The Erotic and the Repulsive—Unpacking female anatomical imagery contemporary photography

Flower, 2023

Camera in hand, I stood on the tall chair observing my flower. My creation was laid bare before my eyes, and for the first time I felt a cold uneasiness crawl up my spine. As its artist, I was witnessing my own dissection, and I held the scalpel. Midway between human and object, the flower’s gruesome vitality juxtaposes the sterile, dehumanizing process of sexual objectification.

The composition of the image underscores the flower’s vulnerability in its environment. Upon first sight, the anthropomorphic flower is placed against a metallic backdrop as if a surgical specimen. The frontal placement of the flower, accompanied by surgical instruments, is reminiscent of a dissection procedure. As if being prepared for inspection and consumption, the folds and creases of the petals have been peeled open to reveal its fragile, delicate anatomy. Upon closer inspection, the petals appear to be covered in webs of blood vessels. The humanoid rendering of the petals evokes vivacious imagery of pulsating muscles and surging blood.

Egg, Maisie Cousins 2018

The sprawling veins and saturated orange of the innermost layers calls to mind the illuminated embryo inside a candled egg. The graphic details illustrate the flower’s capacity for new life, jarring against the sterility of its circumstances. However, the veins transition from bright red to a deoxygenated purple as life seeps out of the nurturing and benign flower. The imminent death of the womb embodies the suffocation and exhaustion of women who are consumed and exploited for reproduction.

Rubbish, Dipping Sauce, Grass, Peonie, Bum, Maisie Cousins 2019

Up close, the flower is Intricately layered and bursting with vibrancy. Spread open before the viewer, the flower unfolds its lush petals and reveals its bright organic contours with a provocative vulnerability. Each velvety fold beckons the viewer, a probing voyeur, with a primal, erotic allure. Excised from the body, however, the organ is not part of a concrete entity—there is no real subject of desire. This incongruity satirizes how sexual appeal may be rooted in exposedness and the absence of individualism. In retrospect, the shocking visual imagery demonstrates the superficiality of sexual attraction and laments the lack of identity or voice of victims in sexual objectification.

Erotos, Nobuyoshi Araki 荒木经惟, 1993

As I rip my eyes away from the unsettling vitality of the flower’s inner chamber, I am struck by the dark contours surrounding the petals. Much like the viscous, clotted excretions of menstruation, the deep red fluid oozes into black, weaving sinuously among the flower’s delicate rims. The lack of an obvious distinction between the erotic and gruesome begs the question as to at what point are prized female sexual characteristics deemed repulsive–the flower alludes to the hypocrisy and ignorance of expectations towards women. Furthermore, the soft green tint of the buds and stems—metaphorically the ovaries and fallopian tubes—is a verdant shade of youthful spring life. The vibrant imagery conveys the youthful naïveté of the female ingénue, but is quickly tarnished by the stark, stale maroon. The sculpture combats the shame and secrecy surrounding menstruation by forcing the viewer to confront the female body, its bloodiness, beauty, and their own prejudices towards it.

Neocatharthsis, Nobuyoshi Araki 荒木经惟, 1992

The namelessness of the quasi-living object makes the image all the more disturbing. Metaphorically, female objectification can be likened to the process of separating the organ from the organism. Devoid of identity, the flower becomes an instrument for reproduction and is reduced to object. Laid bare on the table, the bloody flower invites the viewer to perform the next procedure.