I enjoy my Striptease series every time, the process is liberating, inspiring and as refreshing as easy: Getting undressed in public spaces in front of my camera. I always want the person to feel as alive as possible but not without forgetting about the connotation of nudity in pictures and the danger of getting objectified. I Believe we are all seeking for intimacy and sometimes you can freeze them in pictures.
After I shot this series in different cities, like London, Oslo, Istanbul and New York, this time it´s Tel Aviv. There, I got the opportunity to photograph this young fearless actress Mateja Meded. It´s been a joyful night-ride, exploring every corner of the cinema Hotel, shooting her stripping from the the rooftop down, level by level, braking into the kitchen and (ab)using vegetables. Thanks to Mateja, and to the many people who assisted, kept a lookout, or just watched the scene for joy, you were all a great help!
TEXT BY MATEJA MEDED
Ode to the Goddess Gaia
What’s the point of that? I´m a young woman.Yes. That´s what I am. It´s not easy in this world. When u r young. When u r a woman, a young woman. A beautiful young woman. With brain. Who has a sexuality. And breasts.
What is the difference between breasts of women and breasts of men.
I also have hair , however just a few around my areola (what kind of word is that,? sounds more like a diesease to me.
-Sorry we can´t save u. U have a few weeks left.
– Oh no. I have children. U need to save me.
– We r very sorry, we can´t do anything. U have the Areola Virus.
– Oh no. I´m gonna die.
– Yes.
—–however, I should stop thinking about this word, I will do it later, let´s go on with my text),
hair around my areola(wtf…)which I pluck regularly with my tweezer, cuz the breasts of women shouldn´t have hair. Unfeminine. As a woman u also shouldn´t have facial hair. Also Unfeminine. Box thinking.
What is another difference between breasts of men and breasts of women.
Bra. A friend of mine calls the brassiere (why french, why?) the burka of the western world. I personally don´t like bras , I feel unfree -cramped . My boobs want to be alive. They want to flap back and forth, breathe, hang around or hang out or just peacefully hang and enjoy life and not being caged , overpushed and well draped.
I could observe , how people sometimes gazed at my nipples, which showed up through my Shirt, especially when it was cold. Sometimes my nipples were gazed at so heavily , that i thought : Babe, this r just nipples, not Aliens.
What causes people to stare so much at my nipples? U don´t give nippels of men so much attention, or am I wrong?
Could it be , that my tits were instrumentalized, before I was even born?
Could it be, that they were first turned into an object and after that they were sexualized.
But objects r not vivid. I am vivid. I breathe. And these r my tits . I decide for them . I unobjectify them.
If men can walk topless, if men don´t have to hide or to push their boobs under their Shirt, so I take for me the same right, I unsexualize them.
I say to them : dear breasts, u r free now, fly, wherever u want, even if the force of gravity is sucking u down, I love u.
I will never deny my tits, just as I will never deny my sexuality.
It´s time to make a wichtes´dance-striptease, my dear ladys, and each one of us makes it in the way she likes.
