Photographer : April Lea Hutchinson April's sites : Carbonmade / Flickr / Tumblr April as a model : Carbonmade / Tumblr
Why April Lea Hutchinson ? There was this guy I was dating who when stepping into my room for the first time asked me nicely : "You're lesbian right ?" Well, boy if I'm dating you I guess I'm not unless you're a woman and you didn't tell me..as you can see some men are not that brilliant, but this one in his short-sightedness indeed got me to think. His question didn't erupt out of the blue, he did ask me this because my room was full of women's pictures. He got me thinking about my femininity and it is actually thanks to him that I realized that I loved being a woman and that the pictures pinned on my wall were here to remind me that I was one too and that I had my own femininity too.
So I guess that I felt the same way while watching April's pictures. Her images have a heavy charge of sensuality and sexuality. And eventhough I am not a big fan of vagina shows I seem to forgive April because all her work is an exploration of what is to be a woman, how we express our sensuality and sexuality, in brief her main theme is femininity and if I am not mistaken vagina is part of it (putting vagina on every sentence I am writing makes me kind of feel like Leandra Medine of the Man Repeller today).
As a photographer and a fine art model she is able to understand well femininity since she is both behind and in front of the lense. I think I can understand her approach although I don't think I would have the courage to pose nude like she does, guess my vagina is still my privacy eventhough I pose naked. Nonetheless I think watching her pictures could help some women gain some confidence. The type of girl she is photographing is not the typical one you see on every fashion magazines. More than pointing on their plastic she points on their femininity in a way that you can relate to them.
What I am seeing. This picture immediately caught my attention because of its simplicity. In the end, what do you have in it ? Nearly nothing. A woman is standing in front of a window in a seemingly empty room with some used films thrown on the floor. I don't know why but I can picture this photo in the likes of Vogue Magazine, the italian edition to be more accurate. In my opinion, the picture enhances the art of photography and femininity at the same time.
On the first plan, you have these used films on the floor suggesting that this photograph was not taken with a digital camera. Though we can't see them well because we are blinded by the daylight we are attracted by them, we are watching them exactly because of this blinding daylight. It is actually light that is important in this picture. It's not your usual one since it does not have the yellow-ish and red-ish beams of a sunny day with no cloud. On the contrary it is a white light that is nearly disturbing our eye when looking at the window but that is useful for the photographer to highlight the femininity of the model. See how the model's body is delicately taking shape under her laced lingerie ? This is the femininity that I am speaking of and that wouldn't have been revealed if not for this apparently dull daylight.
I find this picture fantastic because it is not a nude and yet it exudes the same energy and power as if it was one. The fact is that I appreciate April's work because she knows the happy medium, well understand when a vagina is needed or not. That is why even when she is only making a portrait there is still an erotic feel in it.
If you follow Incognito since its beginning you may have noticed that I loved talking about women and femininity, that is why it also shows here in Shoot That Thursday, and since I love this subject a lot I was considering opening a new section dedicated to it and wanted your opinion about it.
Let me know in the comments your opinion : do you likea April's work ? Would you like to hear more about women and femininity on the blog ?
