JACK WEGENER PHOTOGRAPHY

 

 

 

 

 

Fine Art Nudes & Boudoir


 

I am a professional photographer who has specialized in artistic nude photography since 1975. In addition to producing original art photographs of models I accept private commissions from clients who wish to obtain prints of themselves but who do not want the images ever displayed or sold publicly.  Photography of the nude and its related genre, boudoir, is not the only photography I do but it is what I am best known for and what I have devoted much of my adult life to creating.   I am based in Savannah, Georgia (USA). 
 

I am an artist who is dedicated to creativity and freedom of expression.  From the time I picked up my first camera in the early 1970s I have adhered to professional ethics and standards that will never be compromised. This site contains only a small representation from my archives of my work with the nude figure.  All of the photography is original and created by me. All of the images are created on film. I do all of the darkroom processing and printing by hand.  With regard to the handcolored prints, all of the coloring is done by me one print at a time using oil paints and/or pencils. There are no computer-generated effects on my photographs. All art images and portraits on this website are actual scans of my original photographic prints. I do not own a DSLR camera and conceivably never will.
 


 

Photograph of a nude created in 1976 Photograph of a nude created in 1980 Photograph of a nude created in 1989

 

 

The Purpose of this Website
 

 

This site is my personal statement from living over sixty years. It is not a polished e-commerce site. It differs from many art sites published on the web. It is a proclamation regarding my work and an honest reflection of who I am as a person. I believe I am a pioneer in the art nude genre in the history of Southern photography having begun my work in the early 1970s in Savannah. But I ultimately failed in my attempt to change the general public's perception of nude photography. Despite that, I have always maintained my integrity and conviction in what I am creating.

 

In American society it has always been difficult to find venues that display any imagery, particularly a photograph, that depicts nudity. The establishment of the Internet has allowed serious artists like myself to continually exhibit creations without the need for approval from potentially timid, conservative-minded owners of retail space in the real world. Additionally, as the creator of the work, I am able to interact directly with people who are interested in my photography. And clients wishing to commission me can obtain a sense of my photographic style and career experience without having to first meet me at my studio to view portfolios and albums as was the case in earlier times.

 

Nudity in the United States is frequently attached with a stigma of immorality or suspicion. I have been a
first person witness to this since I began photographing professionally in 1975. Very little, regrettably, in
attitude from the general populace has changed over those years. I think it's a sad reflection of a culture. I
know from experience that people, both female and male, wish to sometimes acquire creative, quality
imagery of themselves which contain elements of partial or complete exposure of the body. I have always
viewed this as a reasonable and healthy desire while acknowledging that it can be difficult to locate
qualified photographers who can produce such  imagery. While I am disheartened by the often immature attitude of people in regard to the human nude I accept that many people have views that vary from mine.

 

Photography has been transformed by the wide acceptance and use of digital cameras. It is likely that the majority of photography being displayed online today is created with digital cameras. Most art galleries no longer have restrictions on exhibiting and selling digital photographs. I am committed to carrying on the tradition of film-based photography and darkroom processes.

 

Seldom have I followed a crowd - not intending to be rebellious, just that my choices usually felt more natural and comfortable to me. After decades of photography, I still have an affinity for film, for darkroom processing, and for handcoloring with oils and pencils rather than with software programs. I believe in the art of creating by hand a photographic print whether as black-and-white or handcolored. Each is truly an individual handmade creation by the person who composed the image, released the shutter, developed the film, made the print, dry-mounted it, and cut the overmat for it.  Unintentionally, my shunning of digital capturing and production helps to set my work apart from many other contemporary photographers.

 

I am in an on-going process of printing selected negatives one at a time from my archives which go back to

 the early 1970's. The images displayed on this current version of my website represent only a tiny portion of those archives. Some are personal favorites, some have become popular as collected images, some are known as my signature images, and many have never been displayed publicly until now. For me, this is a slow process since I do everything myself. I am creating solely with film and traditional wet darkroom processes. The computer side of things is definitely not my strong suit but I do all of that too myself. This website was designed and built entirely by me in keeping with my practice of doing everything myself. As I grow older I realize that the  majority of my existing film negatives will never be produced as definitive archival prints, at least not by me. I simply will not have enough time to print every negative I wish to. Initially, I am wanting to present an overview of my work through the years as my approach, style, and technique often fluctuated. I intend to gradually expand the galleries as I continue to print my existing negatives. And I will add more current photography as I produce it. But the darkroom work is laborious and then too my scanning and overall computer skills are admittedly weak so it will be a slow, gradual process. On the enlarged view of all my images there is a date following the print's title. That date is the year that the original negative was created. All images are for sale as signed prints on fiber-base paper with overmat. In addition, those images that are designated with an * (asterisk) are also available in an unsigned version on resin-coated paper at a lower price point than the signed version. Both versions are individually hand-printed by me in my darkroom.

 

I feel obligated to state here that I have utilized extreme compression on the jpeg images on this site.  I did this primarily to render my images less desirable to unscrupulous visitors who might wish to utilize my work for their own gains.  I have invested my life in the creation of my photography and something I do not want is for others whom I have no relationship whatsoever to take my creations and try to benefit from them in any way without my knowledge or consent. By doing such compression, I recognize, very reluctantly, that some tonal gradations in many of my images online are lost. This occurred quite noticeably in the lighter values of an image and consequently there are numerous images on this site where some lighter gray values present in the actual print have gone completely white. I regret this happening as it renders a lot of my work as amateurish, and I debated the necessity for using the compression and low quality image saves. In the end I did it to try to protect my work while presented on the web.

 

If you are seeking something more than a celebration of Life and an admiration for the human form I think you might be disappointed by my photography.  However, if you, like myself, find fascination, wonder, and joy in the nude form please enter the galleries and look. And if you appreciate a particular image please consider making a purchase. Print sales help to support my artistic endeavors and offer guidance for what  others appreciate most about my photography. Additionally, I offer my services for private commissions, both clothed and nude. And I offer individual instruction in photography and traditional darkroom techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

PORTAL TO GALLERIES INSTRUCTION
TO HIRE ME ABOUT JACK WEGENER
TO PURCHASE PRINTS PERSONAL VIEWS
TO MODEL FOR ME CONTACT

 

 

 

 

 

The photographic images and text contained in this web site are copyrighted

© 1974 - 2015 Jack Wegener.  All rights reserved.  Any unauthorized

reproduction is strictly prohibited.


 

Website inaugurated on November 7, 1998.

Last update on  February 6,  2015.

 

Website created and designed by Jack Wegener.

 

 

 

18 U.S.C. §2257 Exemption Statement

All visual depictions displayed on this web site are exempt
from the provisions of 18 U.S.C. §2257, 2257A, and/or 28 C.F.R. 75
because they do not portray "actual sexually explicit conduct" or
"simulated sexually explicit conduct" or conduct as specifically
listed in 18 U.S.C §2256 (2) (A) through (D), as amended, or
2257A(a)(1), but are at most depictions of non-sexual nudity.