Ornela Vorpsi: Nothing Obvious [Hardcover]

Ornela Vorpsi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

A woman in a space, all by herself, encountering the ever-shifting boundaries between outside and inside, flesh and soul, present and past-Ornela Vorpsi's photographs trace experiences of interior spaces, as seen from the outside, with a rare sensual precision. At a time when the faux-casualness of snapshot aesthetics has become the hallmark of authenticity, Vorpsi draws on her knowledge of painting and performance art to create intense tableaux-erotic, existential, and pure. Vorpsi uses great skill to lay bare emotional abysses and intensities that few have the courage to face. Lush colors and harsh blacks and whites, the body's physicality and the inquiring mind's restlessness: Vorpsi seamlessly incorporates these apparent contradictions in her work, leading the viewer into a labyrinth of torments and desires. Vorpsi's use of photography and new media is not guided by the will to create yet just another cheap thrill. Her truly new and unique images, firmly grounded in her familiarity with art history, force us to face up to the erotic and spiritual crises of today.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3908247322
• ISBN-13: 978-3908247326
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,437,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A different view, March 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Ornela Vorpsi: Nothing Obvious (Hardcover)

This is a brilliant collections of female nudes from a non-traditional perspective. The photographer does not fall into the usual traps of "the body as sculpture" or as a sexual object on display. These images are not intended for male voyeurs, but are more a reflection of how women actually are and how they inhabit there own bodies. If you're looking for Richard Farber or David Hamilton, this is not the book for you. If you are interested in exploring a vision that does not pander to sexuality, but simply acknowledges it, this is an excellent place to start.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars portraits and self-portraits, March 20, 2002

By 

brenda (Paris) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ornela Vorpsi: Nothing Obvious (Hardcover)

I'll borrow this essay written by Gianni Romano for Zoom magazine, it was helpful to me: "How can we but agree with Ornela Vorpsi: nothing's obvious anymore. The relentless search for new ideas should probably not be associated with the fine arts, and even photography at this point - like the more traditional media - continues to surprise us with its ideas rather than any technical advances. It is here that we must begin our renewed search for beauty, the one we had lost sight of among the pixels that inundate our daily lives.
Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1968, Ornela Vorpsi studied art at the Brera Academy in Milan before making her home in Paris. Her first monograph Nothing Obvious, published by Scalo, is one of those books which seems destined from its first edition to find a place on contemporary photography's shelf of top hits, in company with Richard Billingham's Ray's a Laugh and Martin Parr's Boring Postcards.
Nothing Obvious is a book of female portraits and self-portraits. In most of the images the women are seen alone and in empty spaces that are between being interior or exterior, memory or substance. The models are not professionals but simply friends of the photographer, friends who are presented as "badges" of personal experience rather than objects for study. There is, in fact, nothing in any way passive about their poses: the girls are the protagonists of their own spaces, and in spite of their being nude, we are unable to observe them with a seductive eye. Although the images are not without a certain sensuality, they provoke more than anything thoughts of one's own past experiences, as is the case with Francesca Woodman's work as well."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ornela vorpsi, September 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Ornela Vorpsi: Nothing Obvious (Hardcover)

nothing obvious of ornela vorpsi is a great book. this kind of picture is really rare. the emotion of this picture brings you closer to woodman's photography even in complitely different language.
the images are denseand strong. she is a real artist!