clothed/Unclothed

In 1990, Laura Aguilar began work on her largest series, Clothed/Unclothed. In this series, thirty-five portraits of individuals, couples and/or threesomes, all close friends of the artist, were portrayed side-by-side, clothed and nude. Unlike Helmut Newton’s Sie Kommon (Naked and Dressed) Paris, 1981, Laura captured subjects who were diverse in their body types, sexual orientation, and relationship to one another. The series begins with the artist herself in Clothed/Unclothed #1. As the series progressed, Aguilar created a study of nude self-portraits and began to gain confidence in being nude in front of the camera. Twelve of these self-portraits were then complied into the large wall mural, 12 Lauras (1993), a collection of these self-portrait studies used for the evolving the series. The diptych and triptych portraits in Clothed/Unclothed are significant works as they pave the way for Aguilar’s celebrated self-portrait in nature series and her international renown.

 The artist’s goals in producing this series were to create visual images that compassionately reflect the diversity of the human experience by focusing on individuals in the lesbian and gay communities and people of color. According to Aguilar, Clothed/Unclothed “represents a collaborated effort between the subjects and myself. I intended to uncover the society assumptions that mask our identities. These images invite the viewer to experience racial, ethnic and sexual identity in the most vulnerable form. The subjects’ express through the camera lens a personal view of reality; that is, a positive sense of physical and cultural being. Challenging societal stereotypes of physical beauty, these images convey deep self-acceptance in spite of how others may view us.”