Series in Slow Shutter

The series “Study in Slow Shutter” is based on the theme of feminine identity and the exploration of personal boundaries, It comprises a broad base of work that originated as nudes, and in the post processing obscures or covers what some, either as the subject or as the viewer, find unacceptable to bare. The body in each image is also distorted to cross the line from the reality of the female form into the abstract, which ironically is often preferred by both men and women viewers.

“As such, these images are a critique of commonly held cultural perceptions and values about feminine identity”.

“Robotic”, the silhouetted figure with big hair, and “Little Black Dress”, are examples of bodies that are contorted and covered through the absence of color and consequential inability to perceive detail therein. Real women don’t look like “Robotic”.  Those that want that perception or trophy have to build it, it is not real, and so here I did, piece by piece. In “Behind the Curtain”, the misrepresented figure is veiled in texture and haze. She is not aware that others are peering in, as the curtain’s job is to protect her from view. ”Fearlessness”, the image of a woman with arms high and a white transversing ribbon, attempts to capture the essence of that feeling, one that becomes lost as life makes its way. As with the others in the series, the body is both distorted and obscured, hence, forming the contradiction. Through loss of identity comes fearlessness. The series matures to one of a rebirth, portrayed initially in “BirdWoman”, the sepia of a woman standing in a nest, and ultimately in the expecting “Mother Nature’s Son”.

The images in this series were captured and edited using mobile devices. The effects were primarily created both in camera and through the use of hand techniques. Additional images in this series and other pieces of my work can be found at www.janeschultzart.com and on Flickr and Instagram at @before.1st.light .

Visit Jane Shultz’s Profile