Photography byFlorian Hetz
What is your relationship with casual nudity?
Florian HetzLike many Germans, I’m totally fine with it. I never understood why people can’t differentiate between nudity and sexuality. It feels a bit perverted, like there’s something really wrong with those people.
The way you depict the body in your close-up photographs is distinct. Can you tell me a bit about your process and how you decide what parts of a person’s body to capture?
Florian HetzIt all depends on the person I take photos of. Generally, I prefer to meet the sitter a week before the shoot in a neutral setting like a cafe to talk and get to know each other. Posing nude in front of a camera is a very unnatural thing for many people and part of my job is to create an atmosphere where the sitter forgets about that and feels relaxed.
By getting together before and having a chat, I offer the sitter a chance to ask questions about the process and to get to know me — but also for me it is a great way of getting an idea of the person and finding out what is possible or interesting for them.
Some don’t want photos of themselves with frontal nudity and their face together, others might feel insecure about hips, or a scar. The more I know before the shoot, the better. When it comes to the shoot itself, I don’t want someone to pose for me. The more natural someone is in front of the camera, the better. I walk around a lot and basically take a close look. Normally I see things in a person that I’m interested in and will focus on that.
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Become a MemberHow do you choose and find the people who sit for you?
Florian HetzI only work with people that contact me and the majority of them have never been naked in front of a camera. Often I hear from people that they would love to sit for me, but don’t think they were my type. And all I can say is: I don’t have a type. There’ll always be something that I will be interested in. Everyone brings their individual beauty to a shoot and my job is to translate that into a photo.
We had a brief exchange about what’s considered erotic vs. casual nudity. When going through the images you sent I found myself wondering where that line is. Did you think about the distinction at all when making selects?
Florian HetzErotic is a difficult word. What is erotic for me might not be erotic for you. And for me it’s not easy to draw a line between erotic and casual nudity. Casual nudity can be found in a lot of unintentional erotic moments. Whereas often the depiction of erotic nudity can feel completely unsexy to me. And an erection doesn’t necessarily need to be pornographic. If we are honest, there’s something very natural about it. And that is my dilemma.
So, I chose photos that show intimate moments. To some they might feel very erotic, others probably see them as depictions of everyday moments. And both are totally fine.
Shadow play is a frequent element in your compositions. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Florian HetzI live in a city where about five months of the year the light is really bad. And I’m talking about no blue skies whatsoever. Berlin winter is not difficult because it is cold, but because of the lack of sunlight.
Photography is a medium that needs light. Without light photos turn out very flat. Some like that as a stylistic element, but I don’t. Sculpting with light and shadows enables me to create a depth, bring out colours and hide things. Someone wrote on Tumblr once: “Sometimes in porn I see a Caravaggio painting.” And that would be the best case possible for me.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Florian HetzMy new book AIKO was just released at Paper Affairs in Vienna and it’s a very personal book about last year where I introduce a body of work that many people don’t know yet. It’s an invitation into my everyday life with all its observations, paired with the handful of shoots I had with people. Available here.
About the Artist
After a severe encephalitis put an abrupt end to his professional life as a producer for theatre, Florian Hetz started to keep a visual diary to counteract the memory loss as an after-effect of the brain inflammation. He began documenting his daily life during the recovery. Gradually the process of taking diary photos shifted to creating photos that were based on his memories, or what he had to trust his memory was.
Much of the Berlin photographer’s work from that time zooms in on those memories by using the close-up as a stylistic medium. By closing in on seemingly normal everyday moments and bodies, he elevates them and translates them into his own hyper-focused, visceral language.
During an artist residency at the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, Hetz started to introduce landscapes and still-lifes into his work and began to engage with natural light. His second book “ZWEI” combines clean, factual studio work from Berlin with warm plein-air work from Los Angeles. His book “AIKO” introduces a more intimate body of diary work to the public for the first time. Hetz lives and works in Berlin.
