emerged in Northern California in the 1930s. Dody worked closely with contemporary icons Edward Weston (her former father-in-law), Brett Weston (her former husband) and Ansel Adams (as an assistant and a friend) during the late 1940s and through the 1950s, with additional collaboration with Brett Weston in the 1980s.