Double exposure

One of the few social settings where it’s considered to be OK for someone to be naked in front of strangers is the life drawing class.
Yet I’ve noticed over the years that very few artists who work with nude models would consider swapping places with them; while paradoxically, the most anxious people in a life room often aren’t the models themselves.  Having someone else see your drawings can feel just as scary and revealing as having them see your naked body – and while by all accounts the latter fear goes away quite quickly, the former never does.  I’ve been feeling for some time that as I’ve benefited from so many people taking their clothes off for the sake of art, I should be prepared to do the same thing.  So for this shoot, we’ve set up a one-man life drawing session where I’m both artist and model, drawing a full-body self portrait with a stick of charcoal and exposing both my body and my would-be artistic efforts to the viewer’s gaze.

Rodger – 13/05/2012