The term “body art” often conjures rude images of radical piercings and raunchy tattoos on “modern primitives.” Here artist Jean Paul Bourdier applies his skills to a completely different task: to create haunting photographic images that allow viewers to see the environment from inside out by painting the bodies of models, thereby making them one with the desert landscape. In these photographs Bourdier eschews any digital altering, instead combining primal forms and materials with diverse textures to create exciting new interpretations of timeless nature and temporal body.

PREFACE

Surface Tension: On the Photographic Works of Jean-Paul Bourdier

 by Thomas Zummer

INTRODUCTION

Desert Wash:

Ⅰ. The Hidden Well

Ⅱ. Earthfires, Bodylight, Uncanny Hybrids

Ⅲ. The Creative Gesture, The Liquid Image

 by Trinh T. Minh-ha

PLATES

LIST OF PLATES

ACKNOWLED GEMENTS

BIOGRAPHIES

COLOPHON