The body as an aesthetic object... (book stock)

 Did you ever dream of having an aesthetic body?

In my journey through all those books in the library I found lots of images which I could consider of being  aesthetic, perfect, beautiful.  Mostly in fashion I noticed faultless images of the human figure. James Wedge in his "Painted Ladies" shows attractiveness and charm of his models, enhancing it with the art of hand colouring, this technique allowed him to be selective, unique, deliberately restricted and to show his objects in the most aesthetic way.

Painted Laides, James Wedge (plate 49,27,21)

His images are full of sexuality but with nothing obvious.

On the other hand I looked at a book by Bettina Rheims & Serge Bramly "Chambre Close", this book looks at aesthetic in a different way, very straight forward. These images show women as a sexual object, still in the beautiful way. However, it seems like she is there just for male pleasure, to be looked at over and over, to be a fantasy.

Chambe Close, Bettina Rheims & Serge Bramly, p.35,37

In Ornela Vorpsi's book called "Nothing Obvious", the author shows images which some people could argue are unsightly and impersonal rather than aesthetic. Her images do not show any thing obvious, nothing disturbing. However, a lot is left to the viewers imagination and is dependant on  how we want to see these photographs, or even in what mood we are in.

Ornela Vorpsi, Nothing Obvious

In a similar case we can think about nude bodies of elderly people, Melanie Manchot in "Look at you loving me"presents a series of aesthetic images which show the bodies of elderly women. These photographs are aesthetically complex and it's meaning must be mined.

From my research I realised that the body as an aesthetic object can be looked and understood differently depending on the viewer. The book which really helped me to understand what I see as aesthetic was "LOVE & DESIRE" by William A. Ewing, this book is a collection of images which takes us to the heart of affection, longing, pleasure, sexuality and adoration. Looking through those images I understood that the aesthetic body could be something different to every one of us.