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Six years ago I started this project. Beforehand I had been thinking a lot about taboos, about fears and I enquired into the difference between eroticisim and pornography and the fine line in between. I was also continuously questioning myself in relation to my motivation. I knew more or less what a vulva looked like, I knew about the clitoris, about the inner and the outer lips and that nature shapes them manyfold, small and big and in all shades of colour. I knew about the power and the violence concentrated at this place, that billions of dollars are traded through it and that generations of traumas are stored there. |
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Portals of Life – Natalie Uhlmann
Six years ago I started this project. Beforehand I had been thinking a lot about taboos, about fears and I enquired into the difference between eroticisim and pornography and the fine line in between. I was also continuously questioning myself in relation to my motivation.
I knew more or less what a vulva looked like, I knew about the clitoris, about the inner and the outer lips and that nature shapes them manyfold, small and big and in all shades of colour. I knew about the power and the violence concentrated at this place, that billions of dollars are traded through it and that generations of traumas are stored there.
My quest led me to the original sin, to Adam and Eve, to his first wife Lilith and to Mary Magdalene. I realised I had touched on an ancient anger and a sacred rage and this got me started. I approached the work very respectfully, sensing its enormous dimension and I was guided by a deep longing for peace, joy and deliverance.
So I started looking for women ready to open up to the topic. By taking portraits of the vulva we searched its essence together. Diverse portraits emerged, each one unique in its beauty and in its truth. I met butterflies, orchids, fairies, madonnas and matrons. Connecting in this way to the portals of life my awe of their strength and their beauty grew continuously.
My message to the spectator of these portraits is a plea: let’s make sure that sexuality serves love, joy and life and not violence and the abuse of power. In viewing the portraits, let us contemplate the spiritual dimension by being conscious of the fact that all of us, men or women, had to cross the portals twice in order to be here and alive on this planet.
