From the Independent
"Dean Stockings has photographed regular people from all walks of life, as well as household names like Toyah Willcox, naked on their own sofas.
There’s something quite intimate about a sofa. Whether leather and shiny, chintzy, saggy, ancient and threadbare or pristinely plumped-up, a sofa certainly reflects its regular occupant’s taste and often, after years of lounging, their shape.
This was the notion that first occurred to photographer Dean Stockings when he surveyed the blank wall above his own sofa, perplexed as to how to fill it. He hit upon the idea of doing a Warhol-esque portrait of the couch itself. But having quizzed his friends he quickly realised that as a place of comfort and familiarity the humble settee was a perfect backdrop to experiment with something more outlandish: getting people to pose naked on their sofas.
He “twisted the arms” of a few friends and relatives who agreed to be photographed. He asked them to choose a prop which reflected their personalities and which, strategically placed, could save their modesty. The props ranged from the weird and wonderful – a pet tortoise, a Sesame Street backpack, leather harnesses – to a sitar, a favourite record, a statue of the Virgin Mary and a skein of wool."
May be members of Malden Camera Club would like to do something like this for a future competition !!
