Warning: Images below contain significant nudity. If you're at work, you might want to wait till you get home for this one.
Nadia understands how powerful a nude portrait can be, and has always had a fascination with everything about the female form. She told The Huffington Post, "I started shooting '100 Naked Women' mainly because I am female and know how liberating it feels to have a strong nude photograph." Her experience in front of the camera likely made her the perfect photographer to create this series, because she has an inherent understanding of how to make a naked woman look her best on film.
The collection is of women ranging from models, to friends of hers, to everyday women she cast using social media sites like Facebook in various stages of repose, whether it be lounging on the rug with a 7UP and a good comic book or standing naked outside holding a Double Gulp and a chili dog. Nadia says the project was inspired in part by movements like the Free The Nipple campaign which seek to end discriminatory censorship of the female body. She said the responses she received from friends and strangers alike wanting to be part of the experience was overwhelming and humbling, especially because so many of them had never done any modeling before.
Her aesthetic, she says, is deeply influenced by cinema, and in the vein of Cindy Sherman, her images emerge like single instants from a larger filmic narrative. Her models, ultimately, are playing characters, which often allows them to open up in ways they otherwise may not have, especially the inexperienced ones. She poses them in highly stylized settings, which creates a dramatic juxtaposition between that bright surreality and the imperfect, untouched nudity of her
models.
While she encourages the women she works with to push their boundaries, she never asks them to reveal anything they don't feel comfortable revealing. She is adamant about one thing though; this work is meant to confront the sexism that pervades modern society, thus her nudes are bold and in-your-face rather than passive and romantic.
The best part is this is nowhere near the finished product! Nadia continues to travel from London to Los Angeles to round out her series. The final product will actually be published as a book by Sturm & Drang, but if you don't want to wait for it, many photos from the series can be viewed on her website. She is also still casting via her Instagram account, and shooting for the rest of 2015 in case anyone's looking for a body-freeing experience in the new year.
Images: Nadia Lee Cohen
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