Issue No. 28 – Control

What is the nature of control? The desire for it—and to be free of it—are essential parts of both life and art.

Book Review: As Is: Women Exposed

Book Review: As Is: Women Exposed

“HEROINE” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

“HEROINE” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

By Amy Schatz

Amy Gelb’s As Is is exactly what it says it is. The female and femme-presenting figures captured here are free from the restraints and filters imposed upon women by a society that worships beauty and scorns flaws. In her hardcover debut from Daylight Books, Gelb provides bodies without labels; women in all stages of their lives, from various backgrounds, who have undergone various degrees of labor or trauma — exposed.

No digital effects. No Photoshop. Just bodies pictured exactly as they are.

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The child of a scientist father and an artist mother, Gelb developed an eye for visual aesthetics and a talent for keen observation early on. Once she was old enough to witness her own body aging, and still young enough to be intrigued by the changes occurring within her, Gelb developed a fascination with the value society places on feminine bodies. She began to wonder what every body — young or old, slim or bulging — looks like, and not just the hairless, air-brushed ones plastered across magazine covers and crowding the film industry. 

Gelb began to shoot her subjects in the way many ancient sculptors molded theirs: with a focus on the torso. Each faceless figure allows the viewer to explore the narrative of her body without a rubric by which to label the “right” and “wrong” kind of body. 

“ANTAGONIST” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

“ANTAGONIST” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

Full-page, high-quality portraits show us wrinkles, freckles, scars, and stretch marks. Some of the bodies are garlanded in tattoos, some wear jewelry. The women respond to the presence of the camera differently; some face it head-on, as though poised to pounce; others shy away from our gaze; some women lounge at a quarter-angle as though they hardly know they are being photographed — or they are indifferent to the photographer. Some women have lopsided, sagging breasts — some have no breasts at all. 

Each photograph is accompanied by a caption, though not in the traditional sense; the caption, usually a word or two describing the subject, drifts from a position below or above the image, or even across the page, in a simple, unassuming font that does not draw attention away from the image itself. “Acceptance” is written below a thin woman with her hands clasped in her lap; “Flower Child” is written across from an older woman’s freckle-speckled, wrinkle-creased body. 

“FLOWER CHILD” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

“FLOWER CHILD” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

Each of these given names corresponds with a brief interview; the interviews are listed at the back of the book in order of the subject’s appearance — these women, then, are indexed as a series of thoughts and impressions, rather than as a face and an occupation. Gelb asked each subject different questions, which they chose to answer or not to answer, in many words or only a few. The subject whom Gelb christened “Acceptance” was asked what “As Is” means to her. “It means accepting life on life’s terms,” the subject said. “Acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today and I accept myself AS IS — like day-old veggies or a used couch — imperfect but providing nourishment and comfort and safe haven.”

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Amy Gelb brings a fresh perspective to the un-fresh body; she artfully captures her anonymous subjects in transitional stages typical of the aging woman — as they are. Whether or not she succeeds in drawing the viewer’s attention away from physical beauty in order to focus on a woman’s more “meaningful” aspects is left to the viewer to decide. 

“LOVER II” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

“LOVER II” from As Is: Women Exposed, 2018. Courtesy of Andrea Smith @ Daylight Books

As Is: Women Exposed by Amy Gelb is published by Daylight Books.

For more information, click here or here.

Art Out: Ansel Adams

Art Out: Ansel Adams

Art Out: GERHARD STEIDL book signing at Strand

Art Out: GERHARD STEIDL book signing at Strand