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Figure Magazine Fall 1969
Number 59 Table of Contents
4 FIGURE FORUM
5 EDITORIAL
6 MUSINGS
de Dienes
12 THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION OF ANDRE de DIENES I
37 VIGNETTE PORTFOLIO —Rita Bergman
RBK
40 DO MODELS HAVE IT MADE?
Frank Thistle
46 THE CREATIVE IMAGINATION OF ANDRE de DIENES II
70 PHOTOGRAPHY HANDBOOK
Stan Holden
EDITORAL
ONE OFTEN encounters the expression, "the naked truth." Its meaning
is patent, connoting the facts, or "that which is," undisguised by facade,
falsehood, distortion, pretense, or partisan coloring. Such a quality, "naked
truth," has been missing from mankind's evaluation of itself. Indeed, it
might well be said that while centuries of philosophical and scientific probing
have permitted our species increasingly intimate knowledge of the human mind and
its workings, this self-knowledge has been unaccompanied by a similar familiarity
with and acceptance of the human body. Repressive taboos and misplaced morality,
the by-products of in-bred neuroses which centered on a collective refusal to
acknowledge man's sexual nature, have led countless generations to regard their
own flesh, their very bodies as something tainted and indecent.
But "the times they are a changin'," and old conceptions of the unclothed
human body reflecting man's emotional retardation are being revolutionized. Shame
and fear are giving way to a vital new dignity and pride, and pent-up sexual anxieties
are falling along the way as growing numbers of persons discover that their bodies,
as such, are inherently good and wholesome after all.
The revolution is proceeding on many fronts. The avant garde is pushing nudity
and sexual expression far beyond the old limits in the stage and screen arts.
New literature is characterized by unprecedented candor. Fashions are adjusting
to the change in attitudes. Social nudity is booming. Youth exhibits a refreshing
lack of unhealthy inhibitions. Nude photography continues to grow in popularity
and quality, reinforcing its full status as legitimate art.
That's FIGURE's niche — the nude female figure, skillfully photographed
to produce compositions of high aesthetic quality. FIGURE is part of the Old Guard
in this important revolution, but the visual verities in this present issue are
as valid as those of past issues, based as they are on an image of truth —
'the naked truth."
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