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But
man never escapes the flesh ; for better or for worse, he
is endebted to it for his movements, his words, his sensorial
perceptions, his thoughts, or simply his encounter with the
other. Such is the power of these nudes photographed by Stéphane
Chavanis that they clash with the usual norms of seduction
and portray bodies which are simultaneously heavy and tranquil,
abandoned, lacking in seduction because lacking in the desire
to seduce. Their faces stare at us, we feel expectation, but
no certainty that something will arrive to fulfill it. This
is not desire. These naked women are in anything but a position
to welcome the other, even if, paradoxically, their suspended
and unaccustomed movement is directed at another. They are
performing, bearing witness not to a pause, but to a questioning
waitfulness. Nudity is tolerable when neutralized by a code
and confined in a place (an erotic magazine for example);
otherwise, the uneasiness it creates ends up highlighting
the social values they disrupt, transforming the viewer into
a voyeur. These nude images convey scarcely any eroticism,
or rather they leave it suspended. No invitation is sensed,
no smile renders them attractive; these women are disquieting,
nothing in their attitude conveys a welcome to the eye
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