Thursday, August 20, 2009

Nude public pictures in New York?

RAW RIDER: Actress Jocelyn Saldana dares to bare as photographer Zach Hyman snaps her picture on the L train for his portrait series of naked New Yorkers.jocelyn-saldana-zach-hymanA strip club isn't the only place in town you can see a pole dance -- amazed passengers on an L train watched in awe as a naked young woman competed with straphangers for space on a pole.

The performance by actress Jocelyn Saldana, 19, lasted just 30 seconds, and some of the passengers probably thought they were hallucinating or dreaming.

Most were blasé. But one woman started screaming and an elderly man next to her got the shakes.

That free show in mid-June -- as well as similar ones from Times Square to Chinatown -- were the creation of photographer Zach Hyman, 22, whose portraits are never under-exposed.

The photographer and his volunteer models don't spend much time on location. The model quickly disrobes and Hyman gives himself only 30 seconds to fire off 10 shots with his Hasselblad 500 film camera.

Alex Reisner, a 20-year-old Columbia student, had a very appreciative audience when she disrobed in Chinatown.

When Hyman snapped her jumping in the air in the middle of the street, the crowd burst into applause.

"There was so much adrenaline," she said. "I was bouncing around for the rest of the day. I told him I want to pose nude every weekend."

Hyman noted that "photographing females in public is easier than males.

"People see a naked woman and they smile," he said. "They see a penis and they freak out."

Hyman is opening a show tonight at Chair and Maiden Gallery in the West Village featuring 14 of his favorite shots of Nude Yorkers.

His photo shoots involve precautions that not many of his colleagues have to worry about.

Like taking along a lookout to spot cops, keeping bail money on hand, and making sure his lawyer is on speed dial.

"In Times Square, there are cops everywhere," Hyman said. "It seemed that always right before or after the shoot, a cop car would roll by. Thankfully, we never needed bail money. But I have a clean record, so I'm open to the experience of getting arrested."

Hyman says his series was inspired by classic nude paintings at the Met. Like those nudes, he insists his images are not pornographic.

"We all have these parts -- it's one of the unifying aspects of being human," he says.

via STRIPHANGER - New York Post.

... an exhibit of 14 of his images opens Thursday at Chair and Maiden Gallery in Manhattan. - art

Weird. How do you think you would react if you witnessed this? Call the police? Scream? Get the shakes? Smile? Faint? Laugh? Pretend to ignore it?

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