CaroH – Artistic Nude Photographer: ‘I apprehend human morphology through all its imperfection’

The human body and nudity is her inspiration.

And she is known for treating the subjects of her art with great dignity and respect.

To us, CaroH told a story about her artistic path, inspirations, role models, the nudity, the obscenity, her new books, exhibitions, her plans for the future and much much more…

W-WomenGlobally: What is your activity about?

CaroH, artist and photographer: Artistic Nude Photography is definitely one of my biggest passions; I also like doing, depending on the occasion and depending what the model inspires me, Portrait, Event and Editorial. I have a definite preference for Black and White photography.
Since July 2008, I am district representative for the greater Montreal area for the CAPA (Canadian Association for Photographic Art), my role is to represent all CAPA members and member clubs in my area. I make myself available as the first contact between members, clubs and the Association.

W-WG: What is your background, education?

CaroH: I was born in Obaska, a small village, in Abitibi where I experienced my first encounter with Nude at the age of five: my maternal grand-mother Émilienne, a painter during her free time, painted the back of a young Amerindian with her hair in the wind. It was her only nude, but the seed was planted and the interest for artistic nude was a growing passion in my heart.

I studied photography from 1993 to 1995 at Dawson College in Montreal. I was enrolled in a 3 years program, but only completed the first 2 years for 2 reasons. Firstly my program was more focused on commercial photographic work, which left little room to explore Artistic Creation; at Dawson I have learned and acquired great technical skill, but I needed more an artistic focus. The second reason is that I got pregnant and was faced with a choice to make: complete my third year, which meant getting aborted due to the fact that working in the lab with all the chemical is not compatible with pregnancy, or keep the baby. I decided to keep the life that was growing inside of me and afterwards I put aside my passion for a good while, to raise my daughters.
For the past three years, I have revived the world of photography, allowing me to express again my passion through my art. Having developed a maturity and life experience during these twelve years, and now that my daughters are older, I am ready to live my passion for photography.
I studied the world of digital photography for two years (although I first found its use outrageous) and have now finally and happily switched to digital where I have less limitations then the analog way: depending on what you shoot you can change the parameter every single shoot whereas when you work with a specific film, well you have to work with that limitation. I love the variety of possibilities that the digital camera now offers. Most of my shootings are made outdoors, I love natural lighting which can be tricky at time, but it is part of my process to connect with and feel my surroundings. Unfortunately, shooting Nude outside also means I have to cope with the limitations from the weather: in the part of the world I live in, the winter is quite cold and long, so I shoot from spring to autumn, which is a great shooting period, and winter is my time for processing.

I don’t earn my living yet from my passion, I work part time as an account manager for a company that manufactures firefighter gear, which is at the antipode of what I do as a photographer. Being part-time allows me to work on my personal projects and knock at the gallery’s door to get exhibits; this year things started to move slowly but surely.

W-WG: When did you get the idea of photographing, when it all started? why?

CaroH: I would say that my passion for visual art first started with my Grand-mother, and then my father had a good camera and did a lot of family photo. It has always been part of my life I guess, at nine I got my first little snap shot camera.

But when I really got the vibe for it was at 19 years old: I was studying literature and languages in Québec city, and during my third session I was offered to take a photo course and the revelation occurred, it made me realize that this was what I really wanted to do in life. The following session I applied at Dawson College in Montreal to study photography!

W-WG: The primary thema of your art is the nude photography. Why nude?

CaroH: This is a hard question to answer, Why Nude? I guess it come from deep down within. I always had a great attraction for any artistic nude whether the medium was paint, sculpture or photo and, as previously stated, my Grandmother certainly helped in planting a seed when I was five by painting a Nude.
The Renaissance is the era that inspired me the most. I love the draped, the sensuality, the light into the painting, the Roundness, the curve, the movement into them. I like to see the beauty as it is, Raw, by going beyond aesthetical standards whose appreciation is conditioned by the media, I apprehend human morphology though all its imperfection.

When I search for model, what is important for me is that the model is first at ease with his or her body, so we can explore all of its beauty. Unfortunately many women think that to pose Nude they have to look like today’s fashion model. This is not what I am looking for and wish that through my work I will be able, somehow, to change that mind set.
I also decided to do nude self-portraits for a couple of reasons, one of them is to show women that we don’t need to be a fashion model to pose: I am far from those “magazine standards”. Another reason is that I needed to explore myself as a women, my vision on nudity, my demons and accomplish myself as an artist; my self-portraits series, I guess, was one of the best way to communicate and express that.
The first self-portrait I did was when I was nineteen. It then took me 17 years to repeat the experiment. You will probably find it very strange but I am a very shy/modest person. Less now then a few years ago, I guess I have matured, which allows me to be more at ease with who I am and what I want. But let me reassure you I am far from an exhibitionist.
I know I did, and still do, self-portraits but these are really me and not me at the same time. Let me explain if I can, and I hope I will make myself clear, I use my body like any other model, I distinguish myself from me, this I guess is my alter ego that I recognized without intimately relating to.
I also started exploring male nudity and I realized that our society is so not yet ready to see male Full Nudity, again I guess it is the media conditioning this (we just have to think about magazine, film etc, rarely we will see the man in his full Nudity). I got so many times the comments from men and women ’’ yeah is it nice but we see his sexual part’’…. It is disturbing. I wonder why it is so disturbing for us to see the male in his Full Nudity and why is it so OK for us (Women) to see and show our Full Nudity?
To me it is as natural for a male as for a women to be beautiful simply nude. They are differences in that beauty, Male and female are made to be different, and the approach also to photograph man nudity and women is different. So I don’t know what kind of response I will have to these portfolios of male, but I like to break the rule and hope that at least we will make a progress and will get to be able to see the beauty of male nudity as well as the women.

W-WG: Where do you think goes the border between the nude and obscene? how do you balance those two?

CaroH:  I believe that the difference belongs to the viewer, what can be obscene to me may not be for you and vice versa. The line is very thin, I could shoot a couple making passionate love and not being obscene, it all depend on the eye you lay on the models and also what the model wants to share with you.
Although I have to admit that I believe the American Society (not only the USA but the whole continent) has a few steps to take before being able to differentiate Nude and obscene; I remember, and maybe you do too, a few years ago at the Superbowl concert (a widely televised event), Janet Jackson got one of her nipple purposely exposed at the end of her performance and it did such an enormous wave, as being an obscene gesture on National TV. To me it was part of her show and not obscene at all, but a great part of the population got upset and scandalized.
We see people getting killed live on the news, which is to me far worse and offensive, and we don’t make such a wave, we are not scandalized, but when we see a nipple….. Watch out!
Nudity is part of who we are, who we were and who we will be. Why do we get so upset and scandalized? I, for my part, am more scandalized by how hypocrite we are as a society: on one hand we get offended by a breast showing on TV but on the other we entertain a very lucrative and large porno industry. I can understand that nudity does shock some people and I do respect that, but we need some more education, as a society to dissociate between obscene and pure natural beauty. At least this is my opinion.

W-WG: I can remember your account being removed from Facebook because of the above – have you ever had similar reaction to your art?

CaroH: Well, beside FB censoring me for offensive content, no, I have not had a similar experience, but I have to expect it. I wouldn’t be surprised that it does get to happen at one point. Not that I wish for it, but I do expect it, especially here in America. However I would be quite surprised to get that kind of reaction from European countries.

W-WG: Where do you publish/sell your art? Locally or internationally?

CaroH: I haven’t yet got the chance to be exposed in my city, Montreal, until now: I am getting exhibit in the Erotic Festival of Montreal from August the 13th to the 16th at the Just for Laugh Museum (see this link for more info).
I was exposed in Chili, where I participated to The first International Exhibition of Women on Breast Cancer, bringing together Artists from North and South America, in the city of Talca, Chili.
I am currently participating in a major exhibition organized by PhotoSensitive, in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society, presenting “Cancer Connection”, an unique exhibition documenting the effect of cancer on the lives of Canadians throughout the Country; it’s a moving exhibition it had to stop for the winter and will be back on the road in June stopping in Regina and will continue its journey throughout Canada, for more detail on the future location of the exhibition please visit: www.photosensitive.com/cc/.
I have just made an exhibition in New-York city which theme was May Celebration Of Heritage where different visual artists gathered their talent to present their vision and interpretation of today’s culture and heritage.

I have been exposing at the Bread & Roses and 1199 SEUI Gallery, (May 12th to Friday June 26th). I might be exposing in France, Brussels, since I am still in negotiation with 2 galleries interested in my work, but nothing is confirmed yet. I get to sale my art both to people who know and like my work, and through my website.
From time to time I also do corporate assignment.

W-WG: And your books?…

CaroH: My very first book is now available, since the end of March already, this was a little girl dream I guess, I always wanted to publish a photo book. To me personally this is a great accomplishment.
My first publication is on my self-portraits which were created during my burn out, because yes I did a burn out from a heavily stressful and non artistic job. The upside of this is that it allowed me to create and expulse what I had retained for 12 years. This book features 2 shootings with the first one being done in March 2008, 2 days after my complete breakdown. I had to look at myself in the mirror and seek deep down inside what was happening to me and why. And that portfolio really expresses all these emotions, the fear, the guild, the failure even though it was not one, but I was feeling as if I had failed.
The second part is my Renaissance, shot in an amazing tree, that we found one day going camping with my dear Larz, the love of my life, who supported me and who helped me revive my passion for photography, he is my Muse ( if I can say that).
That second part is much more positive and lighter, it is my rebirth, where I took possession of who I was, where I connected with my soul, my primitive side, where I, as a artist, moved forward to what I wanted to explore and express, I found myself as a women and finally did communicate with a great feeling of liberty. This book, entitled” Autoportraits / Selfportrait” can be found on my website http://www.larznangel.com/, in the “art for sale” section. If you follow the link on my website you will get a chance to browse through its first 15 pages.

My second book was primary inspired by the Music of “Les Princesses Nubian”, listening to that music put me in an kind meditation state and as I was listening to the CD the images was starting to rise, evolve to get created in my mind. As the images started to flow the story started to build. It is at some point auto-biographic, but I also believe it will reach some of us, I mean at least the women in their thirties, and maybe younger or older.
It was not really made to aim at a group in particular but I felt it was more representative of me as a woman in her thirties and knowing a few women in that flange who confirmed that it also was pretty closed to what they were experiencing and what I wanted to explore and express.
It is made of a series of 5 portfolios narrating in image flanges the life of the Nubian Princess who represents the contemporary and primitive woman (in her thirties) in us, with her torments, her humanity, her fragility, her strength and her hidden sexuality, the forbidden fruit. The model I have chosen for this one is likely to resemble to what we see in the magazines, and I have made that choice purposely so I can reach a greater audience and tame them to eventually understand my vision and appreciate the beauty in all its imperfection, knowing that it is not really an imperfection but carried out through the media as such.

W-WG: What is your vision/message to the people who see your art?

CaroH: I see the natural beauty above all. By going beyond any aesthetical standards whose appreciation is conditioned by media, I apprehend human morphology through all its imperfection. No deception disguised underneath flawless bodies. Concerned about capturing essence with no influence, I define the limits without ever getting surpassed by the model. My figures and the models figures are the means of expression of my opinions, thoughts, concepts, emotions and intimacy as in the other kinds of arts which are made using various techniques. My work must not be considered only as Self-portraits or simple photographs but also as conceptual art. I would like the people to get to change their vision on beauty and get to see how women and men are different one from another, whether it is from their cultural background, sizes, and ethnics; they all have a beauty within that needs to be revealed, that can appeal and bring confidence even though they do not respect what we are conditioned to see.

W-WG: Do you have some leading topics in your art? What is your source of inspiration? what takes your breath away?

CaroH: My leading topics are mainly the study of the human kind, young – old, poor – rich, whatever the skin tone they have; I want to explore their vision as well as mine, and tell a tale through my photographs My inspiration can come from different sources, although I create a lot while listening to music.
The images usually come naturally, the poses start to take form in my head, and the tale I want to explore starts to build up; it is almost like a meditation session for me, where the music inspires me and it just happens.
This is how “Nubian Princess” came to life. Some other time shootings are more spontaneous: I follow the mood as I communicate and bind with the model, as it has been the case for “Raphael”.
What takes my breath away? Well so many things: simple beauty, nature richness, sunset, sunrise, kid smile, and most of all, human generosity and modesty, people that are faithful to who they really are, without pretending.

W-WG: Do you have any role models in art, in life? any organizations you support?

CaroH: I have a few role models the 2 first being my maternal Grand-mother and mother, my grand-mother, because she is an Abitibi Pioneer, a Strong woman, a Fighter, a mother, a wife, a grandmother, and above all, an exceptional woman, she has taught me so much. She is one of my first a source of inspiration.

My mom, because she is one of my first great feminine influences in my life. She taught me: Sincerity, Dignity, Tenderness, Courage, Pride, Determination, Gentleness, LOVE, Listening, Independence, and much more… She has given and continues to give and offer me the best of herself; she is present in my life and gives me continuously her time and love. She is an Exceptional woman and I do admire her.

Another great inspiration for me is Frida Khalo who inspired me in doing self-portraits; it is not so much her painting that inspired me but more who she was as a woman and what kind of artist she was; she was not afraid to be who she was and lived her life at the fullest even thought she suffered all her life.

I also use my art to support organizations that fight cancer. I would like to extend my involvement in such organizations by participating in some AIDS campaigns; I have a few ideas on how some of my work could be used for this purpose. Finally I am opened to humanitarian causes such as fighting for kids’ and women wellbeing.

W-WG: Who is CaroH – in private?

CaroH: Well, I am a mother of 2 beautiful daughters of 13 and 10 years old. I live with Larz (who I truly believe he is the love of my life even thought we are so different; we are, I believe, like the Yin and the Yang); he also has 2 kids of his own they are 9 & 11, so the both of us we have 4 kids, which keep us pretty busy. We are a great family, with our strength and weakness. I am a women of 37 years old, I am a passionate one I have no milieu when I put myself into something I either do it at the fullest or I don’t. I love people, although I am a loner, I am a great observer, and feel things a lot, I am very emotional, and not at all rational.
I wouldn’t be able to live without music which brings me at time comfort, strength; it is also a great outlet and a great source of inspiration.
I am a life lover, natural, generous and like spontaneity and I am loyal, I am also at time very impatient and I don’t tolerate the disrespect and abuse. I am far from perfect but I am self-confident and in peace with who I am.
My motto is the following: Enjoy the moment and live it at the fullest because now you know what’s going on, but you don’t know what will you live tomorrow!

W-WG: What are your plans for the short and long term future?

CaroH: CaroH: Short term, I have just finished my second book titled: In The Skin of a Nubian Princess now available on my website. I am also looking forward to getting confirmation of future exhibition in France and Belgium.
Long term I am working at getting a solo exhibition in Montreal, but I am not sure the audience is ready for that yet. Finishing my male series is also a long term objective, but I still have a good year or two to go. Hopefully one day I will be able to live exclusively of my art, and continue being fulfilled with love, happiness and health.
Voilà: I think this says it all.

See also CaroH’s Facebook page.