Focus Online: Renners Hollywood

 

Mr. Spock and the Naked

 

Star Trek once made Leonard Nimoy famous. He portrayed the mysterious Vulcan Mr. Spock with posh bowl haircut, pointed ears and V-shaped eyebrows. After the series ended, all Nimoy was left with were rather second-rate movie parts. His efforts as director of two Star Trek films and the comedy Three Men and a Baby met with more success. The movie business wasn't his first love, anyway. Since early childhood the by now 77 year old has been interested in fotography. His favorite object: naked women.
(LN: I became very interested in photography very early...)*

"When I was twelve years old a friendly neighbor showed me how to develop a roll of film at home. From that time on I took pictures of everything and everybody with my old camera.

After Star Trek came to an end at the end of the 60's, Nimoy even thought about changing careers and make photography his main job.

(LN: I went back to school at UCLA to study photography seriously ...)

"I studied photography in Los Angeles in the early 70's. In the beginning I mainly took pictures of landscapes and still lifes. Only with time I started to work more conceptually."

Nimoy eagerly experimented with his old Hasselblad camera.** Even eggs served him as a motif, sometimes. It didn't take the performer of the sexless Mr. Spock long, though, to find a new favorite object - the female body.
(LN: I'm attracted to women, I enjoy women...)

"I love women. The curvaceous shape of the female body is just fantastic. Naked women were objects d'art even in the ancient world and for a photographer offer many exciting points of departure, they are a creative marvel."

Thus, Nimoy let himself be amply inspired by the the naked bodies of his models for the past fifteen years. Sometimes he artistically covered them in white paint, sometimes he shot them the way god made them. He even dedicated his first coffee-table book completely to feminity. A book he was heavily criticized for mainly be Jews because he artistically mixed religion with sexuality in his photographs.

(LN: And then a very large lady came to me one day and said, 'I'm a model...')

"One day a very large woman approached me and asked if I would take a picture of her naked. I thought this a very interesting approach. Because especially in Hollywood everyone is obsessed with the need to be thin. I wanted to propose an alternative with my pictures of of obese women."

That's how Nimoy got the idea for his new book by the title Full Body Project. It's definitely not for friends of trim sex symbols.
(LN: I'm working on a project now...)

"Currently I'm already working on a new project for which I shot almost 100 people in postures and costumes that bring to light their hidden identity."

Even though Nimoy officially announced some years ago that he wouldn't work as an actor anymore in favor of being a photographer, he now returns after all to the silver screen - in the one role that made him famous. Nimoy plays the legendary Mr. Spock in the new Star Trek version directed by J.J. Abrams.

(LN: It's hard to believe...)

"It's hard to believe how popular Star Trek still is. Even 42 years later the cult hasn't diminished."

The original prosthetic ears that Nimoy once wore during the making of Star Trek weren't needed this time for his probably last call to duty as Mr. Spock.

 

 

Video:

For the video go here: http://www.focus.de/kultur/videos/renners-hollywood/renners-hollywood-mr-spock-und-die-nackten_vid_8019.html.

** before the translation sets in, a few words of what Mr. Nimoy originally said are audible.

*** http://www.hasselbladusa.com/about-hasselblad/history.aspx

 

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