Ben Hopper

I'm a 36 year old Israeli born London based self-taught fine art photographer

Do you think there are taboos referring to female realities in occidental society ? Why?

Of course there are taboos. taboos exist in all societies. We are tribal creatures and there's a culture to every tribe, village, city, country and continent. We relate to the Group that derives from the ancient tribe. Anything that's different to what we're used to, be it different style of haircut or way of dressing up, can be considered as a taboo.

Photography was my ticket into the art world. Since I was a kid I wanted to be an artist. Photography is my worst and best friend. At times I cherish it, at others I doubt it deeply. It's a powerful strange medium, but I'd lose my mind if it wasn't there for me. I owe my life to it.

The purpose as always, in any art-form is to entertain myself, to entertain others. To be happy, to make others happy. To explore what it is to be a human and a living creature on this planet and in this universe through the experience of photography and art.

What does photography mean to you? What do you think should be its purpose?

Would you like to explain Natural Beauty project.

Although armpit hair is a natural state it has become a statement.

Why is that?

For almost a century we have been brainwashed by the beauty industry, encouraging hair removal.

By creating a contrast between common ‘fashionable’ female beauty and the raw unconventional look of female armpit hair thoughts are intrigued and a discussion is made.

What was your intention?

The intention was to make people think about female armpit hair and realise it's a natural thing. All women have hair. It's ok.

What was it development?

I’d actually been thinking about and experimenting with this project for a few years — since i started doing photography,” Ben told us. “It actually started as a joke. I was hanging out with friends: artists, musicians, painters, filmmakers, and I said, ‘look at all the work that’s really taken off — that’s focused on repetitive subjects. It’s almost as if someone does something so many times they will begin to get recognition for it.

So I thought, ‘what if I get beautiful women showing armpit hair?’ It’s a really strong subject, because it’s such a contrast. You show this beautiful woman who’s so confident, like she’s saying, ‘I’m confident with my body and I don’t care what you think.’ It’s a contrast between conventional beauty and this truly unconventional look. Some people have criticized it saying the models were too beautiful or too skinny or wear makeup, pluck eyebrows and so on — but that’s what helps create the contrast — a sort of cognitive dissonance.

I’ve been working on this project for years but couldn’t find the right visual aesthetics that felt right until the beginning of 2014. I knew I was on the right track because I saw how it was increasingly becoming fashionable again on Tumblr, for instance. When Madonna posted her Instagram photo in March 2014 it made me realise it was the perfect time to publish Natural Beauty. The following month, I premiered the project on Huffington Post.

What was the reception of the public?

I have a few of those images on my website and blog. Anything that isn’t a black background studio photograph is from that period.

Some people understood it, some people didn’t – same as today. I like to think it’s more positive response then negative. The most viral and ‘liked’ images on my fb page are those images.

As I said in the previous question – I waited because the images just weren’t good enough. Something was missing. It was a collection of different photos of different subjects, different locations – they didn’t feel connected enough. The same studio set up solved it. I actually avoided it thinking it’ll be too obvious and eventually came back to it. Same lighting, same background, similar white tops – it looks like some sort of mini campaign. It plays with all the things we are used to see in fashion… and twists it around with the unconventional look of the hair.

How was the development?

Why do you think society always falls into the trap of having certain standards for beauty?

I don’t think it is a trap. Some companies who make related products might abuse it to sell products but I think we are naturally attracted to beauty.

All we have to do is go to nature and look at flowers and animals. It’s all embedded into the system. Of course you can find beauty in everything. I find beauty in derelict demolished building sites. It also changes with fashion over centuries and sometimes months or weeks, but there is unquestionable beauty in symmetry, proportion, harmony, and healthy youthful looking when it comes to people, – these are just general consensus guidelines that the majority of us can relate to. It goes to the base of our structure. It is the foundation of our existence and reproduction. The survival of our species.