Mary McCartney: Paris Nude

In July 2016, Mary McCartney travelled to Paris for a special photo shoot. Over two days, McCartney would stay with her subject Phyllis Wang at her St Germain apartment and photograph her in the nude.

A mixture of black and white and colour, the delicate photographs collected here showcase the intimacy and trust required from both subject and photographer. Over the course of their time together, we see the model increasingly relax in front of the camera as she assumes various poses, and an unspoken bond between the two gradually develops. Moments of humour arise, through Wang’s adoption of props, including her collection of hats, and in details that emerge from their candid accounts of the two days - notably an initial misunderstanding about an x-rated shoot - which engagingly annotes the photographs throughout the book.

Phyllis Wang is a New York-born stand-up comedian, living and working in Paris. She is known for her eccentric clothing style and love of fashion. The nude photography in the book forms a striking yet complementary contrast to her lively on-stage persona.

The book features an essay by Charlotte Jansen, writer and editor-at-large at Elephant Magazine. She is the author of Girl on Girl: Art and Photography in the Age of the Female Gaze. Jansen frames McCartney’s photographs through a historical study of the nude in photography and from the perspective of the female gaze.