Bountiful
In her new work Bountiful, photographer Jocelyn Lee shows us that no body deserves cultural invisibility or the denial of personal pleasure. Her sensual portraits of women of all ages and body types call to question our cultural view of beauty and show us what real bodies look like – in harmony with nature and the cycle of life.
Photography and Text Jocelyn Lee
Winter Venus
I have made portraits of women and girls for over 35 years. I use the camera to explore psychological and physical states of being like puberty, pregnancy, sexuality, ageing, illness and death. My photographs emphasise the tactile and sensual nature of the world and our place, as embodied beings, within its material continuum.
My new work Bountiful focuses primarily on portraits of women in dramatic natural landscapes, always naked. The women in this project represent all ages (the oldest being 85) and body types and are framed, submerged and entangled with the natural world in a way that emphasises our sensual and ephemeral being.
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Quansoo Pond
Jenna with apples
Like all living things, the human body passes through similar stages of youth (bloom), young adulthood (blossoming), maturity (peak fertility), decline, and eventual death. It is neither a good nor bad thing, but simply true. By placing my subjects in the natural world, the photograph calls attention to our corporeal existence, co-dependent among all living things on earth.
As I age, I am increasingly passionate about making portraits of women and girls that do not fit traditional stereotypes of beauty. I am committed to making portraits of women living in real bodies in a culture that is obsessed with vanity and a narrow vision of what is beautiful — including advertising imperatives that encourage plastic surgery to defy the effects of age and gravity, as well as ruthless exercise and diet regimes to control curves and weight gain post menopause or childbirth.
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Susan's Back
The uncut yard, 2016
Raising the Cherry Tree
All my portraits aim to expand our understanding of physical beauty by injecting a broader view of what real women look like into our shared image world (via exhibition, publication and social media platforms like Instagram). Through this work I hope to create a radical empathy for all beings and bodies that encourages the deeper realisation that all physical beings are at their core sensual beings: ageing is not antithetical to sexuality, and physical disability, surgery, age or fuller figures should never be equated with ugliness or undesirability. In short, no body is deserving of cultural invisibility or the denial of personal pleasure.
All of these images are made with a medium format film camera and are the result of a contemplative relationship between myself, my models, and the landscapes within which they are created. The photographs are also an homage to Maine and New England. The landscape of Maine, and sometimes Massachusetts, are the silent partner and stage set underpinning all this work.
The Cove
“Like all living things, the human body passes through similar stages of youth (bloom), young adulthood (blossoming), maturity (peak fertility), decline, and eventual death.”
Milk and Sap
Belly of Summer
“I am committed to making portraits of women living in real bodies in a culture that is obsessed with vanity and a narrow vision.”
July burn, 2016
Woods by the Quarry
Red nails
The Embrace, 2016
Pond at Night. Kate, 2020
Quitsa Pond
The perfect breast
Night Tree
“Ageing is not antithetical to sexuality, and physical disability, surgery, age or fuller figures should never be equated with ugliness or undesirability.”
Ashley upside down in grass
Lisa in St. George
Jane Crasing Wave
Kate as seamonster
About Jocelyn
Jocelyn Lee was born in Naples, Italy and received her B.A. in philosophy and visual arts from Yale University, and her M.F.A in photography from Hunter College. In 2013 she received a NYFA Fellowship, and in 2001 she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
She is represented by Huxley Parlour in London, England, and Flatland Gallery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
To see more Jocelyn’s work, please visit her website or follow him on Instagram
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