From Travis Diehl’s article for Dear Dave, magazine:

Jimmy DeSana’s series “101 Nudes” contains 56 black and white photographs. The title apparently references the Disneyfied wholesomeness of the animated film “101 Dalmatians” and evokes the freshness of an introductory course. The portfolio was DeSana’s senior thesis project at Georgia State University in 1972 (although the prints on view are offset from 1991). Each image presents one or two men or women from a small cast—usually completely, bluntly nude. The nudity, rather than erotic, seems like a self-imposed constraint. The photos are coy, largely set in residential rooms and gardens that give detailed atmosphere without saying too much about where, who, or even when the subjects are. This private style of exhibitionism gives the series the feeling of documenting a commune, as if DeSana and his troupe spent their days thinking up new ways to style one of photography’s oldest tropes.

Read the full article
Browse the exhibition “Jimmy DeSana | 101 Nudes” at CLAMP.