Andrew Danson Danushevsky's nude photographs arrived unexpectedly
during the Spring of 2002 in a room over-looking Prague's 12 th century
old-town square Staromestske Namesti.
Danson Danushevsky is no stranger to controversy as seen during the
mid 1980's when he convinced all the Canadian Premiers, Prime Minister,
Leader of the opposition and other politicians to photograph themselves
alone in their offices. He then persuaded them to release total control
over their yet unseen, often wacky images. The self-portraits appeared
in Danson Danushevsky's book, Unofficial Portraits (Doubleday) which
turned out to be a Canadian best-seller.
In Prague, Danson Danushevsky's room was given to him when
he was organizing the Broken Ground Exhibition of Canadian photographs
at the renowned Galerie Václav Spala. He soon realized that
he was given one of the city's splendid old rooms that held more than
a fine view. Danson Danshevsky states that "the room possessed what
I can only describe as a potent sense of past occurrence. Something
from that past entered me when I walked into the subdued space. The
room's aged, musty scent of tobacco and old wood held a past I could
not know. Around dawn the next morning, in partial consciousness
an inner voice told me to photograph women nude in the room. It
was just like that."
Through Danson Danushevsky's contacts in Prague's arts community
women came to be photographed and he decided to photograph every
subject who knocked on his door. Though conventional beauty bores him
as do most nude photographs Danson Danushevsky soon became conscious
that his photo sessions were provoking narratives about desire, sexuality,
gender, beauty, performance, relationships, male/female power, spirituality
and in some instances, pornography "I was unprepared for
the self-expression from some of my subjects that came from a mixed
comfort-zone. This was not a planned project. You can't
strategize spontaneity; it just happened and I could not have done
this without dramatic collaborative energy" he says.
Back in Canada Danson Danushevsky refused to show the work
because in his own mind the photographs were incomplete. It wasn't until
a recent move to Halifax from Toronto that he began writing text on
his prints that engaged the nude figures. The text from intimate
events within and beyond the Prague sessions has transformed the images.
I love you woman exhibition opens at Studio 22 on March 29 and continues
through April 19.