On the Meaning of the Naked Body in Maria Kotylevskaja's Photographs - NSFW

The Berlin photographer Maria Kotylevskaja tested our LomoChrome Purple and LomoChrome Metropolis Film and together with model Maria she created unique and fairytale-like photographs. We talked to her about her experience with the films, the resulting photographs, and the meaning of the naked body in her pictures.

Hello Maria and welcome to Lomo Magazine, can you tell us a little bit about your Photography?

I love strolling the streets with a camera as much as I love working with a model in front of my lens. I like naturalism and simplicity in my pictures, which is why I put a special focus on nude photography in my free works. Nudity for me is first and foremost exactly that: natural. Far too often the naked female body is equated with eroticism, which is why it is important to me, as a woman behind the camera, to work against that stigma.

How did you discover analog Photography? What do you like most about it?

My mother was a passionate Photographer and passed this on to me. I got my first compact camera from her in primary school and when I moved out I got her beloved Smena 8m, which she had used to document my childhood back in Russia.

One restricts oneself, takes much more time to look closely, and also in retrospect the pictures have a higher value for me.

Since the film with its characteristics already gives a special look to the pictures, one concentrates more on the picture contents than on an elaborate image editing. I feel like this makes the Photographs rather timeless.

Which equipment did you use?

For the LomoChrome Purple Film I borrowed the Yashica t3 of my model. She likes to be behind the camera herself and photographs preferably analogue. Since I find it exciting to work with different cameras, I was very happy when she offered to bring her camera for the shooting.

I liked the option to use a flash and I also like to have uncomplicated and light cameras on site, especially because I had a Hasselblad 500cm with me for the medium format pictures with the LomoChrome Metropolis. I have the Hasselblad on permanent loan from my father-in-law, who is also a photographer and has provided me with a selection of equipment. Since we took the pictures in the evening, I wanted to have a lens which lets through as as much light as possible, so I chose the Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8.

What was the idea behind the shoot? Did The Films have an impact on it?

I developed my ideas according to the films. I immediately thought of Maria as a model, because she likes to experiment with analogue as well and is a very creative person.

It was a very cloudy day, but every now and then the sun came out, so some pictures have warmer tones than others. The green tones particularly convinced me throughout the stretch and in retrospect I would have preferred to take more pictures towards the shore. Next time I would definitely want to try the film in a lake with a bit clearer water or at the sea to see how the colours behave there!

For the LomoChrome Purple I wanted to play a lot with colors. To emphasize the lack of green in nature, I wanted to dress Maria in green, so we decided to use blue in the Outfits first. I find this color reversal super exciting and would recommend to everyone to try it out, especially a royal blue will later appear especially beautiful in green.

I especially like the sunny corners and rather yellowish grasses appearing so pink. These surreal landscapes have particularly impressed me! In the photos the chosen clothes were a bright pink in the original and formed with the reversed yellow a nice contrast. To bring even more colours into the game, I would bring a red lipstick next time. This would prevent yellowish lips on the pictures.

Have you experimented with different lighting conditions? What do you think of the results?

Especially with the LomoChrome Purple film we had the most different corners and lighting conditions and I am really positively surprised how well everything fits together in terms of colour. Backlight, direct sun, flash, shadow – I find that everything has its charm and there is no lighting situation I would advise against. But if I had to decide, I would prefer the pictures in the shadow. That's also where one of my favourite pictures was taken.

The artificial pose fits perfectly to the artificial landscape, I especially like the soft pink tones as a contrast, the green in her top stands out well. Since this is the first time I've used an experimental film, I was particularly impressed by the purple effect. It is great to create such dream worlds.

Many thanks to Maria Kotylevskaja for the wonderful photographs! Check out her Instagram and her Website, collect inspirations and leave a little love!
Many thanks also to model Maria <3 Follow her Instagram and her Website so you won't miss any of her work!

written by alinaxeniatroniarsky on 2020-08-14 #culture #news #people