Description
More than a decade after BIG NUDE, Close would return to the reclining nude as a subject using a Polaroid camera that produces prints 97 x 43 inches each. This one-of-a-kind Polaroid was set up at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Polaroid had developed the camera as a tool for conservators at the Museum to make highly detailed and virtually grain-less images of paintings in the collection.
The inside of the camera measures 12 by 12 by 16 feet and the photographer works inside this space in front of the camera lens, rather than looking through a viewfinder. In 1984, he hired professional dancers to pose for monumental nudes, including the Laura 1 and also Bertrand 2, on view across the gallery. Each model was positioned on platform attached to forklift, which was moved to the left or right as each section of the figure was shot.
Close explored other subjects with this camera, including self-portraits and flowers as well as standing nudes, both as full-figures and truncated torsos. For Close the subjects are related. He has said, “I approach all subjects the same,” of course I can’t collaborate with a flower the same way I can with a human, but there is an inherent sensuality in a flower that relates to the nudes, and the close-up details of the flowers are equally revelatory.”