Sylvie Blum: Naked Beauty - Extended

Alike many female counterparts such as Sarah Moon or Ellen Von Unwerth, Sylvie Blum's first steps into the world of photography began in front of the lens as a model. Her style distinguishes itself from other nudes for it embraces the classic aesthetic of hard light, clean angles and strong graphic elements in order to resume to the female shape to overlapping and abstracted forms.

"The Big Cats Series combine the female body with a impressive animal

to make women strong and self-confident."

Sylvie Blum

Sylvie Blum demonstrated a fascination for artistic nudes as they were so perfectly presented in the 1930’s by photographic legends such as George Hoyningen-Huene or Horst P. Horst. Using Leica or Hasselblad medium-format cameras, she started creating body fragments, photographic torsos that attain an almost sculptural impression in the artistic lighting and delicate gradation of gray tones. However, the sources of her inspiration are far more varied. 

"With my images I would like to encourage women to stay natural and appreciate themselves."

In her depictions of the female form, Sylvie Blum transcends the normative cannons of beauty while walking in the footsteps of her predecessors.

Since its very first artistic representations (Eg.  The Venus of Willendorf, c. 25,000 BC) until the XVIIIth century, female bodies was depicted as plump and voluptuous. These body types were considered as healthy and fertile before a drastic change took place in the late XIXth century. Stigmas and prejudices afflicted the way they were perceived and slowly, their representations became taboo. However, in a positive upturn, artists such as Joel-Peter Witkin, Botero or Niki de Saint Phalle gave large women a newly found visibility by glorifying them in their productions. 

The perception of human bodies being socially constructed, artists giving them exposure are unavoidably marked by the cultural context they operate in, while in turn, influence it. Being a former model herself, the fact Sylvie Blum deliberately choses to ignore the limits of contemporary beauty standards in order to dignify what Jenny Saville names “misbehaving bodies” is a powerful statement. Adhering only to her own standards of beauty, Blum offers this type of body a positive visibility and, by including it in her work without distinction, gives it a cultural value. 

With her latest series, Austrian photographer Sylvie Blum offers a broader approach to her vision of beauty by establishing a parallel between femininity and animals. Through nudity, her models establish an even ground with the animal avatar they pose alongside. In pure Blum’s style, the set-up is minimal, with a background only animated by the shadows of the two characters on a single bold colour. Devoid from any distraction, the eye focuses on the connection between them and their common intrinsic nature while their body shapes echo with one another. The hair of the model posing with the fish gently undulates in gentle waves, the outline of the pink flamingo is extended by the voluptuous curves of its partner’s body, while the piercing eyes of the owl become the gaze of its alter ego; Their souls align.

"Animals aren't like models. Some of them, such as a snake or a bird, are constantly moving. I have to be quick to capture the image I am looking for.

All Animals series pictures are storyboarded with my sketches beforehand."