Artistic Identity Studies Edit
Sebastian Kempa Juxtaposes Clothed and Nude Images

With a simple and descriptive title, “Naked People,” German photographer Sebastian Kempa’s project consists of photographing all kinds of people in their clothes and out of them. Clothes help an individual define themselves. When you compare the two images, there is a change in your perception of the person you see.

Until now, there isn’t anything especially original about the project. What makes the “Naked People” project more complex than at first glance is Kempa’s use of a technological support—the project website.

When the website is linked, you see each person clothed, and a brief profile with their name, age, job, hobby, and country. Then you click on the picture, and the clothes fade away until the nude person appears.

The project seems to reflect a globalized and mediated world, and the change that has consequently occurred in the way people relate to each other. Social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook serve as matchmaking and “friendmaking” portals that allow people to meet who could never do so without these new technologies.

We are then a fixed identity, an image, a profile that defines only a small part of each person. The project confronts these virtual and abbreviated versions of a personality to the most intimate self—the naked body.