Puttelaar:
Depth and Sensuality

WORDS | COLLEEN FISCHER

To anyone who has ever dreamed of recreating the tranquil moments after lovemaking, Carla van de Puttelaar’s work offers a treasure trove of sensuality and depth. Her pieces give a sense of intimacy that is soft, true to nature, and celebrating of uniqueness. Both careful and nonchalant, they blur the line between otherworldly ecstasy and corporeal realism.

The images seem minimalist at first glance – a peek of the stomach, a shapely view from behind, and sometimes just a hand draped lazily over the side of a bed. It should be no surprise that one of Van de Puttelaar’s main influences is Japanese printmaking – a medium which prides itself on the idea that less is more. With a clear and confident voice the words of Van de Puttelaar’s voice rings true, “When I look at my photos I see something that can only be created by me. They are a part of me and not a distant thing which I borrowed from somebody.”

Carla van de Puttelaar brings to light typical positions of an ordinary day with enhanced detail and sensitivity. The body’s instinctive repose, with light occasionally thrown across, seems haphazard and unintentional, like someone who doesn’t know she’s being watched. It is as though Van de Puttelaar’s models, as they shed their clothing, also shed any hint of pretense. They are stunningly real, and, in a way, nuder than nude.

“The models I use are friends and strangers.” She calmly states. “It is something that happens nearly without thinking, I just know when somebody would be the right model. Only rarely am I mistaken about it.”

It is perhaps these instincts that serve Van de Puttelaar best. The skin of her subjects, vulnerable and soft, almost begs to be touched. Unaltered in any way, they exude the laziness of a Sunday morning. They allow the capture of a precious moment, such as watching a lover get ready in the morning, when you could just reach out and caress her. The models’ effortless grace is tentatively giving and vulnerable, at times girlishly innocent – not doll-like, but authentic.

Pale and angelic, the figures are at the same time human, often with curvaceous arms, round bodies, and heavy breasts. The delicate folds of flesh that leave a crease between breast and armpit, as well as areolas of nipples, are neither ashamed nor flaunted, but softly exposed, as though in a private space. Slenderness is not merely honored for itself, but rather subtle, innate aspects of the individual model.

In the mind of Carla van de Puttelaar, the perfect photograph can easily be summed up into the simplest of terms, “It is a combination of the right model, beautiful natural light, and the small personal marks which enhance the intimacy, the natural pose and the magical moment.”

Carla van de Puttelaar is unafraid of what might be considered imperfections, and yet flaws somehow make her work seem more pure. Slight bruises, imprints from clothing, blemishes, hair, small scratches, uneven colors, and moles all hint at voyeurism, the chance to see something personal, unrehearsed, and intimate. Difference, freed from scrutiny, becomes special. The ordinary transforms into something worth cherishing.

Carla van de Puttelaar shatters the dichotomy between beauty and the mundane, and somehow bringing out both ethereal and earthy qualities. Her work appears to be slipping in and out of consciousness.

She states, “I hope to make a strong impression on my audience. That they will be moved by the small details; marks of the skin, the way that (sun) light is flowing over the body, the delicate intimacy of the moment, that the image or images will stay in their memory.”

If the viewing experience is a dream, then the audience, like her subjects, will be reluctant to awaken.