The facial expression of the body by Camilla Storgaard

Camilla Storgaard is a Danish artist based in Berlin. Her experimental vision on the body, gender and sexuality takes you under the skin of the Berliners and follow closely the contours of their messy existence. Her figurative nudes form her images into new story telling photography; showcasing the urban life, women, queers and club kids, culminating with the sometimes overwhelming significance of the landscapes and environments, where her scenes take place.

“In the shadows of their curves, the pigments of their skin and unique bodily features, Camilla Storgaard chose to portray a series of young women in the reproductive age. Women are the victims of daily body-shaming, sexism and objectification in our modern society. Misogyny, objectification and sexism is referred to as “the male gaze” in art and media, which is a representation of women and their appearance seen solely from a masculine point of view. The male gaze aims to support masculine sexual fantasies and is eager to keep the masculine dominance intact, while “the female gaze” is supporting the feelings and the reality of the subject, over the erotic fantasies. By doing so the female gaze works to de-objectify the female body, turning them into unique individuals free of male-projected fantasies.”

“In the project “Kroppens eget ansigt”, which in English translates best as “The facial expression of the body”, Camilla has created a safe space for women to be proud of their own bodies and show what the female body looks like in all its diversity. This has resulted in a series of female nudes embodying the female gaze in the aim of creating her own vision and portraiture of how women wants to be portrayed, free of masculine interference. The main purpose of this project has been to transform the female nudes in art into somebody women can relate to, instead of somebody who makes them feel alienated towards their own bodies The project makes strong connotations to the oil paintings of the renaissance and baroque, integrating the sensual side of curvy bodies into photography, of which the oil paintings most often embodied.”