When to Look Means to Touch: The Nude in the Lens of Gregory Jacquelin

As known, the light is the main instrument of the photographer. It's particularly true for the French artist Gregory Jacquelin, who uses light and shadow in his sculptural nudes to create amusing optic illusions or to convey the human skin texture, thus bringing us to the point where to look means to touch.

Fig. 1. Haute Couture, 2020 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 2. Haute Couture, 2020 (gregoryjacquelin.com) 

Fig. 3 Haute Couture, 2020 (gregoryjacquelin.com) 

Fig. 4. Haute Couture, 2020 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 5. Haute Couture, 2020 (gregoryjacquelin.com) 

The Entrepreneur of Art

Gregory Jacquelin is a Paris-based art director working for the Viracocha Studio. He specializes in nude, fashion, and portrait photography; apart from this, he is also a web designer, brand designer, and business consultant. Since the About section on his and Viracocha's websites (the latter is a demo) is filled with lorem ipsum gibberish, the info on this remarkable artist is rather scarce. On the other hand, the absence of a detailed CV is compensated with an extensive portfolio, a part of which we examine here. Nevertheless, let's mention that Jacquelin is not a dark horse in the world of photography, as in 2022, his nude shot Dorlis won him the Bronze Award at the Tokyo Foto Awards in the nude category. Judging by his Facebook profile, in 2013, he graduated from the IPAC School Of Management with a degree in Business Development and Entrepreneurship in Creative Industries; the same year, he founded the Push Up Creative Digital Agency. Nowadays, he's busy with other startups, such as the Viracocha Studio, and his personal projects, presented at gregoryjacquelin.com.

Fig. 6. Shibari, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 7. Shibari, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 8. Shibari, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 9. Shibari, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 10. Shibari, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Principle and Prejudice

As Gregory Jacquelin mentions on his website, his goal in art photography is to free the aesthetic principle from the viewer's prejudice, which is quite ambitious regarding the fact that beauty was always based on prejudice, or, to put it more precisely, on an artistic revelation gradually transforming into prejudice (the eye of the beholder is a quite conventional organ, after all). The distinctive feature of some of his projects is indeed the human-like appearance of the models, which is especially visible in his Shibari project. In contrast to the shibari portfolio of another Tokyo Foto Awards winner, Suki Da, the females decorated with ropes in front of Jacquelin's lens are not so blatantly perfect, and the accent is put on the light and color. Yet, in many other projects, like Oda Femina, the photographer still relies on the "old" aesthetics, emphasizing the hips and waist of the well-built beauties.

Fig. 11. Dorlis, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

Fig. 12. Dorlis, 2022 (gregoryjacquelin.com)

In Premium more on Jacquelin's award-winning Dorling series featuring the Carribean equivalent of the succub, the night creature seducing men and women, the unconventional Oda Femina portfolio and dozens of additional examples of his striking photography.

Click HERE for the delicate beauty and sensuality In Jody Frost's photography

Sources: gregoryjacquelin.com; viracocha.studio; The Snake That Dances. Translated by Roy Campbell (fleursdumal.org)