Shannon Giles '96 has a boast. "Everyone I've asked to pose for me, eventually has. It may have taken months or years, but so far my record is perfect."
Speaking with Giles, whose photographic exhibit of "Nudes" are currently on display at Old Pete's Tavern on Main Street until June 2, it is easy to understand how she gets so many people to take their clothes off for her.
Her deep voice and direct conversational style can seem vaguely confrontational, and yet her manner is so laid-back and disarming that one feels completely put at ease.
Not that Giles has to hunt down models any more.
"These days people approach me," she said. "Mostly they're students who have seen my work and want to have some kind of document of how they look."
Giles' romance with photography began as a child growing up in Hampton, Va., when she was put in charge of operating the family camera.
Her interest steadily grew and increased after arriving at Dartmouth. During her studies as a double major in studio art and art history, she learned the basics of printing and developing.
Since then, photography has become her primary academic and recreational pursuit.
When Giles began photographing nudes her freshman year, her goal was simple. She said, "I wanted to make my subjects look as beautiful as possible."
Since then, however, the focus has shifted from a physical aesthetic to a photographic one. In the 15 works on display, compositional issues take precedence over issues of representation.
Faces are rarely visible, and no effort is made to capture the personality of the models. It is their bodies, rather, that offer Giles the opportunity to examine the interplay of light, composition and texture.
In several of the show's earliest works and the most visually striking, light becomes composition as a model's back, shot directly from behind, serves as the canvas for a high-contrast light, accentuating its natural patterns and eerie translucence.
The works possess a shimmering luminosity that calls to mind the most striking films from the age of the silver screen.
Giles explained, "My initial work on nudes stemmed from a fascination with the way skin picks up light, and the way in which that light can be captured or changed on film."
Subsequent works are more concerned with the placement of models in space and, most recently, with texture.
Studio Art Professor Joyce Fillip has worked extensively with Giles since her arrival in 1993.
"It has really worked out well for Shannon that she found a focus so early on. Her choice to pursue nude photography so exclusively has allowed her to develop a truly personal look," she said.
"Her earlier fascination with objective beauty and classical ideals has yielded to a much more significant and spiritual style."
Fillip added that there is still room for Giles to explore within the scope of her work with nudes, using the photographs as vehicles for a deeper meaning.
Giles' most recent works have examined the power dynamics between nude and clothed figures, though she is wary of trying to communicate too significant a message.
"I frequently want to take a picture and not worry about what it means. When you actually go out and say something, you're held responsible for it, and that can be frightening," she said.
"It's an interesting challenge, and one that I enjoy exploring, but I don't feel there is anything I really need to say. In that way, I suppose that makes it easier."
Giles, who will graduate in June, will have plenty of time for further development as one of the three interns in the studio art department for the next academic year.
Fillip said, "Shannon has remained the department's most impressive photographer since my arrival. I think she has remarkable potential both in commercial and fine art photography."
Giles said she hopes to pursue both paths. She will be applying to Yale University's School of Photography next year and hopes to become the first successful black woman high-fashion photographer, though she is quick to qualify the aspiration.
She said, "Being at Dartmouth, I've become more exposed to, and more interested in fine art photography. Ideally I'd like to do commercial photography and be successful enough to pursue some more personal stuff on the side."
And how important is the "first black female" aspect of her plans?
She said, "If I'm to become a positive influence for black women, later on in life, that's wonderful. But I certainly am not looking to become a role model for anybody. The emphasis is on the work."
The work in question, stark, striking and extremely tasteful, is some of the most distinctive and individual to be produced at the College.
