I first met Caitlin Cronenberg a little over a year ago.
We were filming a demo for a new show and I was impressed at the compelling, spunky, Frizzante-loving subject in front of the camera who had decided she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer when a series of publishers told her they wouldn’t pick up her pitch for a coffee table book because art books were too expensive to invest in during the recession panic.
Oh, and of course, it also could’ve had a bit to do with the fact she wanted to produce a book full of nudes featuring people of all walks of life, all shapes and sizes, and who were completely and unapologetically naked.
Since then, she’s shown she’s the type of hard-working woman who has conviction and sticks to her guns and regardless of the world giving her lemons, she’s been able to produce her own provocative and refreshing batch of lemonade with the upcoming launch of her self-published – and very first – photography book: POSER.
Although she’s always known she has wanted to produce photography books, Cronenberg has had an affinity for fashion, which led her to a degree in Fashion Design at Ryerson University. Upon graduation in 2006, she decided to merge her love for fashion with her distinctive eye for capturing moments on film and pursued a career in photography. Starting out shooting for a local community newsmagazine, she has since been published in an assortment of publications around the world including Hello! Canada, The Globe and Mail, Elle Canada, FQ Magazine, and Vanity Fair.
With a forward written by actor Jeff Goldblum (being the daughter of director David Cronenberg has certain perks), POSER is described as a collection of nude and partially nude photographs meant to explore each subject’s reaction to the experience of posing naked.
The genesis for the book began as a project Cronenberg had to do for a lighting workshop where she had to create a series of six to ten images where lighting was the common thread. She decided then she would try nudes for the first time because she liked the way soft light hit skin. Based on what she discovered then – that the most interesting element of the photos wasn’t the nudity but the expression and posture of each subject – she realized she wanted to explore the idea further.
Capturing the genuine moment between photographer and subject, Cronenberg says the photos in the book are an exploration of human emotion.
“Essentially, by stripping a person of their clothing you are stripping them of their shield of armour, which they don daily to protect themselves from vulnerability,” says Cronenberg. “The clothes we wear project our personalities and the versions of ourselves we wish to present to the world. Without our clothes we are just as we are, and the photos really aim to present the most real version of each subject. The nudity is the means to capture the true essence of the person, rather than the nudity being the subject.”
Although one would think it would be challenging to find people who will pose nude, Cronenberg has been able to find enough volunteers to produce 134 images for the book, mostly from the Toronto area.
“The first six weeks were the hardest and then it kept getting easier and easier as the word spread,” says Cronenberg. “I was very lucky that people had positive experiences being photographed because they kept telling their friends, and then I would be approached by people I’d never met asking me if they could pose for me.”
With the help of Kelvin Kong, a literary agent with The Rights Factory who has come on as book producer, and Christine Kwan, who designed the layout of the book and the official website, POSER is set to launch on July 1st with the first batch of 1,500 copies available for purchase online. They’ll also be available in both TYPE Books locations in Toronto and select Indigo bookstores.
For more information on Caitlin, you can check out her website, her blog, and follow her on Twitter.