Richard Kern in Berlin
Richard Kern doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what he is. For 30 years he’s been photographing naked women and he’s never once explained or justified it. The girls barely old enough to legally do it. He just points the camera and shoots. That directness is rare.
He showed up in Berlin last year to do some work for VBS.TV. The Berlin girls cooperated without fanfare. Come in, say hello to the crew, remove your clothes, collect your check. I want to see the faces of the Vice interns witnessing this in an apartment somewhere. Twenty-two years old, first real job, completely certain they understand how the world works.
The video he made is good. The apartments are real. The light works. Berlin looks like itself, not some digitized mood board. Kern shoots the way he approaches everything: straightforward, without the art-world handwringing that makes photography feel like it’s trying to justify itself.
He’ll probably be doing this at 70. Some people find what makes sense to them and just live it. That’s Kern.