What defines bodyscape photography, and do these examples fit the concept?

Asked 8/29/2016

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I’m new to bodyscape photography and experimented with studio lighting and two different Lightroom edits of the same nude image. I’d like feedback on what actually makes an image a bodyscape rather than simply a nude study. Based on the bodyscape concept, do either of these versions fit the genre, and what visual qualities would make an image read more clearly as bodyscape?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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Which one of my two versions captures the real concept of bodyscape photography?

I would have to say neither, since both images are instantly recognizable as a female nude with very little to suggest it is also anything else. The concept of Bodyscape photography is to photograph a human body in such a way that at first glance it appears to either be something else, usually a landscape, or it is so well integrated into an actual landscape that only after further examination is it clear that much more of the scene than is initially evident is in fact part of a human body. Even when it becomes clear to the viewer that a human body has been photographed to create the work, there also remains the other reality that the body is used to depict.

Allan Teger is the person who coined the term Bodyscape to describe the photographic works he began creating in 1975 to illustrate the concept of two simultaneous realities that he was teaching in college psychology courses. His bio at his page describes what he means by Bodyscape in a definitive explanation. It seems to him to be a duality that is both human body and landscape at the same time without either excluding the other.

For some excellent examples of Bodyscape photography, please see Bodyscape Photography – 20 Brilliant Examples, 30 Creative Camouflaged Body-scape Photographs by Jean Paul Bourdier, and Allan Teger’s Bodyscape Photographs.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

9y ago

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Based on the definition described in the replies, neither version strongly fits bodyscape photography. Both images read immediately as a female nude, with little visual ambiguity.

A bodyscape is typically a photograph of the human body made to resemble something else at first glance—often a landscape, terrain, abstract form, or a shape integrated into a larger scene. The key idea is transformation: the body is used as visual material so the viewer first sees another form or scene, then later recognizes the body.

So the distinction is not mainly about which Lightroom edit is better. It’s about composition, lighting, framing, and abstraction. To feel more like a bodyscape, the image would usually reveal less obvious anatomy, emphasize contours and texture, and create a stronger suggestion of another subject or environment.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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