Nice Legs - A fascination with slender female legs in high-heeled shoes unites perhaps millions of men. Images of this kind show up most often in fashion photography, as a vehicle for displaying stockings, shoes and the style associated with them - consistently, for example, in classic works by Guy Bourdin or Helmut Newton, whose subtle treatment of the fetish aspect of women‘s shoes is well known. But the subject matter is so timeless and untethered to genre that it is also present in contemporary photo art, as evident in the work of Benjamin Füglister. Surprising is his chosen perspective: Füglister sets his camera on the ground, cutting off the model‘s image at the hip or navel. The void of the foreground - usually the unadorned floor of the environment - is sometimes over-emphasized, while the protagonists, lacking head or torso, are simultaneously depersonalized. This enigmatic trick of form leaves space for the viewer to make his or her own associations, while still underlining the conceptual framework of the sequence. What remains unusual is the abundance of photos, which are all similar and yet individually composed. The photographer skillfully keeps the viewer in suspense. Whether Füglister directed his models to walk past his camera, or quasi ambushed them, making the series one of „stolen“ pictures, remains an unanswered question. At times the viewer is reminded of a flight attendant‘s quick pace to the airport gate, and others of a classic fashion show catwalk. Indeed, it is usually the street scenes that capture the fleetingness of the moment and bustle of the urban fabric, while simultaneously fading into a conscious blur. But the interplay – of public spaces, radical cropping and an almost obsessive focus on the slim legs of the presumably young, Japanese women –is clear. In this substantial photo series, Benjamin Füglister scrutinizes contemporary conventions in fashion imagery using a traditional, Western beauty ideal, delivering quite an interesting, enticing and still intellectual game for us to engage in. - Matthias Harder, curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin
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Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Untitled, from 脚/LEGS, 2009
Cut down of the exhibition 脚/LEGS by Benjamin Füglister at pep+noname gallery in Basel Switzerland in February/March 2010. All exhibited images were taken in November 2009 in Fukuoka, Japan during Füglisters stay at Studio Kura in Nijo.
Documentary of Benjamin Füglister's exhibition at the IAF Shop gallery in Fukuoka, Japan 2009. On display are LUMINOUS.RADIANT, H1N1/Prêt à porter and LEGS. All three series were shot in Japan in 2009.