Gary Schneider: Nudes

South African artist Schneider has long been fascinated with the possibilities of photographic portraiture. From his early work, Portrait of Ralph (1975), a fragmented set of extreme, black-and-white close ups, to his 55-panel installation, Genetic Self-Portrait (1997-1998), which used photo microscopy to take images of his organs, his work has manipulated technology and presentation, subject and performance in intriguing and thought-provoking ways. His latest series extends a work he began in 1989, when he started to take long-exposure headshots of his friends using a small flashlight as his only source of light. Employing the same technique, he has now created a series of full-body portraits, each of which takes about an hour to expose. ""Just as a movie unfolds in real time, so I build the image by exposing one part of the person after another with my tiny light,"" he explains. ""If I add more light, it emphasizes that body part; conversely, not enough light and that area never becomes visible."" The result is an eerily mottled image, one that makes its subject look both exposed and embalmed. Some of the darker portraits even appear as if they've been rubbed over with charcoal, although they haven't. Almost all the images are particularly bright around the face, hands and genitalia. This long, black hardcover-elegantly designed to keep the focus on the photos-is a must-buy for any serious Schneider fan.