Diana Scheunemann

Photographer Diana Scheunemann has shot high-fashion advertising with gorgeous, statuesque models and she has shot sexually frank pictures of her friends (who look like gorgeous, statuesque models), but here's the real artistry: she manages to pull it off so that a sense of play rather than envy or lust or exploitation is paramount. Scheunemann is not interested in the mopey model pout. Her subjects enjoy their romps in the buff, clearly at ease with her camera. The sex is real but hardly titillating (well, maybe a little). Her work resembles a more polished version of her fellow countryman Wolfgang Tillmans's photographs of his friends--spontaneous, open and real. This book is part of the new series called Damiani Forward, focusing on new, up and coming photographers.