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David Lynch Took a Bunch of Nude Photos and They're Really Something Else

A new book crosses his dark gaze with the human body.
Images courtesy Thames and Hudson, © David Lynch

It should surprise absolutely no one that David Lynch, the Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive director who once made a video of himself chewing on panties, is also a big fan of nude portraiture. This summer he’s releasing a huge book called David Lynch, Nudes that features over one hundred photographs of naked bodies. The title could seem to suggest an archive of naked pictures of the director—maybe that’s wishful thinking—but it’s actually a collection photos by Lynch, exploring the female form with his trademark alien eye.

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Lynch has dabbled in painting and sculpture since he was a kid, but only picked up photography after he made Eraserhead. His approach to the women in Nudes seems to be similar to how he photographs factories in the documentary Lynch (One), searching for unique ways to use darkness to transform his subjects’ shape.

© David Lynch

“I like to photograph naked women,” said Lynch in a press release for the book. “The infinite variety of the human body is fascinating: it is amazing and magic to see how different women are.” Many of the frames from his new tome are barely recognizable as bodies, while others highlight perspectives and angles that would be purged from any sane person’s Instagram feed. In Lynch’s hands, the sometimes grotesque view of the body seems natural and, as he says, amazing.

Lynch said in 2017 that a third season of Twin Peaks would take “a few more years” to make, and the man hasn’t released a feature in over a decade. Projects like Nudes, alongside his documentary about making quinoa and the occasional Moby music video, are the only chance we’ll have to get inside his twisted head for the foreseeable future.

Check out a sneak peek of David Lynch, Nudes below.

© David Lynch

© David Lynch

© David Lynch

© David Lynch

© David Lynch

© David Lynch

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David Lynch, Nudes will be distributed by Thames and Hudson on June 12, 2018.

Follow Beckett Mufson on Twitter.