Trevor Christensen gets amazing, honest pictures from his subjects with a technique that you’d never expect.
This is completely safe for work. Contains no nudity.
When you hear the words “nude” and “photographer” in the same sentence, what image does your mind conjure up? Adult-themed magazines? Photos for your eyes only? A black and white ad with the words “descreet” and “yur place or mine”?
If you ask photographer Trevor Christensen, you’ll get another answer altogether.
Christensen has found a unique way of combining those two words into something that creates unexpected images.
He’s the one who’s naked.
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If you’re like many people, you dislike having your picture taken. It’s uncomfortable. You’re not sure what the camera see. Christensen considered this, and why it happens.
As a photographer I’m deeply interested in the experience subjects have during portrait shoots. When I guide subjects through the process of making their photo, I seek to create a calm, comfortable environment where they can be at ease in front of the camera. Despite my best efforts, subjects often feel a sense of vulnerability during the process. No matter the scenario, this power imbalance seems like an almost inescapable part of the experience.
He wanted to change this, to “level the playing field”.
The photographer/subject paradigm is one of inequality. Nude Portraits is about leveling the playing field in an unorthodox way. Instead of focusing on bringing the subject to a place of ease, where I am, this project brings me to a place of vulnerability.
This vulnerability is achieved by making portraits without clothing. These are nude portraits in the sense that I, the photographer, am nude, while the subject is not.
I had the opportunity to ask him some questions about his work.
Even though they know you will be nude, what is a typical first reaction to you being, indeed, nude?
The reactions are (typically) exactly what you’d expect-shocked laughter and bemused, embarrassed chuckles.
It seems that subjects often find it more strange than they would have anticipated. After a few minutes have gone by they tend to feel more relaxed than one might think.
What’s the most memorable place you’ve been nude for a photo shoot?
The most memorable place was where a 20 year old girl, Kara, lived in Salt Lake City. She roomed with several other friends, all who were present for the nude shoot and were entirely unfazed by me. The entire house felt like the bedroom of a teenager. Art and slogans covered the walls.
Kara mostly works from home as a cam girl. It was fascinating to get an inside look at her world. I don’t know how else I could have gained access to her home without an explicit invite. This home that was clearly a deviation from what most people would picture a house in Utah to be like stands out.
Is there a certain experience during your nude photography career that stands out to you?
I wish I had a better answer, but the project is so new (I’ve shot around ten portraits so far,) that I can’t really speak to any unique experiences. They all have been surprisingly similar in how weird they are. (In general, I think photojournalists aren’t phased easily. We’re concentrating on documenting what’s happening before us, which provides a certain emotional protection.)
Most artists have a message they hope the reader takes away with them. What, beyond your artist’s statement, do you hope people get from your work, whether they are clients or viewers?
In the end, Nude Portraits is about the viewer wondering what the subject is reacting to. In this way Nude Portraits as a collection of images is a portrait of myself as much as it is a portrait of those pictured.
I think the best case for this project is that the viewer will leave the work wanting to know more about the subjects.
If you were setting up a physical display of your pictures, what three objects would you put along with the display, and why?
Nude Portraits is solely a photography exhibit.
For more of Trevor Christensen’s work, go to:
Trevor Christensen on Instagram, the best place to see his updates.
Trevor Christensen on Twitter
Artist Statement and all images used with permission of Trevor Christensen.
See Trevor in an interview with KUTV2’s Chris Miller (pictured above):