I have been working with the figure as the primary focus of my images for more than ten years. The figure is used as a part of my visual language to create a single-image narrative. The addition of simple props and dramatic lighting in the studio create a stage-like feel, with the viewers very much in evidence. The figure becomes an actor, and the viewer should see a narrative.
The viewer's presence is integral to the image. At what point is a viewer a voyeur, observing the results of the photographer's actions and his degree of control over the subject and the view presented? The photographer is, in essence, a voyeur sharing images with the viewer, especially with the unclothed figure and its inherent eroticism.
In my twenty five years of photographing the figure I have mainly used a 4x5 view camera and silver gelatin prints to produce my work. It is only in the last couple of years that I have begun using digital media to produce work. I still shoot film with each session and model. The majority of my work is matted and framed.
Important to my art is the exploration of the viewer/voyeur aspect achieved through the variance of the presentation. In the work I sometimes employ some methods of optical illusion. Images have been distorted so that when constructed into three-dimensional objects there is only one correct vantage point. I am thus forcing the viewer to look at the object as something other than a photograph of a unclothed woman. These pieces were inspired by an exhibit of Rennaisance paintings on wooden cones that I saw in Columbus, Ohio more than twenty years ago.
I also create mural sized images varying in size from 13"x40" to 40"x 7'. Once again the viewer is challenged when presented with an image that often dominates the space it is exhibited in. In contrast I have also made "peepers", small keychain viewers like the stanhope viewers of Victorian years, in which the viewer must peer through a small lens to see the image within. Similarly I have constructed tabletop viewers with larger lenses that are use to magnify images on 3"x4" glass plates. I have also utilized these glass plate images in creating reliquaries in which the image is paired with a glass tube containing a souvenir from the photography session with the model, such as a lock of hair, or piece of ribbon.
This exploration of presentation is an ongoing process in addition to the traditional methods of matting and framing that I employ. Combining the figure images with unique methods of viewing push the envelop of being a viewer of art into that of being a voyeur. I enjoy challenging the viewer, and the control that I have over how my images are seen.
— Craig M. McMonigal
