William in Nature

On an early, and unseasonably cold, morning in September, William and I created some images.

You'll remember from last time, that William is an engineering graduate student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  And he is also Columbian.

 

 

 

All of today's images were taken on the northern shore of the Picnic Point Peninsula.  This particular spot is my favorite on Picnic Point.

 

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If you'd like to pose for University of Nudes you can find out more at What is University of Nudes?

 

 

William

Welcome back!  Well, I guess welcome back to me.  The reason for the long hiatus in posting was a lack of models.  It seems the ease at which I found my first two models Rachel and Jason was a fluke.

That kind of ties in to why I'm doing this project.  I want to show people that nude modeling, and being nude, is not wrong.
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The photos with today's post are of William.  William is an engineering graduate student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  He is also from Columbia.

These were shot in my home studio.  Originally, we had planned to shoot on Lake Mendota.  But the morning we met up the weather was not cooperative and it was close to zero degrees fahrenheit.

William was willing to shoot in that weather, but since I was cold wearing multiple layers I decided it would be better to save the lake for another time.

In the next few weeks William and I are again planning on doing some lake shots.  I'm pretty sure this time the weather will cooperate.

Click the images to see them larger.

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If you'd like to pose for University of Nudes you can find out more at What is University of Nudes?

Jason

Jason was the first person to respond to my Craigslist post looking for UW students to model.  He's a Junior studying art.  We started at 6am in the open courtyard of  George L. Mosse Humanities Building.

After shooting at Humanities we walked towards the Library Mall.  There was a great spot to shoot with a view down State Street, with the Capitol in the background.  However, that's when the garbage collectors showed up.  And they were taking their time.  So we walked to the Memorial Union, it was also busy.  A little more further East on the shore of Lake Mendota we shot these.

 

 

We then walked along the Lakeshore Path and up into Muir Woods.

In response to Grushenka

So I got a comment on my first post What is University Nudes

Grushenka said...

I suppose you imagine yourself some kind of artist simply because your subjects are unclothed. But, what about your concept demonstrates any understanding of art history, the purposes of art, indeed, any intelligence whatsoever? As far as I can tell, nothing.

You are one of a large group, those who consider themselves "artists" but are completely contrived in their ideas of what art is. You're not contributing anything. I suppose you think you are. I challenge you, what is your purpose? Write a post about it, I dare you.
Monday, September 21, 2009 12:39:00 PM CDT

Grushenka said...

And of course you won't approve my comment, because to do so would challenge your ego. Pathetic. But go ahead, prove me wrong.
Monday, September 21, 2009 12:40:00 PM CDT

Grushenka, wow.  Where do I begin?

First you're commenting almost anonymously.  I have no idea if Grushenka is your first, last, or any part of your name at all.  Your blogger profile is non existent so I don't know if you have a blog, website, or any experience about that which you commented.  Because of this I'm less likely to put any stock in what you have to say.



But let's go through your comments anyway, it'll be fun.

I suppose you imagine yourself some kind of artist simply because your subjects are unclothed.

I never mentioned art or being an artist in any of my posts.  I don't call myself an artist.  I'm a photographer.   Some of my photographs may be artistic.  Some people might call them art (obviously not you).  Nudes are not the only type of photography I do, but it is the only type that will be showing up on this particular blog.

But, what about your concept demonstrates any understanding of art history, the purposes of art, indeed, any intelligence whatsoever? As far as I can tell, nothing.

Now on this point you're pretty close.  I have no formal training in art history or the purposes of art. For that matter I have no formal training in photography.  The last visual arts instruction I had was probably in elementary school.  So what?  I create photography that I like to look at.  I enjoy the process and the final result.  And that last part, where you insult my intelligence, that's just mean.

You are one of a large group, those who consider themselves "artists" but are completely contrived in their ideas of what art is. You're not contributing anything. I suppose you think you are.

See my comments above about artists.  I do think I am contributing something.  I am creating images that have never been seen before.  Some of them are good, some are bad, but they're all unique.  I'd like to think that what I do might change the world but I don't think it's a very realistic goal.  I know I have made images that other people have liked, and those people have thanked me.

I challenge you, what is your purpose? Write a post about it, I dare you.

 I don't need a whole post.  My purpose is to create images that I want to look at.  Nothing fancy.  I don't need to "understand the dynamics of nature" or "focus on the beauty hidden in the soul", or "show the struggle of the individual against the universe." All quotes from actual artist statements by the way.

Then one minute after posting the first comment Grushenka left this one:

And of course you won't approve my comment, because to do so would challenge your ego. Pathetic. But go ahead, prove me wrong.

Since this is the first time that he or she has ever commented on anything I've posted I don't know where he or she got the idea that I wouldn't approve the comment.  

Does anyone else get the impression that Grushenka is just angry?  Anyway, sorry to not post any pictures with this post.  I hope to have some up in a few days of Jason that I shot on Sunday.

Kat

I shot these pictures of Kat back in 2007.  We did a lot of work together but not much like these.

Kat

Journalism 2008

Studio

 

Kat

Journalism 2008

Studio

 

Tamara

Tamara was not the first University of Wisconsin - Madison student that I worked with, but she was the first after I had the idea for University Nudes.


 Tamara

Veterinary Medicine 2010

Wisconsin Capital Building

 

Tamara

Veterinary Medicine 2010

University of Wisconsin Arboretum

Tamara

Veterinary Medicine 2010

Studio

What is University Nudes?

University Nudes is the title of a project that I started a few months ago. I was looking for a theme to tie together some of my photographs. Something that was interesting to me, built on my strengths, would allow me to develop and, perhaps more importantly would be something that others would want to see.

Since I live in Madison, Wisconsin and had worked with some students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison I thought that a project using UW students would be perfect. Especially if they were nude.

So University Nudes was born. All of the subjects for this project will be University of Wisconsin - Madison students at the time the pictures are taken. They can be male or female, undergrad or graduate.

Each of the images will be titled in the same way.
Subjects first name
Major and expected graduation year
Location

So the image below would be called

Alex
Theater and Drama 2011
Elver Park

Now in an ideal world everyone would be fully nude for everything. But in order to increase the amount of subjects I'm willing to shoot partial nudity, or even bodyscapes that don't show clothing.

If you're interested in being a subject please e-mail me at Josh@MonkeyMetal.com