Curve
(2003)
For Richard Kern the troublesome line dividing the "legitimate" representation of the nude in art from its less aesthetic use in pornography is there for him to cross. He demonstrates a proclivity for photographing naked young women in suggestive poses, but does not only portray them as objects for exploitation. The models playacting for his camera survive each session with their distinctive personalities intact. That individuation brings Kern's pictures closer to portraiture than pornography. It is, in fact, his ability to work with one foot in each camp that sets him apart from both.
In Kerry before the ,Shoot, the subject, seen in what we might call a full-length mug shot, makes a coyly self-conscious Eve. Like the distressed
nymphet in Kerry's Bloody Nose, she is no kind of sex goddess; indeed, Kern exults in her very ordinariness. Vicki on the Sink, on the other hand, invites us to look openly at what we're not supposed to have permission to see-the body of a young girl too tender for prying eyes. Or is she? The uncertainty she creates in the mind of the viewer is partly what makes the image so compelling. That should settle the case for Kern: art takes nothing for granted; pornography never leaves room for doubt. -LY
