Loenard Nimoy Solo Exhibit at Mass MOCA

For all you trekky photo hybrids out there, you may appreciate Leanoard Nimoy's solo show at Mass MOCA titled "Secret Selves". The show consists of large, some even life size portraits of people portraying various lifestyles in front of a white background. I love Star Trek, and I love Spok, but I'm sorry, I can't get into these portraits. They seem to defeat the purpose of a photographic portrait. When I look at a portrait, I want to appreciate the ability that the camera has to draw out the natural essence of a person. Or if not the natural essence, at least give the viewer some room to speculate about what's going on the the picture. Instead, they seem to be models posing as characters that Nimoy had envisioned long before he even met the people. For instance, one photo contains a man shot with an Avedonian (made up word) simplicity, but covered in mud, holding a sledge hammer, though there was no dirt or any sort of contextual references around him. One person that showed up to be photographed commented, “He wanted me to pose like a tree and I was like: ‘A tree? I’m supposed to be like the earth itself.’ ”. Case in point. Anyway, congrats for a solo show at Mass MOCA, but please give us portraits of the people themselves, not just an awkward costume party. However, as the reader, you are entitled to decide for yourself, so here is one of the portraits and a link to more from Nimoy's series, "Secret Selves".

Leonard Nimoy

To check out more of this work go to this place. Nimoy did another project that received some recognition called "The Full Body Project", in which he photographed plus sized nude women. I liked some of those portraits, and wish that Nimoy would take that approach to his newer stuff.