I Am Flesh by Roger Weiss
…Ultimate courage to lay bare and offer one’s self without mediation.
“I capture fragments about the human tragedy, documenting failures and yearnings, weaknesses and strengths, pains and joys, rights violated and rights upheld.”
Seeing is a pure, primordial, non-judgmental act; thinking, interpreting and evaluating are subsequent processes arising out of the habit and need of ordering all imagery in our own representation of the world. I Am Flesh is based precisely on this lack of immediate assessment: by expanding its scope, it creates an experience comparable to that of literary haiku, where – in the absence of lexical virtuosity – one has the possibility of following a path through reality.
In I Am Flesh it is bodies who make up reality: 35 naked female bodies meticulously filmed and photographed in their primeval condition to look as real as possible– and surprisingly so. This extraordinary resemblance to reality is achieved through a special technique that has every image made of 47,244 x 32,864 pixels per inch, equivalent to 400 X 278 cm printable area at 300 dpi. No distraction is allowed on the front of these bodies: in their presence, any feeling of attraction, repugnance, bewilderment, excitement or banal initial curiosity fades away as one gets physically closer to the work.
These naked bodies act as a stimulus to search new insights in loneliness and are like an invitation to a confrontation with one’s own self. They reject all pretexts and lies: there is nothing to prove, the evidence is crystal-clear. They are timeless, yet create a space which wrong-foots us. They express the ultimate courage to lay bare and offer one’s self without mediation – which we almost always lack. We are somehow forced to incarnate in their flesh. And without us being aware of the process, they become maps.
These works rub up against us, create the friction that is typical of the human encounter and call everybody to live a relationship in which reciprocal differences are a pre-condition for understanding.
11 of the 35 models were chosen for this feature. Each with a full body view, a head shot and 1 detailed zoom to show the magnitude of detail in the photographs of the I Am Flesh Exhibition.
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If you like this photo essay, you may also enjoy Ulric Collette’s Genetic Blend. View it here.
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Roger Weiss was born in Switzerland and began experimenting with photography from an early age. He graduated with a Mention of Excellence from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, Milan (Italy). His curiosity for the expressions of humankind open him to the path of an artistic approach. Today, he performs as an artist as well as a fashion photographer. To view more of his work, visit his website here.