I am in love, it was love at 1st sight. I looked at his work and i went weak in my knees. I flopped in my chair when i read his book Night Chicas and couldn't move. I was enthralled, i touched the curves of his images as I touch a Ferregamo shoe- the divinity I feel is impossible to describe. I wanted to kiss him squarely on his mouth when I met him in Mumbai. he was a mirror image of everything that reflected in his work: passions and feelings - feelings that were frozen, very mercilessly, almost sadistically.
Demeter thinks otherwise, she frowns at his work, unable to connect with the crudeness his lens captures. But sitting on the adjoining sofa, i was dying to hold him, his English was incomprehensible and his 'i am new yorker' made him look like an arrogant prick- although a good, kind hearted one. He put up with the minimals that were offered to him here by the certain group he had km for. My brave self felt bound by the presence of too many people in the same room to do anything that would make me smack my head in future.
Hans is a piece, he has the vision and the mood to capture an emotion that lies beyond the obvious smile or frown. And most importantly he understands and respects art. Art that is so fluid and blurred and Art that is metamorphosing into forms unfamiliar and traversing beyond the boundaries defining us as humans. Be it going back to roots or being trapped in professions, the finery in his shooting an anorexic model with a watch and shooting an anorexic prostitute with a raccoon - zillion worlds apart, is identically passionate and almost sexually satisfying!
The latest 'In progress' book is smooch worthy, it may raise eyebrows but it's pure power. The power we have to deconstruct and reconstruct the way we believe we should be! Have a look on his website.
BODY TRANSFORMED
Neleman’s “Body Transformed” explores how body modification, for spiritual, ritual, tribal, or sexual reasons, reflects a myriad of cultural influences, all of which are united by a deeply embedded passion to overcome the human body’s natural limitations and to worship the metamorphosed being. This book documents the growing cult of “transforming” through extreme modifications including scarring, burning, implanting, cutting and amputating. Body Transformed has a classic uncompromising photographic direction with an inspiring sculptural angle, a serene approach to a dark subject matter.
Here are radical subjects who are testing the limits of body aesthetics
through extreme modifications. Driven by complex objectives such as visual ornamentation, improvement of sexual perception and sometimes an exhibitionistic desire to control pain, they worship the metamorphosed being.
Neleman’s “Body Transformed” explores how body modification, for spiritual, ritual, tribal, or sexual reasons, reflects a myriad of cultural influences, all of which are united by a deeply embedded passion to overcome the human body’s natural limitations and to worship the metamorphosed being. This book documents the growing cult of “transforming” through extreme modifications including scarring, burning, implanting, cutting and amputating. Body Transformed has a classic uncompromising photographic direction with an inspiring sculptural angle, a serene approach to a dark subject matter.
Here are radical subjects who are testing the limits of body aesthetics
through extreme modifications. Driven by complex objectives such as visual ornamentation, improvement of sexual perception and sometimes an exhibitionistic desire to control pain, they worship the metamorphosed being.
‘Body Transformed” challenges our moral boundaries, to ultimately come to a better understanding of this new self.
