PORTRAIT
Renée Jacobs was born in Philadelphia and currently resides in Los Angeles. She began her career in photojournalism and did freelance work for various newspapers and magazines, including the NY Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. She publishes a book “Slow Burn”, on environmental issues. She then enrolled in law, and practiced for fifteen years as a civil and constitutional rights lawyer. Then, she gives up the legal priesthood to return to photography. In 2006, she received a prize for a nude photograph.
“Being a lawyer, I was very serious, too serious, I even thought that nude photography exploited women. At that time, my life was rather dull, so I started taking photographs of female nudes. I then realized that there was nothing more beautiful and more restorative after fifteen years of conflict and agony. »
Renée Jacobs is one of today;s most famous female nude photographers and her work has been exhibited and published around the world. Her photography, evolving in intimacy, is a sensual and sensory interpretation of the woman, projected to the eyes of the viewer, like a whisper, an intimately divulged secret. A world in black & white, beyond all erotic vulgarity, a dreamlike journey made of fantasies, desire, an unleashing of passions. Sometimes voyeur, sometimes exhibitionist, the woman moves in a natural environment, going outside, showing herself, exhibiting herself and shouting in the eyes of the world in a forbidden release, that she exists, that she lives, proud, powerful and sexual.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
What is the Renée Jacobs style?
“Erotic Journalism”
Your main character trait?
I am very emotional. Im a kindness junkie. I am amazed, delighted and incredibly moved by the kindness. The one you hate? Self-doubt. Im a woman, I do what my hormones tell me to do.
Is there a limit between eroticism and nude?
Id like to think there isn;t. I think bodyscape photography deliberately tries to avoid eroticism, but I think that leaves a limited ability to reach the viewer. We are all erotic beings and if a photographer tries to deny it in photos of naked women, he is missing something fundamental. As one of my role models so beautifully put it “we are all animals, really. »
Your favorite body part to shoot?
The hair ! I love beautiful long hair, fluttering in the wind or in the water. Conversation with Renee Jacobs
Which photograph marked you the most?
Lella, by Edouard Boubat. I have often wondered why everyone still tries to photograph women after seeing this photograph. It says it all: beauty, elegance, desire, lust, intelligence, sadness... An absolutely brilliant photo.
- Find the continuation of Renée Jacobs inNormal Magazine n°6 -