THIS ESSAY CONTAINS NUDE CONTENT – VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK
In Hot Water…
Water, the essential element within all living things… in perpetual motion.
Heat, from the core of the Earth… springs to the surface.
A journey of our body & our community in nature through an inherent interconnection with the sensual, transcendental, metaphysical and intrinsic.
These photographs were created primarily at Breitenbush Hot Springs, an intentional community deep within the forested mountains of Oregon.
This work in progress began in July 2008 and will continue to Incorporate a mélange of cameras, color film, b&w film and straight digital imagery in which several bodies of work are evolving.
This slideshow was created specifically for BURN.
Thank you,
Hillary
editors note: if nudity will offend either you or someone around you, please do not hit the play button for this essay. – david alan harvey
Photographs: Hillary Atiyeh
Website: http://hillaryatiyeh.com
Music: Alice Di Micele
oh my….
brought tears to my eyes…
really pretty
heart felt…
great edit to the music….
beautiful imagery Hilary….
our bodies
our minds
our souls
it has it all for me….
the way each image goes to the next,
also transcends the feeling of water….
BEAUTIFUL work,
and congrats!!!!!
xox
**
Excellent Hillary, i´ve always felt as if water is our original home, the place from were we came from once, and this essay just reminds that one more time.
By the way, i´ve been watching your website, and it seems this is the first story in which you really really commit yourself, and in which a singular style came out of your pictures.
Hope you keep going in that direction!
thanks hillary.. perfect on a scorching hot day in norway.
very sensual – i particularly liked the more obscure photos and the colour interspersed between worked for me.. something about the faces missing really appealed to me.. very natural.. where there was flow of water and soft shapes i felt utterly relaxed.
the´ male appendage made me laugh..
thoroughly enjoyed that set..
big-up burn and the snappers..
r´spec
d
Fuzzy and grainy. Perfect contemporary photography.
One suggestion to the editors. As many folks undoubtedly check this site from work, these essays should be labeled as work friendly or not (i.e., contains nudity).
there are some really beautiful images in there.
ethereal.
I agree, some of these photos are quite beautiful.
There are quite a few images here I really like, as studies in light and form. As stand alone ‘art’ pieces there are more than a few here that work really well, but as an essay i struggle to find the meaning or coherence that i feel they should have. i understand that its still forming and that several different bodies[sic] may come out of it. not sure if its found its identity yet.
Beutifully shot though.
john
Hilary:
Good stuff.
The essay could use a little editing, but I believe you created it for Burn to go with the music.
BTW, how much did you pay Alice for the use of her work?
John, exactly. I understand that the artist has a personal connection to this place, though, so there is likely coherence to her that we can’t connect to from the outside. As an essay I think it needs more textual explanation.
Hi Hillary,
I love your essay, your photographs, the music, the color and black and white together… your work is really beautiful, soft, intimate, wonderful… Thank you !
all the best, audrey
A pagan ode to being together, as naked as innocence.
Did someone say: Lartigue. I jus did.
there’s a lot to like about these images, the study of the human landscape is fantastic, through the prism of lit water is, oh F***, I said ‘prism‘…..
ok, i’d like to say more now, buy i just can’t, i’m too distracted thinking (giggling) about what Bob’s Editorial Guidance is going to be, this has Bob written all over it!! ;-) I’ll Be Back :-)
i wish we could get Bob to record his Editorial Guidance so we could instead hear it, i’m certain his delivery would have the same omnipotent tone as that person the introduces movie trailers :-))
I love these, it doesn’t feel as much like an essay to me as a collection of single photographs. Lots of beauty though. You have a clear style. Wholesome. I like the multiple exposure a 1:45 remaining. It could use editing, but the mix of color and black and white definitely kept it going strong. I was impressed with the single shot posted on Burn a while back, and equally (if not more) impressed with many of these shots. There isn’t much better than being naked in water.
Lovely photographs Hillary, I remember your single photograph (included here) shown previously. I sensed a different atmosphere when I saw male / female together. Possibly due to the different anatomy, muscle structure.
I immediately thought of the Burn Gallery when I saw these photographs.
Joe, yes, I’m with you: I can here Bob B now – “Incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit ….”
Laughing, Bob,
Mike.
@Jim You might consider to work at work, that would solve the problem and save David from imposing each viewers moral standards on the essays.
BOB…
i agree….it seemed like Hillary got a bit too married to the music with words exactly matching the pictures…
JIM…
is the nudity in Hillary’s work seriously prohibido from the work place??? seems awfully innocent to me…as Matt says, “wholesome”…as in the way we are all born….honest question though…
MATT…
i think the word “essay” connotes something quite different than “picture story”….for me, “essay” can indeed be a collection of “singles” that are contextual in their style….it does not necessarily mean they have to “go somewhere”….
cheers, david
Some very nice single images and not bad at all, but to me it’s too many images and too much repetition. I also agree about the music.
Sebastion, many people access the web at work. Just a reality.
David, in the work place, viewing any kind of nudity is considered a form of sexual harassment. And can get you fired. Few would do it deliberately, but if someone walks by and looks over your shoulder, and unexpected nudity pops up, it’s a problem.
“is the nudity in Hillary’s work seriously prohibido from the work place??? ”
Yes, it is, and for the reasons Jim gives. Whenever I see something like this on my workscreen, I hit the red X button in the corner so fast it would make your head spin. Nude pix are grief I dont need.
It’s a fucking good photo essay !, even without a music :). So many talented emerging photographers here on Burn… I know, I will never have the ability to create anything close to this… who cares :)).
just for the record the Bob above isnt me the Bob below ;))))….but it is SUCH a relief to have a new Bob here, i can take a break and go back to earning major coin doing the trailer (as we speak) for the new Terminator flick ;))))))))))))
Hillary: :)))… beautiful and ethereal….i prefer both the abstract elements in combination with the brilliantly funny ones…great to see the HilarYious with the HeavenlY…..lots of gorgeous pics, singles and all…too many to number and no time now….
about the essay will scribble something more later, promise (but not in a loud and booming voice; ;))) )
running
bob (b)
DUH, it’s time you consulted the Workplace Internet Guidelines for the Stupid.
http://www.replicon.com/Articles/City-Staffers-rebuked-over-Net-use-Employees-trying-to-view-porn-gamble.aspx
I guess photo essays and picture stories are two separate things. I meant my above comment in a positive way, that most of Hillary’s photographs stand on their own and need no support from contextual photographs.
I find the taboo of nudity in our (online? global?) society so strange. It’s so sad how the beauty of the human body is something some people feel ashamed of. workplace or not.
In the US it’s called creating a hostile workplace environment and can be a grounds for a sexual harassment filing.
Matt, it’s not a matter of feeling ashamed of the human body in the workplace. It’s a matter of people feeling exploited. Besides, it’s a no brainer. Just say no.
JIM…AKAKY…STOOP
well, i have avoided workplaces my whole life for many reasons, and now i have another…ridiculous..but, i will put a warning up so as not to get anyone in trouble….amazing to me , truly amazing…i guess i can understand how this all came about, but it seems like the workplace rules went a bit overboard…now, the other thing is gents, why has this never been mentioned before since these are not the first nudes on BURN???
cheers, david
David, you are under no obligation to post warnings about nudity. But, I just think it best to let folks know that what they are about to see contains nudity.
On a number of photography related forums I frequent, the routine when posting a link to a gallery containing nudes is to simply state that the link is not work friendly.
But the responsibility is ultimately the viewers.
No one ever made a point of it before. I just figured Burn is your baby and it’s not my job to tell anyone what to do with their projects. So whenever the skin arrived, I just hit the red X. And, of course, I’m a civil servant; nothing aggravates the taxpayers who pay my salary more than the idea that I might be looking at naked women on their dime and on machines they paid for. Strange but true.
JIM..AKAKY
thanks for this … even though i personally think it is a bit over the top, i would not want anyone to get in trouble for any reason…pornography i understand of course…but, i just had no idea about nudity being in any way a form of potential sexual harassment…anyway, i just posted a warning….
cheers, david
Utterly sensual, almost otherworldly body of work, Hillary. The music is a wonderful addition. I found myself whispering oohs and aahs, especially as the more abstracted water bodies passed over the screen. The combination of color and b&w works increases the dynamic range of the whole. My only suggestion is to significantly tighten your edit. With so much repetitive imagery, the strongest photos are getting lost. I believe you could still keep the dancerly flow but make it sing an even more elemental song. I know how hard it is to choose from among such beautiful images but if you do, this essay would absolutely soar!
peace
Patricia
HA!
warning…
warning…
I guess so,
but…..
mmmm
too many thoughts for a post..
our bodies..
I understand laws in the work place,
blah blah blah….
but it seems absurd to me…..
but I get it….
If these women were obese women,
would you have the same response?
just curious….
**************************************
XOX
and AKAKY was serious in Panos’s essay,
about almost breaking his wrist….
I thought it was just a funny story..
fiction….
**
AKAKY
I meant your response to P’s shot of the hotel room…
**
Hillary
Lovely, beautiful, poetic stuff. I agree it could use an edit, but very cool stuff indeed.
Photographs need to speak to us, tell us secrets, hint at other secrets, tell us things words cannot, remind of us our common consciousness.
These photographs do all this. Yes, being naked in the water is amazing, just being naked is amazing. Being naked with others opens your heart. Naked at night, outdoors, in winter. Water…hot water..a womb, melting into it..yes. Sensuality, sexuality, the beauty of that often repressed piece of us, here to celebrate. Bravo, bravo. Well done.
This is a celebration of bodies. (albeit beautiful young female bodies for the most part) I see few faces here, which is fine. Faces would change the message completely.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work.
WARNING…..NAKED PEOPLE
Wow. I get it too Wendy, but ain’t it a sorry ass world where we don’t need warnings for people covered in blood, faces with their noses chopped off, or child soldiers toting guns powerful enough to blow someones head off at 100 yards, but we need warnings for photos depicting people celebrating their bodies and loving each other.
GORDON
my feelings exactly…
**
HILLARY,
I really enjoyed your work. Loved the atmosphere, the feeling, the music. I found your vision poetic, and the whole essay is very refreshing,. These creatures seem to have escaped from a baroque painting of Rubens… just loved it!
Eric
So so pure and beautiful. Congratulations!
People don’t exagerate with morality. Are we adults or kids playing around?
Hillary, I find it very interesting that you have decided to mix various mediums together to create this exceptional work and your work in progress. A lot of the essays I have viewed on Burn (as well as work by other established/emerging photographers) use only black&white or color and rarely incorporate digital and film to produce one body of work. I could be wrong as someone will no doubt soon point out, but that is what I have mostly seen in libraries and book shops.
The photographers tend to stick to one medium for the entire length of the project, then perhaps switch mediums when commencing a new project. Sometimes they will pre-visualize a scene by viewing a digital photo, then use film for the final image. But, is it common to incorporate the two at the same time in the finished product? I have heard that consistency is important in producing a body of work, so does your idea debunk that traditional theory of photography. Perhaps some old style art photographers would be having a cardiac, knowing that someone is experimenting with this! For example, their beliefs in consistency within a project, went all the way to using the same agitation and processing times to perfect negative density for all of the black&white film in the same project. So, your work could be said to be a very large departure from this more traditional approach.
So, this leads me to my question/s: why did you decide to do this? Without second guessing you, did you want to be free of traditional or established notions for producing a project. Did you want to keep the audience guessing or unbalanced. Because I am still trying to guess which photos were film and which were digitally recorded.
Before the advent of digital, art photographers didn’t have the luxury of being able to incorporate information recorded on both emulsion and digital hardrive. Of course, they could mix both color and black&white, but not include film and digital. So, I find it interesting to see you do this. Maybe Hillary or some other Burn members know of projects by other photographers who incorporate both mediums, which are then included in the finished project. Is this a rare phenomenon or quite common these days? I hope all this makes sense.
Because, you see I love the grain or noise on this project and I am having trouble distinguishing one from the other! They have both come up trumps.
Thankyou,
Johan
Johan,
I’m not super-educated photographically, but there have been a few recent fiml/digital projects I’m aware of.
Both Jonas Bendiksen in The Places We Live and Salgado on his latest work, Genesis, both started the prohjects shooting medium format and switched over to digital part way through, with the final images being a mix of the two. Bendiksen in color only and Salgado in black and white of course.
I know I’ve seen a project or two in both color and b&w, none that I remember right now. I just saw a Winogrand book online that was both though and it worked really well together. I want to say it was ’1964.’
Sofia, I am in no way a prude, but if you are going to show a photo essay from a nudist retreat, you should label it as such. Just seems fair to the viewers to me.
Wonderful! It made me think of this:
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius!
Aquarius!
JOHAN…
you are quite correct in thinking that USUALLY/TRADITIONALLY photographers do not mix media in one essay or project…but, why not?? Antoine d’Agata will use whatever film someone gives him or he happens to have in his pocket at the time..fits his life and work….i also mix b&w and color in my current family project and sometimes i will use one because i have run out of the other….isn’t that just life??? certainly it would not work in all projects, but seems right for this one….so far, i have stayed with medium format film, but i could shoot some digi , put the images on to film, and i doubt any of us would see the difference…
last summer i really researched all the possibilities of shooting in digital, but then ending up with a silver negative with the possibility of making traditional darkroom prints ….the best of both worlds…there are many ways to do this so there just are no boundaries…
yes, consistency and visual literacy of some kind is important in the final result of images…but this imo does not have to mean sticking with the same camera or recording medium…
cheers, david
Case in point I just came back from shooting on a film set for a week. ended up shooting two types of tri-x, HP5, pan F, two types of fuji color neg..and some ektachrome. On three different formats 6×7 6×45 and 35mm. Whatever it takes to get the shot tell the story is what i say. All seems to hang together quite well so far.
John
Such a pleasure
@Johan…forgive me if I’m mistaken, but isn’t the medium being used photography? The only difference in my mind between film and digital, b&w and color is the process.
A beautiful piece of work!
I don’t esthetically like seeing B&W and color mixed in the same essay because I think it chops it up and makes it less coherent. But, there is really not any objective reason not to do so. Some will like it, some won’t.
Hillary, I just love this work and you are doing the Northwest proud, please stay with it :))
Jim, just to clarify, Breitenbush is not a nudist retreat. It is an intentional community but also a resort and conference center and is located in some of the most spectacularly beautiful country in the lower 48. Nearby Jefferson Park (not a “park” in the traditional sense) has without question the most beautiful alpine meadows I have ever seen at the base of a 10,500 foot dormant volcano (hence the nearby hot springs). It’s interesting that these springs have historical significance as places of healing and ritual dating back thousands of years. It was a gathering place for many different tribes … and still is. Okay, Oregon tourism bureau out …
Would you prefer the euphemism “clothing optional,”? It is what it is. Call it what you wish.