MARIO MAKES IT BIG: Mario Testino’s “Undressed” is the Helmut Newton Foundation’s largest-scale show to date. In this exhibit of 50 published and private photographs of men and women often wearing nothing more than their tattoos, Testino blew up his images to completely fill the walls in three halls of Berlin’s graciously proportioned Museum of Photography.
Looming over 10 feet from the ceiling to the walls’ lower wood moldings, and spanning sometimes 23 feet in width, this site-specific installation conceived exclusively for the Helmut Newton Foundation offers a spectacular yet also intimate view. For as the photographer noted prior to the show’s opening June 2, the enormous size and full bleed from corner to corner means there are no distractions. The viewer is almost compelled to immerse his or herself in the images, turning from “a voyeur into a participant. We’re in a moment when people want to interact with what they see, and not just look. They want to be part of it, so who knows? Maybe people will now go home and take photos of each other like this.”
That means equal undressing rights for all, with full frontals, male and female, to enticing back views, moments of amorous play
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