Collection 1 - Nude – Pure – Us!

KALTBLUT
223
KALTBLUT: So, to begin with, you shoot both analog
and digital, which one do you prefer and why?
JOSEPH: Actually I don’t really photograph digitally.
I tried it several times but I’m lacking the needed
technical skills as well as the leisure to grapple with
it. This also applies to analog photography, therefore
I mostly work with disposable cameras. But coming
back to the question I do prefer analog because I
don’t have to change as much to make it look the
way I want it. I find digital photography to be much
too raw and cold and I always feel like I’m cheating
when I retouch and rework pictures. But this is a
very personal attitude towards digital photography, I
know a lot of very talented photographers who alter
their pictures digitally and create impressive imageries
which I can never achieve with my way of photographing.
I also would like to add that I don’t see myself as a
photographer. I rather try to play with the definitions
for photographer, artist and (art) producer.
KALTBLUT: We are featuring “Corpus Series” on this
issue. How did it come to this project? How did you
begin shooting nudes?
JOSEPH: I wanted to photograph a plain series of
bodies that should not be understood as portraits but
rather as a mere baseline study of the human body.
I wanted pure surface that depicts simply the design
of the body. Therefore I used a disposable camera.
This series is about creating an art object, turning a
person into an object, a decorative ornament.
The “Corpus” series is also connected to my “photographed
by” series, in which I get photographed by
different public figures from the realms of fashion,
music, literature, art, film, entertainment etc. Whereas
I objectified my models in the “Corpus” series I
am the one now who gets objectified. It is again a
play on the relation between artist and art object. It
is my intention to blend those two angles. I started
the “Corpus” series simultaneously to the “photographed
by” project.
However with my first exhibition in Berlin last summer
I completed the “Corpus” series. I still work on
the “photographed by” series but I also and foremost
concentrate on new projects.