Intimus

This project is a response to a video of a social experiment where people on the street have been asked for their views about a heterosexual couple embracing each other in a busy square at the heart of Istanbul. While there were some positive reactions, the majority of views on this act of physical intimacy in the public eye were overwhelmingly negative.

Intimus is a Latin word that has a distant connection to the word Intimacy. Using this as the title for this project I highlight my own distant sentiment from the negative comments made by the people who took part in this experiment.

My photographs of a nude couple embracing each other subvert the social norms of the public and private intimacy. They may induce a sense of indecency and upset for those who believe that embracing in public is unacceptable. This also accentuates the extent of my disturbance to the comments made, some of which were:

“Why do we have ‘four walls’ for?

“It is disrespectful.”

“It is not acceptable.”

“They should be punished.”