New feature: Walking on eggshells

Approaching men on the street and asking them to undress and be photographed can be frightening - and highlights the struggle for women to find equality. Alex Brew explains

"Why do so many female artists put themselves in their work - often with no clothes on?” asked an article in The Guardian by Germaine Greer at the beginning of the year.

I have been photographing men for the last six months and I think I have the answer. The project ‘Asking For It’, showing at Ladyfest London in May, involves me approaching men in public places and asking them to fully or partially undress in a more private space for me and my camera. During this time I have grappled with going against the grain: with being something other than object.

Greer gives only one reason why female artists do not put other people’s flesh - either male or female - in their work: “That the use of the nude is necessarily exploitative, and therefore a female artist who needs to use a body has no option but to use her own.” Noble indeed, but our collective female conscience fails to kick in when we “exploit” other women, children, male adolescents - and of course ourselves. One example is Vanessa Beecroft whose work shows rows of nubile naked young women - with shorn, partially shorn or closely cropped pubic hair - wearing only heels and red wigs.

Read on here

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