Picturebook Women

2008-08-05T04:04:00.000-07:00

2008-07-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

2008-07-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

Beyond the tramp stamp

2007-10-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Beyond the tramp stamp
Boris Schmalenberger`s photographs of tattooed women

From Oetzy to Beckham, from Nofretete to Shakira, the cultural tradition of tattooing weaves its way through all eras and ethnicities. As embodied communication, tattoos served as a symbol for distancing oneself from societal bounds, in turn demonstrating ones specific social affiliation. In 18th century-China, criminals were tattooed to distinguish them from being part of the “proper” society. Thus excluded persons composed a new social stratum called the Yakuza.
Tattoos of prisoners are also to be understood as an expression of classification, since they symbolize their criminal offense or at least, do they indicate the duration of their imprisonment. For instance, if one has three burning logs pricked into his skin, he has spent three years in prison.
In times of strong political upheaval, both freedom fighters and the despots` henchmen have shown how deep their political beliefs go; they apparently go skin-deep. We have found tattoos as political statements among anarchists during the Spanish Civil War and the activists of the French Résistance also among the SS-Devision Totenkopf, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) and other Nazi-supporters. The most recent developments within these group-identifying skin images are the read star worn by representatives of the orthodox communists during the students` movements of the 1960s as well as the tattoos worn by neo-Nazis. In summary, one can conclude that since the beginning of the 1990s, tattoos have more and more become a means for individual expression as opposed to a sign of social affiliation.
There are several obvious reasons for the need to express individuality and personality on one`s skin, it being the bordering organ between the individual and the masses. The increasing conformity of both individuals`s lives and the living conditions within a mass society, characterized by a herd mentality and the uniformness of fashion, serve to further the predominance of global labels and trends. Besides these external factors, a lot of tattooed individuals seek the impact that the images have on them emotionally. Tattoos enable the inner aesthetic to be exposed on the body`s surface thus ideally leading to a harmonic composition of content and wrapping. Here, the yearning for the dissolution of contradictions and the unity with oneself is in concert with playful autoeroticism and healthy narcissism. The tattooed person tells us: Not only am I creating my own life; I am shaping myself both inside and out. I belong only to myself and I am free to disregard conventions and to ignore the Creation within this creative process. I let no matter of taste rule, because I proclaim my own sense of aesthetics. The above is an expression of a desirable development towards a self-confident autonomous personality.
And this is exactly the impression we get from Boris Schmalenberger`s photographs of extensively tattooed women. The photographer from Stuttgart is currently showing nine tattoo-women in his exhibition, each one appearing in three photographs. Like a triptych, they are juxtaposed in groups of three. A portrait on the left, a nude in the middle and a free-style pose on the right. In the portraits, the womens` (un-tattooed) faces in front of a black background appear both confident and determined. The nudes expose the extensive tattoos fully as well as suggesting the models` social backgrounds, since they are all set in their personal surroundings. Some parts of the personal surroundings re-appear on the womens` bodies as in the case of Claudia. She wears a tattoo of the Rock musician and society-shocker Marilyn Manson, whose poster is also hung up behind her on the wall of her room. When asked, if she does not find it risky to chose a popstar for a tattoo, who may be very famous at one moment but could become an embarrassment in the next, she replies that she decided on Manson`s image not because of his stardom, but more so because of his opposition to US-society. This is not unlike the decision to get another tattoo, frequently is connected to personal attitudes or experiences. Oftentimes the step to a new tattoo is made upon a terminated relationship or a new phase in one`s life. Thus tattoos are to be read as pricked diaries and prove wrong the frequent objection that they are deemed solely fashion statements.
Skin drawings often created over years are results of a creative interplay between the tattoo-artist and the one been tattooed. The master of the needle has to be found, as Julia, one of Schmalenberger`s models states. Personal aspects like sympathy are important as well as a coherent sense to the tattoo wearer`s world of images and visual associations. Up to the present, tattoos on men are socially more accepted than they are on women. The female ideal of beauty demands naturalness and purity. Even plastic surgery seeks to serve this ideal. For Julia, her tattoos, where once having stated signs of her rebellion, are now an expression of her own ideal of beauty.

In his series “pricked reality – picture book-women”, Boris Schmalenberger continues his previous works as he explores the human body. This time though, he has moved towards a stronger documentary style. The photographed women appear as humans in their personal surroundings. Schmalenberger has left the context of the pictures up to the women for the most part just as with regard to the choice of the favourite place where they wished to be photographed. Similar to how tattoos tell us something about the life of the one who wears it, Schmalenberger`s photographs attest to life with one of these tattoos.

2007-08-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

2007-06-21T02:35:00.000-07:00

2007-06-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

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2007-06-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

2007-05-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

2007-05-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

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2007-05-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

Pricked Reality – Picturebook - Women

2007-05-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

Press-release

Galery Merkle presents:

BORIS SCHMALENBERGER
Pricked Reality – Picturebook - Women
Opening: 29.6.2007, 19. 15 Uhr
During: 30.6. – 5.8.2007

Images pricked on human skin are rather associated with self destruction or with manliness, toughness; full-body tattoos on women generally contradict the cliché of femininity in our society. The photographer Boris Schmalenberger explored this cliché and is now presenting his new series entitled “Bilderbuch-Frauen” (picture-book women).
After Internet research, Schmalenberger visited several tattooed women in different cities throughout Germany and photographed them in large-format.

Schmalenberger`s artistic documentary surprises in that it reveals the different socio-cultural backgrounds of his models as well as it shows his subtle photographic approach to the subject. He does not reduce these women to their erotic and physical features (which the exhibition title might suggest) but approaches each of them individually, posing questions about their motivation for tattoos and thus the understanding of their personal body-image. A necessary condition for Schmalenberger`s work was the setting of the photo-sessions inside of the models` homes in order to include their personal environment into the composition of the images.

As a result, we are now confronted with spaciously composed photographs gathered in groups of three - each consisting of a portrait, a nude and a free-style presentation- that reflect the topic of tattooed women from various points of view.
The frontal portraits on a black background conceal the pricked images of the models: They present themselves as self-confident individuals, who are well aware of the self-destructive deed that they have undergone. The nudes on the other hand reveal the (erotic) aesthetics of their tattooed bodies within the womens` personal surroundings.
Finally the free-style presentation enables the models to stage their personal desires and fantasies thus exposing part of their drive to modify their bodies as they do.

Boris Schmalenberger is showing us tattooed women as human beings who differ from others because they express their individuality explicitly through their bodies; a concept which derives from a desire that fashion has long been failing to satisfy. In contrast to his earlier works, the photographer this time surprises by his choice of a documentary-like style to concern himself once more with one of the key themes of his oeuvre: human physicality. Nevertheless, these images prove to be aesthetic constructions that surpass merely copying reality by their poetically structured compositions: Thus, the title “Bilderbuch-Frauen” (picture-book women) is explicitly to be understood literary.