Richard Kern (by Giordana Levy)

Richard Kern,(born 1954) is an American  filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground sector as part of the underground cultural explosion  of New York City in the 1980s.
For more than two decades Kern come to unravel and expose the complex sides of human nature. Kern makes the psychological space between the sitter, photographer and audience his subject. With his dry, matter of fact approach, he underlines the absurdity of truth and objectivity in sexual representation.       

Kern is a partner with Vice and Purple and has published 11 books. His films and photographs have been presented at MOMA, The Whitney Museum and in more than 50 shows around the world. Kern lives and works in New York City at the moment.
I decided to choose this photographer because of his original and unique way of aproaching his works of art which are in a way daring and unusual if you will. I admire the delicacy in his pictures that he creates when taking a pose or moment which is not as flattering and raw of women and capture it in an instant and make the purest image of a natural state of body and expression. I believe he creates a sensation of trust within these moments and to trasmit that feeling to his audience is truly mind blowing and admirable because that is what photography and art is all about, despite of its context or what it contains.

My favourite photograph is this one below. I feel like Kern tries to reciprocate the lazy and sunday like feeling of the early hours of the morning or late afternoons of lounging around.  A calm enviromnet filled with security and intimacy which i love that he could transmit that just by the lousy clothes the model is wearing, or by the child like posture she is in which in my opinion gives and impression of available time to loose, an innocent approach, and envolves a time in space where only serenity and rawness is delivered by the direct yet 'poker face' eye contact. I also admire the location of the shoot, a cozy looking house and furnished in an expensive high end image, topped off with the innocence of a model doing a simple yet vastly revelatory and elucidative hand stand.