Leonard Nimoy talks about his new book that features plus size women modeling the nude. Mo’Nique’s Fat Chace Paris also featured plus size women being photographed in the nude. This is a great movement in the mainstrean for true size acceptance. Here is an excerpt from the interview.
Where did “The Full Body Project” come from?
I was doing a seminar with some earlier work, and a lady in the audience came up and said, “I’m a model, and I’m a different body type than what you’ve been working with. Would you be interested in working with me?” I discussed it with my wife, who is very much involved in what I do and very much involved in contemporary art — she’s a trustee at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She encouraged me to go ahead and do it. I was concerned with how to photograph this kind of figure because I simply was not used to it. I shot her in black-and-white. I was quite satisfied with what I got, because I thought she looked like a marble sculpture in black-and-white.
I began to become conscious of this question of body size and body image in our culture. I became more aware of what we’re bombarded with in magazines, newspapers and television commercials — “Lose 10 pounds in three weeks! Eat and be thin!” It’s incredible if you stop and think about it. I found this burlesque group in San Francisco called the Fat-Bottom Review. I made arrangements to photograph them in San Francisco and then again in Los Angeles.
What do you think about the photos? Leave a comment
