Review
Cordelle's goal is to use photography as a vehicle for social
change. --
Bulletin of the American Association for Nude Recreation, August 2006This magnificent creation...No one encountering Century is likely
to forget it. --
Nude & Natural, August 2006
From the Publisher
A book turned down by American publishers is now published in
Canada and distributed everywhere. It should revolutionize America
nonetheless, as well as other English-speaking countries. And it could.
Bodies and Souls: The Century Project is a new book by the American
photographer Frank Cordelle. It is a chronological series of nude
photographic portraits of women from the moment of birth through nearly a
hundred years of age. The photographs are accompanied by statements,
usually written by the women themselves, and often extremely moving.
The book presents very diverse girls and women as they are, not as
projected in most popular culture! It focuses on body image and acceptance,
eating disorders, abuse, illness, recovery, growth, and aging.
The Century Project has been exhibited in public for 14 years. Tens of
thousands of viewers of all ages have honoured it with acclaim that few
artists ever receive. Here's a comment, from a woman who took in the
exhibition in 2000: "I never saw anything more compelling in my entire
life." Unusual? No. Typical!
The nudity in the book is essential for the urgent messages about life that
the people in it want to communicate. The USA and other countries harbour
groundless fears and harmful myths around bodies and nudity. This book
overturns those thoroughly.
Nothing like this has been done on such a scale or with so powerful an
effect. The photographer has been called "an amazing healer" and "a
photography genius." He has too much integrity to agree, but others will.
The war on the body stops here.
