Nude with apples by Drtikol

František Drtikol (1883-1961) :: Untitled (Nude with Apples) (Akt mit Äpfeln), ca. 1925. Gelatin silver print. | src Grisebach Auktion 263 (2016) & LL/70693

Night by Charles Berg

Charles I. Berg :: Night. A nude woman draped in gauzy fabric posing as if a statue. Copyrighted 1896 by Chas. I. Berg. Platinum print. | src Library of Congress
Charles I. Berg :: Night. A nude woman draped in gauzy fabric posing as if a statue. Copyrighted 1896 by Chas. I. Berg. Platinum print. | Library of Congress
Charles I. Berg :: Night. A nude woman draped in gauzy fabric posing as if a statue. Copyrighted 1896 by Chas. I. Berg. Platinum print. | Library of Congress

Jan Saudek · some nudes

Jan Saudek :: Theater of Life, Panorama, 1991
Jan Saudek :: Paula poses for the first and the last time, 1978. | src Lempertz
Jan Saudek :: No title (Draped nude), from the Story from Czechoslovakia, my country series, 1965-1975 | src NGV Collection Online

Dance study by Drtikol

Frantisek Drtikol (1883–1961) ~ Nude dance study, Prague, ca. 1919. Vintage silver print | src Ostlicht Photo Auction 2023
František Drtikol (1883–1961) ~ Nude dance study, Prague, ca. 1919 (detail) | src Ostlicht Photo Auction 2023

Laurence Sackman · Insomnia

Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 – courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 – courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 - courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l'œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 – courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 - courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l'œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 – courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 - courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l'œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Insomnia, 1972 – courtesy in camera galerie. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie

Laurence Sackman ~ 1

Laurence Sackman :: Untitled. Courtesy Galerie in camera. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Laurence Sackman :: Table girl, NY, 1976. Courtesy Galerie in camera. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie
Eija, Paris, 1973. Courtesy Galerie in camera. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie

Laurence Sackman (1948 – 2020) started his career at the early sixties in the sulfurous world of fashion and advertising. His photographs were published in every great magazines of that time, Vogue, Stern, Sunday Times, Elle, Marie-Claire… The off-the-wall spirit of his photographs made him one of the most iconic photographers of the 70s and 80s, assisted by Paolo Roversi, and by the side of Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton.

His photographs are powerful, explosive, and sometimes erotic, they witness the passion and craziness that inhabited him for decades. He had a great mastery of black and white and colors. Intense and raw, the use of these shades made his work singular.

Only a hundred prints are left from his career, most of them disappeared during his life. quoted from ODLP

London, 1971. Courtesy Galerie in camera. | src ODLP ~ l’œil de la photographie

In partnership with Fabienne Martin, the galerie in camera gallery lifts the veil on the work of Laurence Sackman, cult fashion photographer of the 1980s.

Laurence Sackman was born in 1948 in Wembley, a suburb of north London. He started out in photography at the age of 14, assisting still life photographer Sidney Pisan, who also practiced as a dentist. With Pisan, the young Sackman was initiated to the ring-flash that his mentor used in his medical practice and in his artistic activity. A few years later, Sackman was one of the first fashion photographers to use this type of shadow-reducing lighting.

Laurence Sackman’s contribution to photography cannot be reduced to pretty lights polished in the studio. His work, both poetic and subversive, strongly tinged with eroticism, had the imprint of a lively sensitivity. An era is reflected in it, where all daring was permitted.

His exceptional mastery and sharp gaze hatched on the cusp of the “swinging sixties”. London, the capital of pop culture, that blew a breath of freedom in art, music and fashion. Twenty years old in 1968, Sackman was part of this hedonistic youth, in full sexual liberation, eager to live in a more liberal and permissive society.

He began by photographing his relatives, his wife Rémi, his cousins. The star models of the decade posed in front of his lens: Anglo-Indian Chandrika Casali, muse of Guy Bourdin and David Bailey, the iconic Grace Jones, or Renate Zatsch, muse of Helmut Newton. Without forgetting Twiggy, emblematic model of the “swinging London”.

Laurence Sackman’s images are often transgressive. His signature was essential in magazines. He worked for Esquire, Stern, Queen, The Sunday Times, Nova, the New York Times. In Paris, the Jardin des Modes and Vogue Hommes requested him.

Friend of photographer Steve Hiett who introduced him in 1970 to Claude Brouet, editor-in-chief of Marie-Claire and to Emile Laugier, its talented artistic director, Sackman left no one indifferent. Emile Laugier remembers a young man with bright intelligent eyes, high standards, with very precise directing ideas, he knew exactly what he wanted. Alain Lekim, Laurence Sackman’s assistant for a few years, was so fascinated by the artist that he abandoned a very promising start to his career in photography to devote himself to him. The famous Paolo Roversi was his assistant. But then found Sackman “difficult to live with” but testifies “that he taught him everything”.

At that time, the name of Sackman was on everyone’s lips in the fashion microcosm. We only talked about his eccentricities, and, above all, his modernity, his inventiveness. Sackman carried out advertising campaigns for prominent brands: Saint-Laurent, Audi, De Beers.

One day, at the request of Yves Saint-Laurent himself, Sackman attended the preparatory meeting for a campaign where ideas were exchanged. What would he propose? To take pictures on the moon…

When asked about the posterity of his style, Helmut Newton saw himself with two heirs: Laurence Sackman and Chris von Wagenheim. In fact, Sackman was  the referent photographer of the 80s.

In 1983, he did his last opus, a series of nudes produced in room 65 of the Hotel La Louisiane, which became in a way his testament. According to him, the series constitutes his most successful work.

Suffering from psychiatric disorders, Laurence Sackman ended his photographic activity in 1984.

In this regard, he confided in 2017: “When I stopped photography, I felt like I had done everything I wanted to do. I had no regrets. I firmly believe that I would have repeated myself had I continued. ”

Such was Laurence Sackman, a celestial body, a comet that crossed the eighties.

Fabienne Martin (Galerie in camera)

Untitled nude by Wynn Bullock

Wynn Bullock :: Untitled, 1940s. Photogravure printed 1971. White Knight Auction via liveauctioneers

Lac des cygnes · photocomposite

Lac des cygnes – Tirage argentique original retouché à la main – Galerie 291

Les Nus de Gustave Gain, 1910

Gustave Gain :: Nu féminin assis, 1910. Autochrome. | Fonds de la famille Gain · Archives de la Manche
Gustave Gain :: Nu féminin avec un drapé, 1910. Autochrome. | Fonds de la famille Gain · Archives de la Manche
Gustave Gain :: Nu féminin assis, 1910 Autochrome. [detail]
Gustave Gain · Nu féminin, 1910. Autochrome. | Fonds de la famille Gain · Archives de la Manche

Lalaing female nudes, 1900-1914

Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, op de rug gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing
Study of a nude female model, seen from the back, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, preliminary study for element for a fountain in Musée des Beaux arts, Tournai (Doornik) and for circular fountain, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print
Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, op de rug gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing (2)
Study of a nude female model, seen from the back, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print
Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, van voren gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing
Study of a female nude model, seen from the side, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, preliminary study for element for a fountain in Musée des Beaux arts, Tournai (Doornik) and for circular fountain, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print
Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, van opzij gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing (1)
Study of a female nude model, seen from the side, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print
Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, van opzij gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing (2)
Study of a female nude model, seen from the side, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print
Studie van een vrouwelijk naaktmodel, van opzij gezien, in het atelier van Jacques de Lalaing, voorstudie voor element voor een fontein in Musee des Beaux arts, Doornik en voor cirkelvormige fontein, Jacques Lalaing (3)
Study of a female nude model, seen from the side, in the atelier of Jacques de Lalaing, Brussels, ca. 1900-1914. Attributed to Jacques Lalaing. Albumen print

All five images are part of a notebook with 108 Photographs of Models Owned by Jacques de Lalaing (1858-1917). Access to the whole notebook held at Rijksmusem, here: follow link >>> (RP-F-2001-4)