‘NUDITY IS BODY’S MOST NATURAL LANGUAGE’
While nudity either on screen or through an artwork still awakes the moral police wide and loud to call it out as an ‘insult to Indian culture’, Chennai-based photographer L Ramachandran has been creating nude art through his photographs for over four years. With his belief that nudity is a body’s natural language, he has been creating art out of nudity and has risen to become India’s first photographer to shoot for internationally renowned Playboy magazine. He has now been chosen by globally-acclaimed publication ArtTour International as one of the ‘Masters of Contemporary Art for 2017’.
“The publication is a niche one that brings some of the most iconic artists from across the world together through their platform. This is the first time that an Indian photographer has been chosen to receive an award in the art category. The reason I believe is that I use photography only as a medium to bring out a unique form of art that displays body art, and Indian cultural images,” the 37year-old photographer shares about the ArtTour International’s Masters Award, which picks him as one of the top 60 of the best artists from across the world.
Ramachandran, who hails from a humble family in Kumbakonam, taught himself how to photograph and wanted to take his game beyond the fashion, wedding and travel photography that lens men in India are often seen clicking.
“We don’t go beyond these commonly explored aspects of photography. I believe that nudity is the body’s most natural language and I wanted to bring out art through it. Over the four years I have been clicking nude photography, I still have to work with foreign models because our country still considers nudity a taboo and people are narrow-minded about the whole idea. Our culture is highly sensitive and the mindsets of people in our country are not open to accepting nudity as a form of art,” says Ramachandran, who has had to find opportunities outside our homeland to publish his photographs, feels.
With just three photographs that he shot sent over to ArtTour International, Ramachandran is ecstatic about them loving his work. “I think they loved how the photographs were not just of a person who is nude, but have a whole story to tell through the art in them. I am excited to be in Florence (Italy) to receive the award,” shares the photographer, signing off.