In The Studio: Photographs and Drawings by Paul McDonough

Published by Carl Gunhouse 

I started photographing nudes in the late 1970s and they were a subject I returned to sporadical-ly throughout the years. I was drawn to the subject because it was a time-honored tradition in Western art. And I was trained as an artist, studying drawing and painting with Nathan Goldstein at the New England School of Art in Boston. But it wasn’t until 2004 when I built a studio onto the top floor of my Brooklyn house that my interest in the nude expanded. While making work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, I used what was available as a background. The figures appeared in simple interiors, sometimes standing, or posed on beds, chairs or sofas. The shadows were strong and dramatic. I did little to alter the settings and I depended on the natural light that the daytime granted me. Once I had the studio, however, I was able to work in a different way. I could leave things in place after a session, allowing them to accumulate. The studio became a sanctuary separate from my daily life, a realm all its own.
-Paul McDonough