Tour Link: Tour New Nude City Here
Videos: 107 (400x300, WMV, 1600kbps, ~5 min. per)
Photo Sets: Over 500 (1400x906, ~50 photos per)
Update Rate: Weekly
Exclusive: Yes
Search Engine: No
Richard Kern’s New Nude City is in some ways so visually disparate from today’s popular glamour that it is hard to comprehend that it is owned by the very same company that runs the iconic Hegre Art. Kern’s photos are as gritty and complex as Hegre’s are graceful and clean. Their differences are accentuated by the visual similarities of their sites – despite New Nude City’s rather frustrating refusal to organize its content by the date it was posted.
Kern’s photos are arranged into various subsections of New York City. Each community is represented with photos that illustrate Kern’s own feelings toward the regions. The collective visual narratives paint a vivid portrait of New York as experienced by Kern. The diversity of its immigrants shows up in his selection of models; all races and colors are present. His lens also captures not only the carefully manicured professionals but the endearingly sloppy amateurs as well. His models are relaxed and enjoying themselves – even when they are playing a character for the camera.
The photos tend to be interesting but beautiful with just enough taste of homely to make you look twice. Kern carefully adjusts the photos so they are just enough wrong to keep you nervous. If the model is a natural beauty, then the set will be just a little too dirty. He is just as comfortable using natural light as he is with a full studio setup and that flexibility lets him adjust the setting more. His models are rarely perfect and his lens relishes that extra curve of fat or that surprising patch of hair.
Kern’s New York has never left the pages of the pulp novels of the 40’s. The women are all sexualized; their lives have many ugly problems and his camera shows us it all. While I doubt these models spend their time at home in high heels and garters, you can’t tell it by the photos. When he gets them in front of the camera, they strut and laugh and pout and it all makes New Nude City look like a place you want to visit but with a tight grip on your wallet.
Color plays such a strong role in his photos and is one of the first things that really endeared me to the whole collection. Every set plays with it – from primaries to pastels; each matches or clashes and you can’t help but look at the next photo. He pushes the photos beyond the normal boundaries, so one set will run the gamut from under exposure to over exposure. A simple wood floor might provide a brownish-red backdrop for a light skinned model, or another set will be cast in a sickening green hue as a model washes her body in an old tiled bathroom.
The beauty of it all is that he knows he’s doing it. Like Picasso’s ability to render a perfect replica of the Mona Lisa, Kern could provide every set with the poised, perky perfection seen in Playboy, but it bores him, so he lets the shadows come out and play. He tells the models to try poses that aren’t flattering. He lets the colors fight each other for dominance. Yet through it all, he never goes too far. A rather bland model becomes fascinating because her skirt isn’t on right and that couch’s teal cover is fighting it out with her blouse. Kern understands how to make ugly beautiful.
All those photographers with their distressed sets of rubble and girders that plop a gorgeous model in the middle end up with rather boring photos because the differences are too extreme. All they end up proving is that the girl will look beautiful no matter where she is as long as her hair is that nice. Kern knows to mess with her hair and put her in an only slightly broken set wearing only slightly used clothing.
Another universal characteristic of New Nude City is the sexuality of it all. You won’t find a single model depicted as a virgin. These women are experienced, and they aren’t concerned with hiding it. Legs are spread and sex is present not as a suggestion or even a recommendation but more a fact of life. It is an ever present tone in the sets, projected as much of a fact of life for these models as is ingesting sustenance. Modesty never seems to be on their minds, as the only reason they aren’t showing off their cervix is it is deemed impractical, but maybe if you ask nicely. . .
As you may have noted, New Nude City does have films, but this is a photography site first and foremost. Most importantly, the resolution is tiny – so you don’t get to see things all that well. To make up for it, the videos are very short as well. I can’t help but feel the video is more of an afterthought. Customers must be demanding video because I don’t see any other reason for posting these clips.
The truth is I would recommend joining New Nude City only after you’ve checked out a number of the traditional glamour sites and maybe Suicide Girls as well. Once you’ve traveled those roads, you should be able to better appreciate what Kern is doing with this site. It isn’t just an acquired taste – his photos require a certain amount of patience and experience from the viewer. You need to really look at the content and spend time with it to see what’s going on. It challenges what we accept as pin-up and glamour porn. He takes Cheesecake style and shows us the real hotels it was photographed in. New York’s seamy, sexual underbelly rolls over for his camera, and we have to stop flinching and see the beauty of it. Reasonably experienced viewers should find this easier, but it just simply isn’t as accessible as MET-Art. Considering Kern’s been doing this for 20 years, I’m glad to say I doubt it ever will be.
Check Out Tour of New Nude City
Posted by: Toadsith on Apr 21, 2009
Rebel Tags: Website Reviews, Glamour Sites, Photography Sites
