Hairy
“Robert Greene is not like other artists—or rather other artists are not like Robert Greene. Greene is like a diamond in the rough—one of those unexpected gifts that come along every so often.â€
—Jerry Saltz
“With an abundance of wet, hairy nudity and tropical hues, Greene evokes summer at its sexiest and most seductive.â€
—Vince Aletti
Painterly rhythms have seeped their way into Robert Greene’s world of photography in Hairy, a collection of Greene’s images taken over many years, in many places, of many dogs, and many hairy men. An undercurrent of über-masculinity and its sexiness is revealed, yet not in the familiar form of muscular, hard-jawed, clean-cut youth. Instead, Greene celebrates a more restrained and naturalistic virility.
Greene’s photographic eye is full of adoration for his subjects and their environments. There is a very intimate, personal feeling here; one not posed, but observed and captured. Greene shifts from long-range portraiture, to close-up shots where specific textures, shapes, and tones become the subject of the image. This abstraction weaves a visual spell, such that even those without a predilection for hirsute men will be enthralled. The photographs provide the space for longing, imagination, and adventure. Hairy is an unusually quintessential book—portraying an incredibly focused and fleshed-out vision of a very beautiful, hairy world where man, dog, and nature swirl together.
Hairy will be released in conjunction with an exhibition at Robert Miller Gallery in New York City.