images by Douglas Faulkner

Editors Note:

he accompanying slideshow of underwater figure studies by Douglas Faulkner is truly exceptional. If nudity offends you, be advised, don't look. If it doesn't, you will find this presentation to be of the highest esthetic standard. Beyond nudity there is nothing of a sexually suggestive nature. These are simply beautiful images. Faulkner is a master of natural light and composition. All are shown un-cropped. 

Doug experiences the world with a passion and intensity that often becomes unbearable. He suffers from bipolar disorder and from time to time when the agony and the ecstasy become too much (for others) to handle he has been institutionalized. Something of this intensity frequently comes through in his photography. 

Across all ages and cultures the female figure has been a prominent subject of art. It is symbolic of beauty, love, tenderness, compassion, fertility and the mystery of life. It partakes of the sacred. In western culture however the distinction between the sacred and the perverse has been confused by the sexual obsessions of celibate priests. Taboos, guilt and repression of an overwhelmingly powerful drive have resulted in a society in which sexual dysfunction is epidemic and the priesthood itself a font of perversity.

In recent years the anonymity and reach of the internet have unleashed a flood of pornography the quantity, nature and popularity of which reveal just how widespread the malaise really is. Then too, more and more people have begun to come forth with revelations of sexual abuse by clergy in their childhood. In such a climate the decision to publish the current work was not taken casually. If we are ever to emerge from our confusion however, we will need to begin to clearly distinguish the beautiful from the obscene. Failing to recognize the former and treating everything as the latter has led to our current situation. The beautiful is far too rare. It deserves recognition and acknowledgment. 

Working in Maui and Palau with a number of different models Faulkner has used the fluid, weightless, sensual nature of Mother Ocean to unique effect with this subject matter.