Art in the Raw
The challenge one nude model, 30 minutes, 10 photographers. The results are on display in a wildly popular exhibit in Carleton Place.
 
The annual Carleton Place nude challenge has the following components: a secret address, one nude model and 10 photographers, each armed with one camera, one lens and one roll of film. Each photographer is given the address only moments before he or she must be there. Each photographer has only 30 minutes to shoot the model. And throughout the process, Alan Mirabelli is photographing the photographers photographing the models.
 
The resulting images of the model, plus the process of the model being shot by the photographers, are turned into an exhibition at Lux Gallery in downtown Carleton Place. This year's show is the second annual one. Nude in the House opened last weekend and runs until Feb. 10.
 
"People go nuts," said Janice Bowie, who runs the Lux Gallery and Lux Photographic Services Inc. with her husband Michael Bowie. "Last year they were lined up on the street trying to get in."
 
There was a full house again at this year's opening.
 
The 10 photographers in this year's show are part of a collective called Photography Matters. They are all from the Carleton Place and Almonte areas. The membership includes Mirabelli, Dale Dunning, Michael Bowie, Robin Andrews, Sue Cressy, Len Dickenson, Susan Fisher, Bev Relfe, Marc Rochon and Peter Wright. (Mirabelli, by the way, also has a splendid exhibition of nature photos planned for the Ottawa Art Gallery rental studio in February.)
 
This year's location was the bare -- pardon the pun -- performance space in Old Almonte Town Hall. Almonte's original town fathers must be spinning in their graves at the thought of a young, nude, tattooed man, identified only as Andreas from Perth, being chased around a meeting room by 10 photographers. Mirabelli says many of the photographers felt "intimidated" at the prospect of shooting a nude model. Some had never done it before. But Andreas, despite being a novice, helped the photographers to relax, Mirabelli said.
 
The model did receive a workout. He was forced to stand on his head, sit in uncomfortable positions, swing a baseball bat, hug the wall and do dozens of other activities as the 10 photographers used their ingenuity to create a mood and tell a story. The results vary from the conventional to wonderfully unforgettable.
 
Dale Dunning created a mysterious narrative by placing himself in a photo. He stands in the background staring through a sunlit window. The model is in the foreground staring defiantly at you, the viewer. Seeing that photo is like having walked into some private moment you weren't meant to share. The tension in the photo grabs all who walk by.
 
Robin Andrew used humour in her shots. One shows a tiny image of the seated model against an immense, solid black background. The elfin-sized model is laughing. It's an infectious laughter.
Some of the most memorable and dramatic photos, however, are those of Mirabelli as he captured his fellow photographers working with the model.
 
These are like photographs of a play, with two actors on the stage working their way through a complicated script.
 
Paul Gessell, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2006