Nicht zurück in die Zukunft sondern vorwärts in die Vergangenheit - so könnte das künstlerische Credo von Michael J. Berkowitz lauten. Denn  die hier vorgestellten Bilder des amerikanischen Foto - Künstlers entsprechen denen der ersten Generation von Akt-Photographen, als diese noch von Daguerreotypie und nicht von Photos sprachen. Diesen Pionieren, die vor hundertfünfzig Jahren mit vorsintflutlicher Technik, die Möglichkeiten dieser neuen Kunstform austesteten und von der Kunstgeschichte mit Mißachtung gestraft wurden, huldigt Michael. J. Berkowitz mit seinen höchst beeindruckenden Akt-Aufnahmen und kämpft auf seine Art gegen das Vergessen der alten Meister an.

"For the past two years I have been concentrating exclusively on a series of sepia-toned black and white images inspired by French Erotic photographs of the 19th century, and by the “Storyville Portraits” of E.J.Bellocq.  
With this series of images, I have allowed myself to be concerned solely with beauty and the pleasure of looking at it. Not the beauty of polished professional models, but of real women. I prefer to work with inexperienced or non-professional models. Each woman’s particularities and “imperfections” are what I find most interesting and beautiful. “Model” looks and standardized ideals of beauty have always left me cold. I try to photograph each model with the eyes of a lover, seeing each one of them as if they were the most beautiful women in the world. 
I have always detested the modernist aesthetic of faceless human forms on a blank background. Never remotely a minimalist, I have always admired old photographs for the richness, lushness, and texture of their settings. The context is almost as important as the model. In life, whenever we are in a position to admire a partner’s naked beauty, it is always in a certain context, and that becomes an integral part of the experience; the texture of satin sheets, for example, or the contrast of flushed white skin against a purple velvet pillow. These kinds of details become heightened to the point of fetishism during moments of intense intimacy. I try to bring this kind if intimacy and intensity to my photographs. Many of the props are things I have collected over 30 years of travel in over 85 countries. 
I work with a 4X5 camera, which enables me to fully bring out all the rich detail, which is further intensified by the sepia toning. This heightened intensity gives the images the quality of a dream or memory."

www.michaelberkowitz.com