Renée's work has won awards and been published around the world. She is the recipient of the prestigious 2008 International Photography Award for Fine Art Nude (the Lucies). Magazines that have featured her work include Silvershotz, Adore Noir, Fine Art Photo, Nude Magazine, Photoicon, B&W Magazine, Focus, FHM Germany, Esquire Turkey and numerous others. Her two calendars in 2009 and 2010 went to #1 on Amazon. Her interviews and photographs of Araki, Lillian Bassman, Shelby Lee Adams, Douglas Kirkland and others have been featured in magazines around the world. Her book of Paris nudes, "Mes Petites Femmes de Paris" should be available towards the end of 2012. Taschen will feature her work in the next "New Erotic Photography" and Galerie Vevais in Berlin will be publishing solo monographs of her work, both also set to arrive in late 2012.
Her early photojournalism included assignments for The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and many other newspapers and magazines. She received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Disadvantaged and her work is in the permanent collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Her solo monograph, "Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania was originally published in 1986 and re-issued in 2010 to favorable reviews in The New York Times Review of Books and photo-eye. After a 15 year detour as a civil rights lawyer, she returned to photography.
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My journey through nude photography is highly motivated by the fact that the genre has always been male dominated. Many people looking at my work assume I'm a man and I think that's very telling. But the reaction of women--models, subjects and viewers-- has propelled some of the most interesting dialogue about my work.
My desire to embrace and understand the relationship between photographer and model led me to interview and photograph Charis Wilson, Edward Weston's former wife, shortly before her death recently at 94. Charis was astonishing in discussing the view from the other side of the lens. And of course, not just anybody's lens, but Weston's. One of the great mysteries and ongoing discussions always seems to be about how much of the image is the photographer, how much is the model. Charis' view about that changed over time. Initially, she couldn't really see herself in the photos. Much later in life, she did. That's one of the many fascinating things to me about this type of work. I don't think I know the answer, and I'm sure it will change over time, but more than the photograph being about me or the model, it increasingly feels to me like it is-at it's core--really about the moment.
Her early photojournalism included assignments for The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and many other newspapers and magazines. She received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Disadvantaged and her work is in the permanent collection of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Her solo monograph, "Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania was originally published in 1986 and re-issued in 2010 to favorable reviews in The New York Times Review of Books and photo-eye. After a 15 year detour as a civil rights lawyer, she returned to photography.
***********************************************************************************************************************
My journey through nude photography is highly motivated by the fact that the genre has always been male dominated. Many people looking at my work assume I'm a man and I think that's very telling. But the reaction of women--models, subjects and viewers-- has propelled some of the most interesting dialogue about my work.
My desire to embrace and understand the relationship between photographer and model led me to interview and photograph Charis Wilson, Edward Weston's former wife, shortly before her death recently at 94. Charis was astonishing in discussing the view from the other side of the lens. And of course, not just anybody's lens, but Weston's. One of the great mysteries and ongoing discussions always seems to be about how much of the image is the photographer, how much is the model. Charis' view about that changed over time. Initially, she couldn't really see herself in the photos. Much later in life, she did. That's one of the many fascinating things to me about this type of work. I don't think I know the answer, and I'm sure it will change over time, but more than the photograph being about me or the model, it increasingly feels to me like it is-at it's core--really about the moment.
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