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American Body Series #29
Ektacolor |
About Cay Lang's American Body Series:
The American Body Series consists of photographs of the human figure, shot on plexiglas, from below, looking up. This studio construction alters the play of gravity on the subject, making the workings of the body visible. The bones, the skin, the veins, the tissues, each of these becomes separate or visible because of the adaptation of the human body to the unyielding quality of the plexiglas.
The plexiglas serves as a barrier on both a physical and metaphorical level. It shows exactly how far the body can go, makes visible the limitations of the flesh. We, as viewers, stand on the other side of the plexiglas. We can look in and see people with their families and friends, see traces of their lives, expressions of intimacy and distance, the choices they have made.
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American Body Series #44
Ektacolor |
The project has gone through a series of changes in terms of focus. When I first began the work in 1987, I was responding to the unique properties of the plexiglas and the formal issues raised by my materials. I later became more involved in exploring the gestures and authenticity of human interaction. I began searching in my photographs for what I think of as the authentic moment: that point between poses where we forget about who we are, or how we look, but instead are absorbed in negotiating the details of our lives together. I focused on the ways in which my subjects expressed ease with their own and one another's bodies, how they approached and touched one another and how their emotions and personal histories were made visible. The moments of emotional nakedness I documented contrasted with the artifice of my equipment and method and the hardness of the glass. Since my subjects were lying down, something we principally do with people we trust and love, they seemed to relax together and interact more unself-consciously than would otherwise have been possible.
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American Body Series #25
Ektacolor |
The work has now moved into a new phase. In my most recent images, of which American Body #37 is an example, I have begun using the glass as a theater for exploring the human quest towards growth. The questions that preoccupy me now are, how do we as human beings deal with the struggle between our limitations and our desires? What complexities are involved in living a time-frame existence? No longer trying to capture an individual, revelatory moment, I'm exploring the dynamic quality of human existence by adding to my images the element of time using multiple exposures and a matting technique. I start with a concept for an image, then I plan out each step it will take to make the image, then I start with the first shot. The next shot demands that the first shot be erased visually during the process by a black matte, which means I am not building on what I see but what I remember. So, although the piece is carefully planned, the actual experience of each piece is full of surprises and quite different from the thing anticipated. This process allows me to explore the concept of time as well as the idea of sequential decision-making.
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American Body Series #32
Ektacolor |
I often ask myself why I have chosen to make these laborious constructed images in the camera at a time in history when they would be easily achieved on computer. As I watch the end of the twentieth century approach, I find myself yearning for evidence of the human hand. I am choosing an arena where my images can explore a distinctly human adaptability and responsiveness, in terms of form as well as content.
Copyright © 2006, Cay Lang: Taking the Leap • Contact • Revised by JCampStudio • Hosted by PowWeb
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