Stieglitz, O'Keeffe, body of work

Stieglitz and O’Keeffe
The photo graph of Georgia O’Keeffe’s torso by Stieglitz is a wonderful twist on the “body” of work by the two artists. I have for a long time loved the upclose paintings the centers of flowers that O’Keeffe has produced. I always thought it was odd that some people were offended by her art work. I never really saw a great resemblance between the center of a flower and a the female genitalia. Similar to the art of Edward Weston, O’Keeffe’s work could be mirroring nature and the human nude. I think it an odd idea that people would be humanizing nature, where as I would think as it more naturalizing humans. Nature is not vulgar or obscene. People’s social constructions are what governs this idea of what they think to be obscene, not the natural world itself.
That being said, I think that it is very moving that O’Keeffe’s lover documented her body. One’s body is a very intimate and personal thing and being able to capture images of it and sharing them with the world is bold and touching. I find a kind of naive sweetness in the boldness of this action, similar to the way I find young children swearing. I think that the human body is a very beautiful thing and to show one’s body and progression of aging is wonderful. It takes guts to show one’s guts starting to sag and hang feeling the weight/wait of gravity and time.