The body as an aesthetic object.

Firstly, the word aesthetic is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty and taste with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
The female body is viewed aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and many photographers have photographed women for magazines and for their own work.
One magazine which features plenty of beauty shots is Vogue. There have never been any beauty photographers, only fashion photographers who specialised in beauty. In Vogue they made a clear distinction between the two categories. Martin Harrison said 'In this context a beauty photograph signifies a concentration on the appearance of the woman herself, as opposed to what she might be wearing.' (Beauty Photography in Vogue - Martin Harrison. Published 1987. Page 1).

http://clobot.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/guy-bourdin.html
Guy Bourdin.

I then saw a book by William A. Ewing called Love and Desire and thought I would give it a look. The reason being is the body is seen as a form of beauty in many cases, and this may be linked to love and desire in ways. A lot of the photographs in the book are of the body and shown in ways which they might be seen as nice.

Cover to Love and Desire
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/Love_and_Desire/9780500281710

Even from just looking at the front cover of the book you get a sense of beauty in the fact the body proportions all seem to be what most female would like and consider what is beautiful.

The body as an aesthetic object.

     OLYMPIA ΙΙ – Fest der Schönheit or Celebration of Beauty, directed by Leni  

International Journal of the Image; 2011, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p169-193, 25p, 13 Black and White Photographs 

     · Celebration of the physical human body

·  Nazi Propaganda

·  Promote Olympic games

·    Master race

• Repition and Propaganda merge in film to create one of the most interesting cinematic experiences concerning human action. The research on modes of repetition and propaganda emerges from and returns to the film
•       After the industrial revolution the process of repetition has undergone a significant transformation in the context of mechanical repetition. At the machine era division between original and copies is vague and obscure. The chronological distinction of the race of copies emerging from the matrix model cannot be a criterion for hierarchical selection  between generations. All copies are potentially perfectly identical to the model. As a result new ways of examining repetition are sought in the modern world.When copies are produced and reproduced in crowds, the subsequent result then creates a massive gathering of data, which is governed by new conditions and rules. This is the basis for the construction of the image of propaganda space both in film and architecture. The analysis of the film and its fragments reveals the structure of propaganda space through the repetitive filming of monad units defining as they move their individual space. Abstraction applied they form the space of the total group, a condition that overpowers the units and breaths a life of its own where plurality and transformation compose the new rules of its being. The unit submits to the group. This submission is total and cathartic. The athletes are human paragons and they have conformed to the totality. Space is formed to submit their retreat from individuality.

International Journal of the Image; 2011, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p169-193, 25p, 13 Black and White Photographs

International Journal of the Image; 2011, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p169-193, 25p, 13 Black and White Photographs

•       The rhythmic gymnastics extract starts at minute 32:24 of OLYMPIA II and ends at 33:33. It shows a public display of rhythmic gymnastics’ exercises, which were probably choreographed by the renowned German choreographer Heinrich.. The position of the extract in the flow of the film, which is a sequence of fragmented scenes of sports events, is immediately after the award of the German military pentathlon winners
•      The extract of rhythmic gymnastics exercises lasts 69 seconds. The exercises are simple demonstrations of rhythmic gymnastics that German female athletes perform dressed in a uniform manner with or without any instruments. They are all white, young, and fit but no champions of any kind, not even necessarily professional gymnasts or dancers. These simple, everyday girls could be ancestors of our school gymnastic displays or celebrations as on the film’s occasion of a major sporting event.   

Vanessa Beecroft

The work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models (often nude). At her performances, video recordings and photographs are made, to be exhibited as documentation of the performances, but also as separate works of art.

Vanessa Beecroft, vb45.9043.ali, 2001, performance at the Kunsthallie Wien, Vienna, image courtesy of Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft, VB67_kor4, 2010-2011, image courtesy of Galleria Lia Rumma, Milano-Napoli

Vanessa Beecroft, VB48.014.dr, 2001, performance at the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, image courtesy of Vanessa Beecroft

       

•  The primary material in her work is the live female figure, which remains ephemeral, and separate. These women, mainly unclothed, similar, unified through details like hair color, or identical shoes, stand motionless, unapproachable and regimented in the space while viewers watch them. Neither performance nor documentary, Beecroft’s live events are recorded through photography and film, but her conceptual approach is actually closer to painting: she makes contemporary versions of the complex figurative compositions that have challenged painters from the Renaissance onwards. Beecroft’s more recent work has a slightly more theatrical approach; the uniforms are period clothing, not nudity, and some of her performances include food, while others have featured men in military attire.

http://www.itsliquid.com/featured-artist-vanessa-beecroft.html